Commute to work so much shorter when schools are off

I mentioned "physical disabilities" in my list of exceptions.

Our local school is not in a direction that anyone would drive past on their way to work.

If your child is too tired from "activities" to walk 10-15 minutes to school, then they are doing too many activities, or should see the doctor.

I don't take a note of car registration numbers. Actually I don't pay any attention at all because I'm too busy going in an entirely different direction. However, other parents tell me that they drive their children to school and I know where said parents live. My children know if (on their 15 minute walk) they walk past a dozen drives on their way to school and see school children getting into cars, that these children are being driven a ridiculously short distance.

Our local secondary school is in an a residential estates. It was planned to support children within about a 30 minutes walking distance (which is 95% of the school intake). There is no road infrastructure to cope with a large volume of cars. And hence it is total chaos for about an hour in the morning and the afternoon as people drive on pavements, block in residents, narrowly avoid hitting children etc. It is not pleasant for anyone and is dangerous.

People drive when there is no need. It is a modern scourge (not just linked to going to school).

I thought the children were all taken there by car? How do you see them when you’re on the bus?

Have you actually read the admissions criteria for all the schools? Have you looked at the information about applying for schools provided by your LA? If not, I suggest you do. It will help you understand.

I don’t have to drive my child to school but for most of those I know who do, it’s because they have to rush home or to the office as both parents are now working and many workplaces are inflexible.
Public transport is crap - I get it every day. It’s been actually more bearable this week because of half term, as buses aren’t completely packed with the driver refusing to move until someone gets off, which happens at least a couple of times per week. So it’s not just driving and traffic that is the issue.

It's moot to me as I can literally see school from our house, but you're being very daft OP.

People who work term time only are off too, and workers are disproportionately likely to take their annual leave in school holidays given that Christmas, summer and most bank holidays fall then. University students are also off in a lot of school holidays too. The population has grown, so there'd be more people on the roads now than there were 10, 20, 30 years ago even if nothing else had changed.

And your 'severe SEN' bar is too high. Plenty of kids don't fall into that bracket but still have particular needs that might be met by a school that isn't the nearest one to their house.

You'd do better to campaign for more remote working!

And designated larger spaces for SUVs far away from the entrance.

I'd have a separate driving test for an SUV, or at least a requirement of several years clean licence beforehand. I'd guess numbers would reduce as a result.

I think if we had BST all year round and lighter afternoons/darker mornings, the morning rush hour would be more spread out a bit.

I'm confused.

You've always been able to choose which school you send your kids to, and the schools make clear their priority on admission e.g. close to the school, EHCP etc...

The only thing they changed about 9 years ago is the free transportation, which is now only to your nearest school.

So parents who don't send their kids to the nearest school either pay for a private bus fair, or when you have more than 1 child and that becomes expensive, you drive them.

This has been going on for years though so wouldn't make any difference to traffic.

It's half term so lots of parents WFH or take the week of to cover childcare. That's all.

Yes. Wales. State school.

Crow flies is 3 miles away (the point of which free transport kicks in, for the older ones at least), but by road its more like 5 miles. I wouldn't let my primary kids go on school transport as I dont want them on it by themselves, plus I want to be able to engage with teachers etc at the end of the day. The high school is just another couple of minutes past it so I drop the older one in and pick him up if hes not going out after school because the coach is regularly late. I enjoy being able to take them to school and having those few minutes in the car where we can sing and chat.

It's ridiculous that the rush hour periods are still such a thing, it's like a switch is pressed after certain times, lol.

This!

Previous generations weren't routinely requiring both parents to work full time to keep a roof over their heads. The difference in housing costs vs wages is the single biggest factor in so many societal changes now...with both parents working, often ft and using wraparound care or just about managing to get in on time, cars are the only way.
Add to that school allocations and ofsted gradings and never ending pressure to be more involved and seek the best possible options rather than just whatever is closest, it's unsurprising few kids amble along to a school at the end of an uncongested road anymore.

Are they any children waking the route?
Those with parents unable to drive them? Or are parents having to give up work so they can get their children to school. Crazy.

I am in the “16-18 compulsory education/training” period where you have to pay for transport. It restricts the opportunities of lower income families.

Right. So you've just given loads of reasons why it's cheaper and easier to use the car to get to work.
I reckon a lot of parents have the same reasons for taking their kids to school in the car too.

We live over three miles away from our local school but it’s less than three miles as the crow flies so we, along with many other children are not eligible for the school bus. The school is not on a bus route. The children have to somehow cross a main road. We all drive our children to school, we don’t want to but there is little choice. We’d all be happy to pay for a seat on the half empty bus but county won’t allow it.

I live in Scotland where schools where most kids to their local catchment area schools.

there is still a huge difference in traffic between term time and holidays

it makes no difference

Agreed. I also want people to walk whenever they can and not drive to a road near the school an hour ahead of time, leaving their engine running, when they could walk in 10 minutes.

The catchments for most of the primary schools in my town are quite small and most people do not have to drive, but if they don't, how else can they show off the oversized SUV?

Nearly everyone I know has one or both parents off this week. I’ve been off all week and Dh has only worked 2 days.

We drive to school, but it’s because there are no walkable schools. We have to drive. I don’t really know anyone who drives from far away, though lots of us still live several miles from school. Those of us who are home are not rushing out the door at 8:30am. Traffic is a nightmare at midday though.

Can you not see that you’re part of the issue OP - why do you choose to work so far away? Get a job you can walk/cycle/public transport to…no different to parents driving their kids to school!

I wantedy child to go to our local primary, a ten minute walk away. We were given our third choice, a twenty minute drive away with no direct bus. Not everyone chooses to have their children in a non local school and to have to drive.

So they are primary age? Is it State and are you in the UK? I thought transport to nearest school was provided if it was >2 miles away.

That’s really unusual so likely the majority aren’t full so are desperate for any dc.

It's not really only barring SEN, is it? Children suffer from disabilities just like adults that have nothing to do with their education, some have problems walking, some have long-term painful conditions like endometriosis that you would probably never know about. And continuing on the theme of children being people, sometimes they are tired from activities and sometimes their parents just offer them a lift to be nice or because they are already going in that direction. I also doubt you were keeping track of the registration numbers of all of these vehicles, to know that it was a few dozen of the same children who were being dropped off for school every day, rather than each of the hundreds of children who attend a secondary school being dropped off on average once every month or two.

There’s stuff that could be done to help with this - integrated public transport is one thing (so that local authorities can plan where the bus routes go & have some control over ticketing). Better rail would help as that would give some commuters a faster way of getting to work than the car. Building trams might help too.

Making streets safe for walking & cycling is another - that would mean councils could start to aim for the majority of secondary age pupils to travel to school independently. That would really help but might not be popular (even though judging by my local social media the people who object to cycling routes often also object to children being driven to school).

Council transport departments thinking about school catchments / intake rules when planning road changes would help too (this sounds so obvious but I’m not convinced my council really thinks about this unless a school is actually on a street being altered). 2 secondary schools near me have pupils travelling from the other side of a motorway where the pedestrian crossings are poor - I can’t blame parents for not wanting DC to use them.

Then there’s church & private schools who accept children from further afield. Should they be running buses or doing other stuff to reduce their traffic?

That said, people driving into a city do need to accept that they are likely to face traffic jams - and just as they find children a problem on their journey as it slows them down, motor traffic is also a problem is children travelling to school especially when drivers speed & otherwise drive dangerously. I don’t think it’s helpful to generalise about why they live where they do as sometimes people have no choice about this, but other times they choose to live in commuter towns for a bigger garden or other reasons. That said, I do find that some local motorists to me are completely unreasonable in their expectations of my council - there are just too many people wanting to drive in for work & the council just can’t magic up extra capacity in a heavily built up area (& even if they could that wouldn’t work as it would just lead to more people driving). I just wish that they would put their energy into supporting the local rail user groups, as improving rail is where there’s the most scope for improving journeys.