To think that people should at least try to avoid driving to school

[JohnWayne]

It seems very antisocial to clog up the roads at busy times for short journeys. Obviously some parents are travelling onto work and it fits in with their day, but my experiences are:

• selfishness by parents driving e.g. not stopping to let children to cross the road
• clogging up residential roads near school, making it less safe to walk
• hideously selfish parking near schools, ignoring the rules of the road for no reason beyond selfishness/convenience
• driving very short distances from home to school
• congestion caused by selfish laziness in insisting on parking within 10 yards of the school gate having driven past a perfectly good space 100 yards away
• making the lives of people who live near schools an absolute misery due to many of the practices mentioned above

1 in 10 parents drive their children less than 500 yards to school ]www.bikebiz.com/news/read/sustrans-kids-in-cars-for-short-school-trips-is-shocking/013573

It is not even so much that driving is damaging to the local environment (thinking liveability rather than diesel particulates necessarily) but children need to get into the habit of walking, driving everywhere is bad for your health and is a recipe for premature death and obesity.

well yes, there are some people who drive who don't need to and it would make life easier if they didn't but actually by the time you factor in those who live too far from the school (which is very common actually), those who have to drop then get to work or SAHPs who go straight off to do various errands, there probably isn't that many who have the luxury of a nice stroll there and back with a younger baby in a pram. In the village school DS goes to I do know some who drive what would be a 10 min pretty idyllic walk even the rain and I wonder why because its easier to start out from home in wet weather gear and walk than do all the in and out of car thing. We live miles away so have to drive and I hate the scrum for parking etc, but as ever, everyone's circumstances are different and you don't know what everyone's schedules are so you can't really judge who NEEDS to drive - the inconsiderate driving you mention can be done by anyone a necessary driver as well as an unnecessary one.

I can't wait til I can walk to school again. I'm hoping I'm fit enough to, almost as soon as DC3 is born. Bloody SPD

It's about a mile and a half to mine.

I agree with you OP. But I don't have drive, therefore have to walk. I rather suspect that if I could drive, I would be as selfish as anyone else. I do think it's good for the DCs though to be in the habit of walking (like you say), so feel that we are benefiting overall.

There's no way to walk to our school. I'm on a new development, in a new community.... Got no choice at present, still waiting for the developer to build some pavements to create a way into town

I loathe the school run with a passion. My two have just started at a new school today and I'm already feeling nervous about having go go and collect them.

So we've organised them to be taxied in to school via the council for a grand total of £1.70 a day. It's such a bargain when you consider the time, grief, and petrol involved that I am constantly staggered that more people don't do it. If they did, the bottlenecks at drop-off and pick-up times wouldn't be nearly as bad!

I drive my children less than 500m to school purely so that I can work. Even for such a short distance there isn't time for me to walk home again and then get to work and my start time isn't flexible. We walk home though.

I don't care if other parents think it's wrong/selfish. We've walked both ways for 5 years before I got made redundant but I need to work and with a shortage of job offers my choices were limited.

"The luxury of a nice stroll there and back with a younger baby in a pram?!" This is a luxury now, is it?! There was me thinking a luxury would be forking out for a car and petrol and sheltering from the elements in a nice, warm or air conditioned car. Believe me, walking 10.2 miles a day to school and back with a very slow toddler and a pram gets very tedious very quickly, especially when the weather turns cold and wet and windy and depressing!

Obviously there a lots of people who need to drive but I do watch my neighbour with a face every morning. The school is 2 streets away, she drives the kids there then drives back and 5 minutes later takes the dog out for a walk. I'm sure it takes her longer to get them strapped into the car seats than it would to walk there. She said to me one day that mornings were such a stressful time as she had to get the boys to school then walk the dog before going to work at lunchtime. I did think about suggesting killing 2 birds with one stone but I guess she likes her routine.

Totally with you OP.
Infants who live some distance away I understand.
At a push Juniors who live a distance away, but at my DCs school every morning the roads are totally congested yet we have a free and huge car park very close to the 4 schools (2 primary, 2 high schools). It is literally a 2 minute walk from the car park to the school and yet so many children are driven to the gates, including the high school kids

It can actually be a bit scary!

It's bloody unnecessary especially when you see parents pulling along little ones or Teens running towards the school as all the parents are exiting the gates because mummy/daddy had to drive round and round looking for a space.

I will never understand it.

OP, your opening post comes across as very right wing about this issue, and by that I mean you've got an idealistic idea of how nice it would be and how good for everyone if all families walked to school every day.
Yes, it would be lovely and I'm sure we'd all be healthier.

The thing is, it isn't always that simple.

We live about 1.7 miles from school (or is it 1.4 - can't remember) and it's a horrible walk, along a very busy road with very narrow pavements so if you randomly stick your arm out a bit at the wrong time, it will get cut off by a bus.
It's up a long hill
There isn't another feasible route

We do it sometimes, but that means a long walk back for me afterwards, and if we did this at both ends of the day it would mean about six miles of walking for me.

I don't mind the idea of that - in fact I share your idealistic vision - but realistically, it would mean I had neither the time nor the energy to do anything once I got home.

I have to do everything myself here - all the shopping, all the DIY, (there's a lot - we are renovating) and looking after a huge garden and 8 pets. Plus two lively children and another on the way. (pregnancy just makes everything harder!)

So I drive, most days - it takes seven minutes, instead of half an hour, each way. It means I can do shopping on the same journey, or get the 20kg sacks of pet food we use, or pieces of timber or whatever.

I tend to stay in the rest of the day and do stuff here.
Just because school begins at a busy time, that means unfortunately I help clog up the roads at that time. But I don't the rest of the time, generally.

Perhaps they ought to change school starting times instead.

Oh and I don't do the selfish parking thing. I often get the last space at the end of the road, and I always let children and parents cross the road in front of my car.
Most people at our school are similarly polite and don't take the piss - a few are selfish but that's just life. It's not because they drive - they're just selfish people.
Everyone else has a reason for doing it, most I'd think are good reasons and people that live up to half a mile or even a mile away mostly walk as there is so little available parking.

People aren't all monsters.

I should also add that I was raised without a car (we had a crap one for about a year when I was 11 - it never worked very well) and we walked, cycled and got public transport till we were blue in the face.

I cycled three miles each way to secondary school when most kids got the bus. It put me off cycling in towns for life. It was hell and very dangerous.

My children and 5 and 9 and walk into town with me, happily, and go for walks and cycle and so on - but making them do it every day in less than favourable circumstances is a recipe for producing the next generation of insistent car drivers.

In an ideal world we would all be able to walk our children to their local school. Unfortunately, our village school is oversubscribed due to lots of new development in the area, and many local children are now forced to travel outside of their community to go to school, inevitably meaning a car journey. Despite local government constantly promoting a 'walk to school' campaign, they refuse to look at the provision and allocation of school places for the long term, meaning that more and more parents are forced to drive.

I think it is an individual's business to be honest. I wouldn't change what I do because someone has the viewpoint it is "right". Until the police actually stop people having the right to choose what they eat (sugar) and how they choose to transport themselves, I will continue to make my choices based on what I choose to do.

Two SAHMs on my road who drive their kids to school. Only 3/4 of a mile.

I don't think it's comparable with eating too much though, if you eat too much ok that might give you diabetes and cost the NHS lots, but it doesn't have the immediate direct impact that clogging up the roads for short journeys on walking routes does

yanbu about trying not to, but there are always so many caveats, exceptional individual circumstances. I know someone who lives 250m from school but still drives because money is very tight as is her work schedule; she hates it, has to leave home 15 min. early, what's worse!! But need for household income trumps her personal preferences.

Our estate was planned with bad infrastructure; backs directly onto school grounds but the road & walking route to school is 1-1.4 km. So lots of people drive. Eejit planning (and they want to build 60 more family houses down here still with no direct access to the road school is on, literally a stone's throw away from many gardens!).

I agree OP

Some of my neighbours drive absolutely everywhere

They don't even walk to the local parade of shops which is literally a few minutes away.

It's a 15 minute walk to the local senior school and they still drive their kids there!

YANBU - IF you are referring to people who live less than 10 min walk from the school, and don't have to go on to work/elsewhere in the car straight after drop off.

Ther a loads of people on our estate that drive to and from school - the whole catchment is within 10 mins walk, most people within 5 and they still drive. I see them all drive past me on the way there, and again on the way back. It's just lazy!

I'll likely be driving when picking up in the afternoon, but only because im coming straight from work and go past school on the way home. Hopefully I'll have time to go home first and walk because our school is hell at pick up.

OP, who exactly should be allowed to use the roads at rush hour?

Why can't people walk to work, too?

Why is it simply school traffic that is making you so cross?

My DS starts school in a few weeks, its a 10 minute walk.

I WISH I could walk there every day but I have to get to work as soon as I have dropped him off and drive straight from work to pick him up.

However there will be days when I'm working from home that I look forward to being able to walk and get him

johnwayne I assume you ride your horse on the school run?

My NN is rather fitting to this thread too I just realised

We live 5 miles away from our school, so walking not really an option.

I'm on maternity and have the luxury of choice at the moment. It's usually about half and half, depending on what else I'm doing. I prioritise walking to school, it's relaxing, provided I leave enough time, but sometimes I need the extra ten minutes to feed urn baby, eat, make packed lunch and brush my hair!

Personally I don't consider the traffic to be the biggest worry EdMcDunnough

I'm not speaking for OP of course but I do think there are valid points made;

• selfishness by parents driving e.g. not stopping to let children to cross the road

• clogging up residential roads near school, making it less safe to walk

• hideously selfish parking near schools, ignoring the rules of the road for no reason beyond selfishness/convenience

• congestion caused by selfish laziness in insisting on parking within 10 yards of the school gate having driven past a perfectly good space 100 yards away

Every parent wants their DC to be safe and at some schools (including ours in that) it is scarily busy right outside the gate. There are people who stop to drop off on the yellow lines, people trying to get in small spaces by bumping up the kerbs and a fair few who are in such a rush they drive as close to the car in front as the can get.