Commute to work so much shorter when schools are off

I live in a part of the country where by and large people go to their local catchment school. Traffic is still lighter in the school holidays. Both pre and post covid (though I’d say overall traffic is slightly lighter post covid). I don’t believe it’s all ‘drive to school’ parents (though it’s a factor), but more that people with young children are on annual leave during the holidays.

If everyone who can get public transport to go to work (and got local jobs, irrespective of how suitable the jobs were) there would be far less traffic on the road.

wanting a job that pays better and/or suits you better is no different to wanting a school that gets better results and/or suits the child better.

Children are people too!

It's parents on annual leave and associates drop in services etc. I work in a hospital 1/2 our dept were on annual leave last week for school holidays, which means neither they nor their parents travelling in. Great commute and parking all week.

This is not a new thing - for as long as I've been driving (which is a looooong time) this has been the case. School holidays are always quieter on the roads - yes some of that is down to parents dropping kids at school, but it will also be down to teachers and school staff not travelling to school (I know some will still go in for various reasons, but rarely the whole staff), catering companies etc not delivering to schools, parents taking holiday from work to spend time with their children.

I actually think a far better solution to 'rush hour' traffic would be for businesses to stagger their start times more. If everyone wasn't rushing to get to school/work for the same time, it would be more spread out and less of an issue.

I live in Scotland where most kids go to catchment school. Commute is definitely quieter in holidays but I put it down to parents taking leave, also teachers not commuting. I don’t think your proposal will make any difference.

Maybe you should restrict yourself to jobs within a mile of home so you can walk, it may not suit you but not all schools suit all children either.

I agree it's an unfortunate vicious circle. Employers locate their offices/sites in the area they choose, and then expect employees to spend huge amounts of time and money to get there. In theory if everyone who commutes into a city for their job paying £X decided to take a big pay cut, live in smaller houses etc, and get a lower paid local job, employers would be forced to put their offices in the locations where people actually live in order to get the staff they want. Unfortunately it won't happen unless they are forced, so now we're in this hole I don't know how we get out of it.

I guess many individuals could choose to make a more environmentally friendly employment choice though. I knew lots of people who lived in Glasgow and commuted to Edinburgh, and vice versa. Both expensive cities to live in, both nice cities to live in, both have great variety of employment. There's really no need for that.

Parents only get a preference. When mine started school we put down our nearest school that we could walk to. We wasn’t given it as it was oversubscribed we had to drive to the school we were given.
It’s the same now at secondary school we are not even in the same borough so again I have to drive them.

Many parents also drive even if school is local as they have to rush off to work and don’t have the time to walk back again after drop off.

Something from my home country that works better in terms of traffic is staggered start/ end times for school hours. As a child I started at 7.30 on some days and at 12.30 on other days.

Most kids go to their nearest infant/junior round me. They're 20 minutes walk apart and start at the same time.
It's about 40 minutes walk down to the juniors ( where you can drop 20 minutes early) then a race back uphill for 20 minutes then 20 minutes home again.

I did walk most of the time, but it's not as simple as go to your nearest and that's fine.
We're not in a rural area either, but it's the way it is set up. It would take another 5 minutes past the juniors to get to another primary school...

Yeh it could of done with the <flippant> because that wasn’t clear lol

My commute was varied as was sent all over the country and into London. In half term the commute in the morning was half, pretty much. Going home didn't make an awful lot of difference but was fab in the mornings.
Mix of school runs and not working I guess?

Yes, an awful lot of parents simply don't consider walking if they have a car.

My DC went to a secondary school that was just under a mile from our house through a residential area with all footpaths and no major roads to cross. Barring SEN that meant a child couldn't be trusted to make the journey on their own, physical disability, or needing to take in their double bass, there is absolutely no reason why any parent that lived in a house between ours and the school needed to drive their child. And yet, there were dozens of them.

Why are you polluting the roads for 1 hour per journey and not getting a job nearer home?

Where I live all primaries are within a mile of home, secondaries within a couple of miles, and placements in other schools are very unusual. And the roads are still rammed at primary drop off time (later than secondary) every day except school holidays. I don't drive btw.

So OP’s takeaway is that no one should have much control over the school they use in order for her to work further away. She probably calls other people entitled too.

It's convenient for me to drive my daughter to school as we live rurally and our village school closed over 10 years ago due to low numbers.

It's a 10 minute drive. No other transport options.
I also drive back home after. Apologies.

Traffic has always been lower when schools are off, this isn’t new.

Why dont you work closer to home? Why should you get precedent on road use? Why should everyone else pay for your convenience?!

This is where the individual can do very little. Jobs naturally concentrate in a central area. There simply isn't the square footage available for everyone in those jobs to live nearby. I did once have an office job while living in a suburb, but when I moved I had to start commuting into the city on a Tube.

This is not a new phenomenon, it has always been the case that school holidays mean less traffic. Granted I am not i the UK but I thought this was almost a worldwide thing. Less cars as less kids being dropped off but also no school buses, teachers not having to drive, other school staff not having to drive etc. It has always been the case.

Its crazy how many people drive their kids to school without looking at other options, its the highest percentage its ever been compared to previous generations

i wonder if there is a correlation with how many families have both parents working f/t & commute lengths with car usage?

It was a perk admittedly.

Apologies you are talking about free travel!

The fact remains there was free travel!

@Coconutter24 I know, I was being flippant, it probably needed a <flippant> to be clear...

Yes, secondary school children will get the bus, and may be going to a school that requires a bus or car journey, and that is very likely to have been the nearest school on their preference list that they met the admissions criteria for. Parents do not get a choice, you get one of your preferences, if you are lucky and pragmatic with your preferences, or you get the next nearest school with places left if you don't get any of your preferences.