The End of the school run is nigh?

[Woz!]

Just put double red lines for a couple of miles around the schools and employ thousands of traffic wardens to put fines on those who ignore them. Self-financing, boosts employment and annoys school run drivers who could walk it, quicker.

I live within 1/2 mile of a school (not my kid's school, which is about a mile away). It might be a little inconvenient if I couldn't park my own car on the road!

My kids either walk, scoot or cycle to school depending on their mood and whether they can wake up!
The school runs quite good incentive schemes for them to get there by their own muscle power - they have parents at the school gate who stamp a Walk to School book when they arrive. They compete for these stamps. I guess it's a bit like Costa Coffee stamping a loyalty card!

 

[summerdays]

I've done things like that on special Walk to School Weeks but I know that some kids are getting dropped off literally 200 m round the corner and then claiming to walk to school. (Though I figured it was 200m further than they normally walked to school so was actually a big effort for them).

 

[Woz!]

The sad thing is that the kids actually love walking to school - it's generally the parents that "don't have time" to walk with them.
Our school also do Walking Busses, which are great. Basically a couple of adults and a whole load of kids - they go past designated 'stops' to pick up kids along the route.
Works well, even with the paranoid parents who won't let their kids out of their sight for 5 minutes.

 

[Lazy-Commuter]

The sad thing is that the kids actually love walking to school - it's generally the parents that "don't have time" to walk with them.
Our school also do Walking Busses, which are great. Basically a couple of adults and a whole load of kids - they go past designated 'stops' to pick up kids along the route.
Works well, even with the paranoid parents who won't let their kids out of their sight for 5 minutes.

I pass a scheme like that on one of the estates I go through on the way to work .. there's a couple of parents who haven't quite grasped the concept though: they drop the kids off at the pickup point in the car.

I'm told that there's some parents that arrive at the school the Little-LCs go to up to an hour before chuck-out time, presumably to get a "prime spot" near the gate and save themselves having to walk a couple of hundred yards.

 

[Bman]

It'll never work. They need to somehow prevent those parents that would always drive their kids to school.

An incentive scheme will be only a token effort. They need fines or some other preventatve measure/s to stop those who feel they *have* to drive.

I can count the amount of times that I was driven to school throughout my whole education, on two hands. My parents generation were never driven to school.

 

[Brains]

The only way to get kids to school under their own power is to use the kids pester power.

The first essential rule (after the no parking, telling the parents etc) is controlled departure from the school, those with bikes in the shed go first, those going on the bus go second, those walking go third, and 20 mins after all the rest go those being picked up by Mummy.

The unsaid implication is if you are being picked up by mummy you must be a baby/mollycoddled/socially inept/retarded/

Pester Power will want to avoid the embarresment and lateness of being picked up by 'mummy' - It worked in my school years ago, no reason at all why it would not work now.

 

[PBancroft]

haha. Last summer when working in the holidays I drove and cycled depending on my mood. During school time I could cycle in the same time as it took to drive because of the school run.

Today I drove to work (as I had a site visit beforehand). I could park in the underground car park under the offices, which was nice... until the journey home when I found it took longer to drive than cycling the 11 miles because of traffic lights, jams, road works etc.

Bloody hell.

 

[PBancroft]

The only way to get kids to school under their own power is to use the kids pester power.

The first essential rule (after the no parking, telling the parents etc) is controlled departure from the school, those with bikes in the shed go first, those going on the bus go second, those walking go third, and 20 mins after all the rest go those being picked up by Mummy.

The unsaid implication is if you are being picked up by mummy you must be a baby/mollycoddled/socially inept/retarded/

Pester Power will want to avoid the embarresment and lateness of being picked up by 'mummy' - It worked in my school years ago, no reason at all why it would not work now.

I thought this was a really good idea, but then who are they being shamed in front of? Other Mummy's boys. Everyone else has gone home...

 

[summerdays]

The only way to get kids to school under their own power is to use the kids pester power.

The first essential rule (after the no parking, telling the parents etc) is controlled departure from the school, those with bikes in the shed go first, those going on the bus go second, those walking go third, and 20 mins after all the rest go those being picked up by Mummy.

The unsaid implication is if you are being picked up by mummy you must be a baby/mollycoddled/socially inept/retarded/

Pester Power will want to avoid the embarresment and lateness of being picked up by 'mummy' - It worked in my school years ago, no reason at all why it would not work now.

I think all those going by any means other than the car should go first after all as long as the car isn't involved they are all good.

 

[Bman]

The only way to get kids to school under their own power is to use the kids pester power.

The first essential rule (after the no parking, telling the parents etc) is controlled departure from the school, those with bikes in the shed go first, those going on the bus go second, those walking go third, and 20 mins after all the rest go those being picked up by Mummy.

The unsaid implication is if you are being picked up by mummy you must be a baby/mollycoddled/socially inept/retarded/

Pester Power will want to avoid the embarresment and lateness of being picked up by 'mummy' - It worked in my school years ago, no reason at all why it would not work now.

Ok, that could work

 

[Willow]

I have a year 6 boy who did his bikeability last year. I found a local course in the holidays rather than wait until the school did it in year 6. He does cycle to school somedays (2 miles approx) but not when he has his trumpet, when we go straight to his tennis lesson (he can't cycle with tennis kit and school stuff as it is too much) or if he is going to a friends after school, or, if a friend is coming to ours, when there are sports matches after school. Obviously that doesn't leave many cycling occasions. On the days he cycles I cycle but as my work is 7 miles away I have to leave earlier than him to get there on time so it is not an option for me to cycle with him to school then on to work, or walk with him and then on to work. The roads he has to cycle on are not designed for children (or adult cyclists come to that) and I almost prefer not to think of him cycling down them. I certainly would not allow him to do it if he was any younger and as the majority of the route has no pavement there is no option but to cycle on the road. I try to do my bit but it isn't always possible and I am sure that is true of many parents. I think people are very quick to criticise the school run parents. I know a parent who appealed to get their child into the local senior school - no more than 10 minutes walk away, but because the school was full based on sibling/feeder school criteria he did not get in and has to travel 12 miles to school. The reason he wasn't in one of the feeder schools was because they were full when they moved to the area, so hardly there fault.

So before you give all parent run mums a hard time remember they don't like the busy roads any more than you do and many of them would travel by alternative means if it was feasible to do so.

 

[HJ]

Time to get him some panniers then

As for busy roads, ask any commuter here how busy the roads are in the school holidays. It is because of the school run that roads round schools are so busy, it is a self defeating argument that the roads are too busy for kids to cycle on. The roads weren't "designed for children" when I cycled to school, but it never stopped any of us...

 

[anweledig]

Over 50% of our pupils are bussed in to school, quite a few walk and the rest are driven. In a rural area many of them come from distances of up to 10-12 miles. Yet I only see about 2-3 bikes in the bike shelter on any day - somehow the message isn't getting out.

As for a sustainable travel policy forget it. Schools have dozens of targets to meet on results, attendance, access to equipment and data, integration of ethnic groups, exclusions etc etc. The small amounts of capital and general low level of interest in cycling st the school means that little will be done.

On the other hand I will get about a week off at Easter to get a few good rides in

 

[summerdays]

So before you give all parent run mums a hard time remember they don't like the busy roads any more than you do and many of them would travel by alternative means if it was feasible to do so.

The problem is that we all know the type that in my case he lived in the same road as me... he is retired, school is half a mile away. We walked all weathers or in later years rode the bike. His child went in the car. At pick up time he would leave 20 mins beforehand to get the first legal space outside the school. I leave 2 mins as I go by bike!!!

When his family walk past our house (they live at the top of the cul-de-sac), it is such a momentous occasion that even my kids comment on it. They drive everywhere and with 2 grown up sons too their family has 5 cars/pick up trucks etc.

To get your child into primary school in Bristol you usually need to live within 1-2 km's of the school some schools a lot closer. So why are so many cars on the school run.

I don't even object to those who do live a bit further away parking then walking the last 5 mins which is what a friend used to do. Its the fact that the kids have to be dropped by the gate as the parents are so lazy.

 

[Downward]

Over 50% of our pupils are bussed in to school, quite a few walk and the rest are driven. In a rural area many of them come from distances of up to 10-12 miles. Yet I only see about 2-3 bikes in the bike shelter on any day - somehow the message isn't getting out.

As for a sustainable travel policy forget it. Schools have dozens of targets to meet on results, attendance, access to equipment and data, integration of ethnic groups, exclusions etc etc. The small amounts of capital and general low level of interest in cycling st the school means that little will be done.

On the other hand I will get about a week off at Easter to get a few good rides in

Always been that way though.
Even when I was at school in the 80's/90s you rarely saw anyone cycle to school. I was bike mad and most my friends were but none of us would ever cycle into school.
Back then too there were only 1 or 2 kids who got lifts to school.
It's a bit different now though, Our eldest is at pre school which is 2 miles so with wife and baby the only way to get him there is to drive - Bear in mind he is only their for 2.5 hours a day too then it's all a rush.

I think it's changed a lot since our day - people go further to school and work. My school was 400 yards away. Round here the nearest is 1 mile away.