to think that this might go some way to sorting the school run problem?

[Dontsshme]

Would you use one of these if it didn't cost you anything? Assume no outlay and the school gets a subsidy or at the very least some good publicity?

[TwasBrillig]

Oh yes. I want one!!

[Dontsshme]

Really? I would too! And they do a version with an electric motor for hilly bits/hefty kids.

[MintChocAddict]

I live in Scotland so would require an umbrella attachment or a canopy at the very least.

[MrsTerryPratchett]

It would most definitely not solve the problem. Everyone here in hippy bloody central has them and they make the school run ten times worse. I wish everyone in cities would just go to their nearest school, which would be decent because they all would be and walk there. Wishful thinking I know.

[PoppyWearer]

Very cool!

I already have a bike trailer, but a hugely dangerous junction between my house and school, plus a complete lack of bike parking, is sadly deterring me. I walk when I can.

[Dontsshme]

MrsTerryPratchet how do they make it worse? Does your school have proper parking etc? Thanks for replying!

[Dontsshme]

Mintchocaddict what about this?

Assuming you're already wearing waterproofs etc!

[MrsTerryPratchett]

Mine isn't at school yet but I frequently have to negotiate the school run. Of course masses of people still drive, then lots of bike trailers and other bikes and walkers. Everyone with different needs and going at different speeds and different ideas of what constitutes legal driving.

Actually, the schools here have good provision for bikes generally (not the UK) but the roads are clogged.

Walking school bus, that's my final offer.

[steppemum]

yes fine, if you have wide pavements or wide roads or cycle paths.

They would clog the roads round here and reduce driving speed to cycling speed
The pavements aren't wide enough
They assume you are going just 1-2 miles, on a flat run or downhill.
They assume you are not dropping off the kids and going on to work

Our family all cycle, we have had kids in bike seats, and on trailer bikes. My dh is dutch and we regularly see mums with kids in these trailers, or with a front seat and a rear seat and a trailer behind (my record was seeing one mum with 6 kids. 4 attached (safely) to her bike i some way and 2 on their own bikes, all setting off for home.

But UK is not a good place for them, even with just a bike seat, the extra weight is really hard work up a hill. They are not nice and aerodynamic, and 2 kids aged about 3 is and 5 ish, is a huge amount of extra weight

[GladbagsGold]

I'd want the kids to pedal and to be able to detach
Their bit and park it at school!

[Dontsshme]

Obviously they're not for everyone. But if just a few families used them, it would make the place less congested for everyone else, and there's the additional health benefits too.
So, for families only travelling a mile or two, on the flat, with decent paths, I think there's a place for them.

[MaggieMaggieMaggieMcGill]

I have actually tried the one in your secind link, with two children in and
a)it was hard work
b) riding a trike is a very different experience to riding a bike. For me, it felt unstable and difficult to steer.

[meddie]

Having school buses like they do in the states would reduce congestion.
Buses that circle a route at set ties then drop off at the school

[EleanorHandbasket]

Some silly bint round here rides one, but with the trailer on the back. Two very small children in the back.

She pootles round the busy roundabout at rush hour, and is not only the cause of most of the congestion but is an accident waiting to happen.

[Llareggub]

My primary aged DCs go on a school bus. Their school is one of three primaries that share a campus, and most children get there by bus. On the odd occasion that I've driven them there parking is fine, much better than our old school where parking was horrendous. However, the bus can take nearly an hour to get home.

[landofsoapandglory]

I hate those trailers they put on the back of bikes. Why anyone would want to put their child right in line with the exhaust pipes of cars, or just level with the wheels of a lorry is beyond me.

Any how, presuming I were still doing the school run they would be useless for me 'cause I am disabled.

[Dontsshme]

The ones I'm looking at have the children at the front, and have an electric override.
I think that if just 10% of families used them it'd make a big difference overall.
If you thought they might be an alternative would you trial them, for example? I honestly think they are The Future!

[Jude89]

Live in Oxford, they are EVERYWHERE, they don't fit in bike lanes. I'm also far too lazy to cycle 4 children about.

[Spaghettio]

We thought about doing this when our two youngest started school. But the weight of two 5yo was too much for me to tow (trailer not front bucket). We are on the flat and have no hills and have very little road cycling (towpaths) but I still can't do it as I'm not physically able to pull the weight of two extra people.

Theoretically it's a good idea, but has its limitations.

[LaRegina]

I don't have a problem with the school run that needs solving, personally

Anyone elses school run problems would be solved by walking or cycling, ie not using the car, if they are just going straight home again and don't need it.

If they do need to use a car (because they're going straight on to work, etc), parking a couple of streets away rather than all queueing up trying to get the closest space to the school gate!

Problem solved!

[MidniteScribbler]

Why shouldn't it cost you anything? They're your kids, figure out how to get them there. Buy a car, buy a bike, or walk. Why should they be subsidised? Weirdest thing I've heard in a long time.

[Llareggub]

Where I live there is very little flat, just hills.

[CelticPromise]

Eleanor bikes are perfectly entitled to go round busy roundabouts you know. It wouldn't hurt a lot of drivers to slow down on roundabouts either.

[MadeOfStarDust]

They look awful to me - lots of sharp metal corners and things that would hurt if you did have an accident. Too big for pavements - but parents would still feel "entitled" to have their LOs off the road.. kids at exhaust fume height right behind queueing traffic if you do use them on the road.....

We walk....