The school run.

[nickyboy]

Pity, because as far as I could see the idea worked superbly. OK, so they had a long tailback on the road in both directions, but that could have been dealt with by making a double 'S' in the car park or by widening the road, or using another car park if they have one, or having a staggered start, or installing traffic lights. Basically loads of options to make it work. Anything must be better than the current situation of dropping them off in the car park, as that must make longer queues on the road

It didn't work because the number of cars they allowed to unload at one time was small compared to the number of parking spaces

It would have been much more efficient if they allowed all the cars in the car park area to unload at the same time. Then make sure all the kids were in the school safely, then allow all the cars in the car park area to drive off, replacing them with another load.

 

[Drago]

It would have been more efficient still with a bus or buses. What a radical idea!

 

[Tin Pot]

I love this thread.

Outrageous! That all these people drove to school even - though they had to - and anyway it's all okay...because even if we consume the world with nuclear holocaust, microbial life may exist in oceanic thermal vents or on other planets.

Is there a hash cake being passed around, and I've been left out?

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

Maybe I'm seeing things but I think I spotted one bike in the video. Oddly, though, it seems to come from a greyish SUV-type vehicle that parks in the corner of the upper car park about 35 seconds in. Please don't tell me the bike was only used to cross the car park!

 

[pplpilot]

I'm lucky to have flexible working hours, so I take my girls to school on a Monday, we walk (unless it peeing down) its a good 30-40 min walk and in this time its nice to chat with them, there's even a bonus of 10 minutes on the park if we're early. I regularly see parents that live half the distance we do arriving with barely a few minutes to spare desperately trying to park on top of the school gates.

and as for the planet being OK, I'm with George on this one Not safe for work..-

 

[robjh]

Same here but for some reason they sent kids from Enderby (and surrounding villages) to Lutterworth Grammar School (only a comprehensive by then but the moniker had stuck)

Because there's no upper school in Enderby - Lutterworth is the 14-18 school for all the villages around there. The good news is that the school buses still run and are well used.
nb. I agree that Lutterworth calling itself a 'grammar' is a bit cheeky when other local schools (except the private ones) dropped that from their name. That could cause some interesting friction if T May ever succeeds in reintroducing the real thing round there.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Despite the tiny distances involved the streets are still heaving at school times with bone idle lazy fat parents who think a sub 10 minute walk is too onerous.

Please don't tar everyone with the same brush. As working parents, we (wife and I) do not have any other safe choice. Walking 20 minutes to school is great (when I'm not working) but the rest of the time my wife has to drop them at 08:50 (you aren't allowed in any earlier). If she then walked the 20 minutes back home to get the car, she would arrive at work at 09:30 and lose her job. Same applies for me.

Yes we choose to have kids. We also choose to work. In this instance it is not unnecessary use of the car, it's a must unless we want them to walk to school and get run over or abducted.

 

[gavroche]

You are Mr Trump AICMFP

Read my post again, I never mentioned Climate change.

 

[raleighnut]

Because there's no upper school in Enderby - Lutterworth is the 14-18 school for all the villages around there. The good news is that the school buses still run and are well used.
nb. I agree that Lutterworth calling itself a 'grammar' is a bit cheeky when other local schools (except the private ones) dropped that from their name. That could cause some interesting friction if T May ever succeeds in reintroducing the real thing round there.

Brockington college (Enderby) was an upper school until they changed things, not only that it had better facilities than Lutterworth (more modern building and bigger/better sports facilities and youth club etc)
What really cheesed me off was the needless 1 1/2hrs sat on a coach every day when I could have been out on my bike or working for the Co-op (on their bike) as a 'delivery boy' (leave home at 8 in the morning and rarely back before 5 at night) but as Billy Bragg said "All they teach you at school is to be a good worker".

 

[Sandra6]

Please don't tar everyone with the same brush. As working parents, we (wife and I) do not have any other safe choice. Walking 20 minutes to school is great (when I'm not working) but the rest of the time my wife has to drop them at 08:50 (you aren't allowed in any earlier). If she then walked the 20 minutes back home to get the car, she would arrive at work at 09:30 and lose her job. Same applies for me.

Yes we choose to have kids. We also choose to work. In this instance it is not unnecessary use of the car, it's a must unless we want them to walk to school and get run over or abducted.

Why would you think they would get run over or abducted? When was the last time either happened to a child near that school? I may be wrong, but it's unlikely that it's a regular occurence. Obviously if your child is under 9 then walking to school alone probably isn't an option.
Personally we've never had a choice as I don't drive and we've often lived more than a mile from school. I worked out recently how many thousands of miles I'd walked over the years. It was a lot.
At least in the video the school isn't surrounded by houses and the parents aren't parking on pavements or trying to drive through cyclists!

 

[screenman]

I used to walk 2 miles to school and three miles back, geography was not my best subject.

A bit odd I know but in our village the kids that got lifts to school have gone on to be quite low achievers, so my kids inform me.

 

[Drago]

Read my post again, I never mentioned Climate change.

No, no, he thinks you are The Donald because of your hair.

 

[Electric_Andy]

Why would you think they would get run over or abducted? When was the last time either happened to a child near that school? I may be wrong, but it's unlikely that it's a regular occurence. Obviously if your child is under 9 then walking to school alone probably isn't an option.
Personally we've never had a choice as I don't drive and we've often lived more than a mile from school. I worked out recently how many thousands of miles I'd walked over the years. It was a lot.
At least in the video the school isn't surrounded by houses and the parents aren't parking on pavements or trying to drive through cyclists!

There's a first time for everything. I've seen a very near miss when an idiot car driver flashed the kid across the road without checking the oncoming lane, kid missed being hit by a few cms. Likewise with abductions, i bet those who have had it happen wouldn't live by the "it won't happen to me" mantra. It's different for a one off, but if they walked every day it's more risky because whatever kind of weirdos are out there, they will watch kids for weeks and assess their routines. The more i think about it the more it scares me

 

[bozmandb9]

Why did you not walk them to school, then walk the 60 seconds home to fetch the car, and thus reduce the congestion and pollution caused when stopping/parking by the school?

You talk about punishing people for having children, and I'm sure the comment was meant to be tongue in cheek. Nevertheless, we make our own choices in life, and everything from planetary over population to pollution, is in some small partnyour responsibility when you choose to become a parent.

I don't propose anyone be punished for being a parent, but I do propose that they take some responsibility for their choice and don't use it as a justification for inflicting needless pollution and congestion on the rest of us.

Most of the time I would. I'm merely pointing out that there are other factors, and despite living within easy walking distance of a school, there may be other reasons why one would still drop off. To be fair, most of the time, it just, as you've pointed out, requires a little more time, or better organisation, to enable one to walk, and get the benefit of the exercise. But sometimes life happens. Anybody with kids will know exactly what I'm talking about. Can't find something, sickness, sudden need to change clothes, etc etc.

Easy to judge, but life happens to everybody every day. Understanding is better.

 

[Sandra6]

There's a first time for everything. I've seen a very near miss when an idiot car driver flashed the kid across the road without checking the oncoming lane, kid missed being hit by a few cms. Likewise with abductions, i bet those who have had it happen wouldn't live by the "it won't happen to me" mantra. It's different for a one off, but if they walked every day it's more risky because whatever kind of weirdos are out there, they will watch kids for weeks and assess their routines. The more i think about it the more it scares me

That kind of paranoia is extremely unhealthy. At some point children have to be allowed out alone and you can't keep imagining the worst - trust me, I've done it!
My children walk 21/2 miles each way to school, leaving home before 7.30am and getting back some time after 4pm - depending on their dawdling.
They are statistically more likely to be abused by somebody we know and trust than a stranger. So add that to your list of things to worry about.