AIBU to think scooters on the school run are a bloody nuisance

[17leftfeet]

I have no problem with little ones in them that are under the control of the adults they are with

But 7 yos plus who career down the paths at a million miles an hour are just not on!

Especially when they are going back and forth

And a new menace this morning -the electric scooter that you can't hear coming -I nearly got flattened this morning

And shouting 'scuse me while making no attempt to slow down is not good manners!

Pavements are for people not scooters!

Confused you are living up to your name!

Pavements are for pedestrians, not vehicles. And to drive a car you need to have proved you're capable of passing a test. Even that isn't foolproof but it's a lot better than handing over a (potentially fast moving) vehicle to a small child on a packed pavement, with an incompetent parent flapping and shrieking twenty yards behind.

There was an elderly woman knocked down on a pavement in our town by a boy on a bike when I was a child. She died. Because I had nice parents I was warned that bikes can cause harm to other people. Some parents aren't as conscientious. It does make me sad that these cases still happen and that elderly people get very casually blamed.

So the solution is to ban all scooters from existence?

Nanny state much ...

No, the solution is to keep them for parks and other suitable areas. Not busy places.

It isn't nanny state, its common sense! DS loves his scooter but we don't see the need to use it to go to school or shops or anything else. We take it to the park and he can scoot to his hearts content!

Or ...

the solution is for parents NOT to abuse those who reprimand their children for scooting inconsiderately or dangerously on the pavements. I've read many examples on MN of parents blaming others' for their children's lack of control on scooters.

It takes a village, and all that.

What is a "plastic bobby"?

Put it this way - I my kids had hit someone while on a scooter, bike, skateboard or whatever I'd have been mortified and they'd have had a right bollocking.

I certainly wouldn't have been excusing them or blaming the person who was injured

If my kids.

Salmotrutta plastic bobbies are what Community Support Officers are called around here.

"can scoot to his hearts content!" - along the pavements in the park where elderly people stroll?

Its not as if he can scoot on the grass is it?

DS scoots very well on the grass actually!

The park we go to also isn't the type people chose to stroll around either.

You are just trying to be petty now aren't you?

Salmotrutta, I would be the same if my child was to scoot into someone but it seems like this isn't the norm

Not petty. Just realistic. Don't you like that?

In the parks people scoot on the paths, I don't see how you can possibly scoot on the grass and believe me dd1 has tried. Its just hard work with very little reward.

So most kids in parks scoot on pavements where people walk.

But lucky you, you have a park where people don't stroll - isn't that convenient for your argument.

YANBU. I'm starting to sound like my parents, but we used to manage without scooters when I walked to school.

BTW the plastic bobbies nickname for PCSOs is a little insulting, given their wide ranging duties and some of the crap they have to deal with.

Confused if you can't see the difference between scooting in a park and scooting on a busy pavement then you have problems?

Scooting near schools is dangerous. Simple as!

Nothing like insulting someone to help get your point across is there Sirzy.

I don't have problems. Thanks for the concern but if you can't see a difference between scooting at an elderly person at high speed on a pavement in the street and a pavement in the park then I would suggest you should be more concerned about yourself

According to posters on this thread, elderly people cannot get out the way quick enough. I can't see how being in a park would change that.

I am well aware scooting in crowded areas is dangerous -see my list of rules above but to say 'ban all scooters' apart from in the park is ludicrous. But I expect it would take an elderly person being knocked over in a park to make you see that.

*can see a difference

For a start parks aren't as busy as a busy playground.

Most aren't full of elderly people walking around.

That doesn't mean care isn't needed still but it is a much safer location. But too many parents don't seem to care about that!

And again nobody has said ban scooters except in parks. People have said there is a time and a place for everything and by a busy school isn't the place for scooters.

Nor are highly residential areas with lots of narrow footpaths.

Nobody has answered the problem that some children live too far from school to walk easily. Scooting is one solution to this. The other is driving. So you'd prefer scooters to be banned except in parks and for the scooting children to go by car instead? That is madness.

YANBU. Especially since the advent of the 3 wheel ones (2 wheels at the front, one at the back). At least with the old Razor style 2 wheel micro-scooters there was a bit more skill involved and the users were a bit older and less out of control.

Scooters on the school run people are referring to, and if you live far away you could scoot part of the way and then walk on the very busy, school run pavements

I don't have a problem round parka and pavements if the children are considerate but I do get cheesed off when you get closer to the schools

Pavements are for people not scooters!

I think the OP is actually calling for the banning of scooters.

I would argue that her comment also means pavements in parks.

So yes, she is calling for an outright ban.

At least cars are on the road and people are safe on the path. So yes, I'd prefer people to go by car if they can't keep their kids under control on scooters.

Yes, sod exercise. Everyone should drive everywhere. Much safer.

"And if you'd prefer people living far from school to drive rather than take their kids on scooters, you are entirely mistaken in your relative risk assessments"

This.