How to broach this school run traffic problem

[JenniferBooth]

i live opposite an infant/junior school. For the last 29 years. The traffic is a nightmare. Has been steadily getting worse over the last five years particularly the last two. Todays normally ten min bus journey at 3.30pm took TWENTY FIVE minutes. The bus driver could see that the three cars in front of him had ONE parent and ONE child in it. Ludicrous. Been living here 29 years and it never used to be like this. Im going to ring the Head and ask him if he can ask the parents to carpool or something. But ive already been told this is a stupid idea so what do i do.

Our village school did this, the road the school is on you can’t drive there at school times. So it’s just pushed the problem onto my street which is some distance from the school by road but has a cut through footpath! No problem here for thirty years and now it’s chaos!

and while the parents may not be heart surgeons I do sympathise with those rushing off to any job. It does matter if you work as a cleaner, in a shop, or a brain surgeon. If you have a job where you’re expected to be there at x time you can’t walk twenty mins to school, twenty mins home and then get the car and drive to work!

saying that there are a load of SAHMs in my village who drive the kids to school! The village is not that big, nowhere is more than a 15 min walk.

Ah I think this is life now sadly

I think it's the same in every town across the country

Please don't bother the school Head. Im sure they get regular calls snd emails about "lazy parents" who drive their kids to school

Can you suggest the car set up a walking bus scheme? Ie. Cars park at a convenient point away from the school, and parents walk their kids in. Worked well for our school.

nb. Only run these before school, because parents abuse it after school and get delayed picking their kids up.

Nice idea but The logistics of this are just as
Complex as dropping at the school gate

Op, sounds like a more regular bus service would benefit your whole community. Maybe the issue here is the bus company. I think most people will use a car if there isn’t suitable public transport.

Many PPs have raised great points. Car pooling isn’t ideal due to the car seat issue, especially if parents already have 2 kids.

Parents have to navigate between dropping kids off at 2 different locations often, before heading straight to work.

Realistically, not many people will cycle, as it doesn’t feel safe, and it’s still not time efficient to have a small window to drop kids to school, cycle in busy traffic, then have to look presentable at work rather than sweaty.

Many of us actually have long commutes because we cannot afford to live nearer the place of work.

Two parents now have to work.

If the school makes a rule where parents can’t pull up at the school, the traffic will just be diverted to someone’s residential street. I live on a street with a school, yes I can get stuck sometimes in the queue and everyone parks on my road, but I don’t get angry as I understand there isn’t anywhere else.

Breakfast clubs and after school clubs are more cost which many people can’t afford, and can be very tiring for primary aged kids.

I say this as someone who walked to junior school as a child and got the bus to secondary school. I will also be walking my child to junior school as it’s close.

But if you want a resolution, someone needs to make a compromise. Both sides here seem to be batting off all suggestions, including you.

If you struggle with an extra 15 minutes of your day, you need to understand that parents will have the same struggle.

Are surgeons the only people who have to be at work on time? People who work in offices or shops still have to get to work after drop off, and have probably already had to negotiate an earlier leaving time to get to school pick up.

Many literally cannot afford to work an hour less every day, to allow them to walk to school and back for the car before going to work, and again in reverse at home time. Even at minimum wage, that would lose the parent around £60/week in earnings, which is probably about half the families food budget.

@Sprogonthetyne

The solution to those problems is not a traffic jam.

It's a cycle lane.

Realistically, the solution is more public transport. Most people don’t feel comfortable cycling in busy traffic.

In cities, cycling is often faster than driving during rush hour.

I would not have time to sit in the traffic to get into the city centre, find a space etc.

I sail past the traffic every morning.

The key is density of development. We need as many workplaces as possible to be in city centres, so people don't have as far to travel. Out of town business parks are a thing of the past.

Yes ideal maybe, but also with good public transport. Issue is, many offices are relocating because of the cost. Plus many people don’t live in cities?

So you believe the shop/office working parent are "lazy buggers" because they have not personally built said cycle lane?

As an aside, have you ever tried cycling in office cloths, and got there in a responsible state to go straight to work? Because leaving time to shower or change (even if there are facilities) has much the same problem as leaving time for extra walking.

Fgs people have to drop their kids and get to work. No most people can't car share. You only have to read a few threads on her to see that parents do not like dropping other kids off.

@Sprogonthetyne

I cycle to the office regularly. In clothes.

It's perfectly possible in your city.

How do you know they are in a city?

They also do it a lot in London, Paris, Cambridge, Oxford, the Netherlands and lots of other places.

There is no reason why it can't happen in the rest of the UK.

Cycle lanes (proper ones, seperated from the road with a curb) make it possible.

I was coming on to suggest this too.

It worked for our school too.

Good for the kids to walk in both mentally and physically.

But if parents are rushing to work/from work then cycling will be slower. Maybe not in central cities but for the majority of people who don’t live in cities it will be.

my village is 7 miles from my nearest town where most people work. Ten min in the car, 31 mins by bike. Which I know because I cycle it every day. So yes it is cyclable distance. However in the days when I had to drop Dd at school and then go to work I could not have cycled and got to work in time.

@MehtotheChristmasrunup we set up a walking bus scheme. All the parents thought it was a brilliant idea.

For other people’s children 🙄.

The litany of excuses people came up with for not using it was insane.

Over half of the UK pop lives in cities.

A large chunk of the rest live in towns.

Cycling could work for most people, not all but most. We do need better infrastructure, more density of development and, enforcement of traffic law.

It could be done. Other places do. We're not so different or special.

ha ha ha.

I live in a village 18 miles from the nearest city by NSL country lanes. My office is in a city some 55 miles from where I live. I cover the whole of England for work.

I have physical issues which mean I can’t ride a bike here or in the Netherlands.

maybe step outside of your own life once in a while.

My work is a 34 minute cycle, according to Google maps, with a steep hill warning. It's also an 11 minute drive.

I would not want to be the person sitting next to me all day after I've done a 34 minute uphill cycle. They might also take a dim view of me being 15 minute late every day and leaving 15 minutes earlier.

But you go ahead and tell everyone what "lazy buggers" me and other non brain surgeon, working parent are.

@Sprogonthetyne

Obviously I'm a different species to you then, only explanation.

Don't use the bus at school pick up times is the obvious answer,no?? 15 minutes extra is nothing really!!! Do you moan at all the other commuters going to work without children which make bus journeys longer between 8-9 and 4.30-6???

Most parents are on a tight timeline dropping off and collecting children from school to get to work, collect other children, after school activities etc.

🙈🙈 I drop 3 kids in 3 different places and then drive to the office and I'm regularly out on Hume visits. Cycling definitely would not work.

I grew up opposite a school and you just have to not go out when it’s school drop off pick-up. Contacting the head is a bit pointless, they have enough on their plate and suggesting car sharing won’t do much long-term, but the council could put in some traffic calming measures. Try your local councillor.