Car use - the school run

Haha!

Thanks David for making me feel even older than I actually am. I agree a policy change on this would have a significant impact on the health and well being of large swathes of the general population.

We've gone even past that! We're at the level where we tut-tut at people on cycling forums for expressing their frustration at ubiquitous/unnecessary car use. Kind of forum twitching if you will...

You're quite wrong on that. Just a lifetime roadie and mountain biker that's sick to death of cycling websites/forums becoming more and more holier than thou because they happen to also occasionally ride a bike when they're out of their armchairs, and that their personal circumstances allows them to do as such.

Fueling further divisions in society, be that between different transport users, people of differering political stances, ethnicities etc. is not going to help solve any common problems. It simply creates a 'them vs us' sentiment that is detrimental. It's a sad reflection on todays society that people can't seem to have a civil and open debate, argue their relevent views, shake hands and be on their way. One persons ideal is unlikely to be a 'fits all solution'. For example, my morning commute at present involves a 10m walk from my bedroom to my office, and I can pop to the cafe on my bike for lunch if I so wish. My situation and solution will not be suitable for a single mum of 2 who has to drop 2 kids off at 2 differnt schools, get to work, then pick up food for tea on the way home. 

Maybe instead of pouring scorn on the above targets from behind a keyboard, you could stop and engage them in a friendly chat since you see them out and about on a daily basis and have an open discussion about the merits of sustainable transport and it's applicability to individual solutions. After all, we all despise clogged roads, aggressive drivers, close passes etc, but if we keep fueling the intolerance of each other, how are we going to attract people to switch from cars, or educate drivers to be more respectful? Riding a bike should be easy and accessible to everyone. Equally, the cycling community should be open and welcoming, not the sole domain of some intolerent, ignorent and judgemental elite. 

I appreciate that I have rather singled out your post and your thread for my (somewhat intolerent - the irony is not lost on me) soapbox moment. It's not a vendetta about you personally, but more a general comment on how we as a community and society may need to reflect on our behaivoir. Treat others as you wish to be treated. Afterall, how can we rant about that w**ker in a BMW yelling abuse and vitriol at us in a newspaper, if we simply do the same in return at someone simply taking their kids to school. 

dave, i gave up reading any of the comments on the echo website a while back. Its quite obvious theyre just elderly/ retired but mostly unemployed. You watch. Send the echo a video of a bad driver. As soon as it goes live, within minutes of being posted, people are commenting on it, arguing. How can they possibly do that? i wouldn't be able to do that, not until the late evening. so these people are somehow able to sit at a computer or phone, and get so excited that they can post their opinion- even though it shows in truth the people who matter- people with jobs- aren't taking part in the comment battle. Hence, theres literally no point reading comments. Even mine to be fair. Although i've got home a bit earlier today so i count as being a commenter worthy of being read.  If you recall the ''carmegedon'' video i sent them or the one where the kid got knocked off his bike by a taxi driver, or the bad cycle lanes, all of those got well over 200 comments in a day. Anything to do with cycling, cars, road works- all attract these people. Don't bother with it. Employed people don't spend their times staring at the echo website eager to post a comment as soon as they can. 

david rides wrote:

the people who matter- people with jobs

What a sad way to look at the world.

hirsute wrote:

My colleague tells me she sees a neighbour drive round the greensward to school, some 200m. The distance across the greensward is about 60m.

I do read too often of parents unable to get their child into the local school and being forced to travel when that is the last thing they want.

A neighbour of mine drives his kids to school every morning in his large 4x4. The distance is about 400m. He's very overweight and the kids are going that way too. These are all quiet back streets, so he doesn't even have the excuse of having a busy road to cross with them. 

Does he drive just there and back ? I've often heard people who do school runs like that justify it to themselves as much as anyone else because they combine it as a trip to the shops,or pick up something else, dropping kids of becomes just part of the journey

He drives them there and then drives back. The thing is, given the traffic and the narrow roads, it takes the same time to walk.

I don't know what he does for a living.

I just looked on google maps for my trip to junior school - 800m which I walked and cycled when I had passed my proficiency test. The good old days !

I walked to and from primary school and then secondary school also. It was just over a mile to the former and about the same to the latter, but in a different direction. The route to both did take me across busy roads. The little brother of a classmate was knocked down and by a car on the way to primary school. He died in hospital. Several people at my secondary school were knocked over by cars when I was there and a coupled died as a I recall. Yep, weren't the 70s great (not).

My kids take the bus to and from school.

fwiw I dont remember any kids at either of my schools being hit by cars, and we all walked roughly 0.8mile-1mile to get there or took the bus, in fact I used to remember it being a really embarrasing thing for kids to chauffered around by their parents like that, so Im at a total loss how weve ended up in this state that the school run has become a thing.

and I know its too late now the schools are back, to go out for my regular quick afternoon covid lockdown rides, because Ill be heading back just as the school run kicks off, I got caught out last week when only half the schools were back and Ive not seen either the volume of traffic or the sheer hostility on the roads like that for months, I had one mum in an SUV, who you could see was already visibly mega stressed just by the way she was hunched up and lent over the steering wheel, who just floored the accelerator and drove at me nearly head on in a just a get out of my cant you see Im a motorist taking my kids home manner.

My former secondary school in Edinburgh is very close to the main road on the north side of the city linking with the Forth Road Bridge. It also connects with the M8 to Glasgow. It's a very busy road with two lanes in either direction and carries a lot of commuter traffic in and out of the city. The kids who lived on the other side of the road had to cross it every day and as you can imagine, it was busy then and is more so now. If anyone was late in the morning, well I don't have to spell out the rest. I do remember two kids being killed and there were several injured.

David9694 wrote:

running late - a badge of pride.

Ooooh, look everybody, look at me. I'm soooo busy, look at me!!