Kids on scooters during school run 😒

[Heyjude16]

It drives me insane. Small path to school and they come zooming so fast up behind you that if you don't move you get smacked at the back of your legs, and then none of them say please or thank you or excuse me. Drives me insane! 😒

They're banned from our school grounds now, after a number of accidents.

Of course it's about manners rather than the actual scooters, but for some reason, it seems that perfectly nice parents forget to teach their perfectly nice children any etiquette in relation to riding their scooters. It's like a massive blind spot and they just don't see how annoying it is to other people. And yes, some parents sadly appear not to teach any basic safety rules either.

My mum collects dd from school a couple of times a week, and I know she finds the scooters quite scary. It's not fair when kids come hurtling along the pavement and expect people to dodge out of the way, and even if they're planning to steer themselves around any pedestrians, it's hard to be sure when they're right behind you. Some of them go so fast!

If parents would ensure that kids ride safely and considerately, it wouldn't be an issue, but ime, the parents are usually miles behind and don't seem to realise or care if their kids are being a menace!

Heyjude At least you can recover quickly from being bumped into by a scooter rather than a car. I think these scooters are wonderful, they are quick so, at last the dcs and parents have an alternative to walking or sitting in bloody cars. I haven't even seen an accident with the scooters.

Of course it isn't a perfect world so there are bound to be rude dcs and parents, but still much better than selfish rude parents bunging up the roads and pavements in their environmentally damaging cars.

About 18 mths ago there was a collision in the street between a yr1 boy on his scooter and a car. The lad came zooming down off his driveway into the road between 2 parked cars and straight in front of another car. Luckily the car was only going at 20kph so the lad was a bit shocked and had some scrapes/bruises but was otherwise fine. The driver (a neighbour, only about 22) was so shaken up he hasn't driven since.

A week later we had the police and ambulance back in the street as the boy had done exactly the same thing but to the school bus. He wasn't so lucky that time and ended up under the wheels of the bus :(

It was awful and to this day I'm terrified when I see young kids on scooters on the estate - no sense, no fear.

I don't mind the ordinary scooters. It's the ones with sharpened swords sticking out of the wheels that get me. Well, obviously not yet they haven't, but it's only a matter of time before I lose a foot on the way to Sainsbury's.

Sometimes it's like being a pedestrian in the chariot race in Ben-Hur. Surely I can't be the only one to have witnessed this worrying trend?

Our school has a no-wheels zone enforced by regular letters home and the occasional teacher on duty, so when you reach the path directly outside school for 100m or so, you have to get off bikes, scooters, skateboards (they're the worst!) and walk. There are always a handful who don't obey, but it's better than it could be.

I'm not sure about the school run, I generally think scooters aren't a mode of transportation but more a fun thing.

What gets my goat even more is that it has become more and more common to see children on them in busy supermarkets at weekends, but the blood boiling one recently was on Oxford St on a Saturday afternoon! Bloody Oxford St!

There is a time and a place for scooters, its called the park.

Oh and if you are an adult who scoots, when I come to power you will be wheeled out and shot.

YASNBU

It seems like half the parents here don't supervise their scootering children.

One knocked my daughter over and the parent didn't say a thing. So many times I have had to do a little jump so I don't get hit ankles.

The pavement leading out of the school is too narrow. If parents would make their child walk with their scooter until there is more space that would be great. They are banned from the playground but obviously the head can't do anything about what happens on the pavement outside.

Lol I was going to have my pushchair upgraded with swords to kill all the wretched car that parked on the pavement.

Scooters are OK as long as those using them are sensible and considerate to others. Crazy adult cyclists with attitude mounting pavements and running red lights with now they really worry me.

I live near a high school and most gardens have high hedges which make it a real danger to safely get off the drive in the morning, especially if you had driven on and had to reverse off.

One lad in particular seemed to alternate between zooming on the path and zooming on the road (dicing with crazy school run parents, yikes)!

I spoke to him one morning and said that even though I look out for him, other neighbours might not, so he should slow down on the path to give people time to see him. It didn't make any difference so we always reverse onto the drive to be able to drive off with better visibility, just in case of scooters! We also cut down our hedges!

I have seen one career off a pavement into the path of an oncoming car (luckily the car was able to swerve). Parent was miles behind because the kids were freewheeling down the hill on the main road.

They are a bloody menace. We walk down two narrow alleyways on the way to school and you aren't allowed to cycle down them so I don't see why you should be allowed to scoot along them. I am fed up having to stop and press myself against the wall while some kid scoots past or ignore the repeated shouts of 'excuse me!' while they're nipping at the backs of my heels. Bloody get off and push them!

And the catchment areas for our schools are tiny - there is no need for any child to scoot rather than walk.

YANBU OP.

Hate them. I walk to work and get the kids on scooters speeding towards me, looking like they haven't decided whether to go right or left to go around me and ending up coming at me in a wobbly speedy line. Hate them hate them. Near me there's a whole family who all have them, mum and dad scooting too.

Hate them in the park too. I'm a grouch though.

Most of the children at our school seem to scoot to school (village primary, no-one lives very far away). We also have narrow paths to navigate for part of the way.

Most of the children cause no issue at all. There are three however, who annoy the heck out of me. The rude child who bellows "coming through, get out of the way" at the top of his voice whilst his father laughs at his "spirit" behind him (incidentally this father has been spotted not picking up his dog's poop on more than one occasion too - but that's a different thread). The child who actually has a bell on their scooter - and rings it as if to say "move" as they come up behind you and lastly, the children who scoot past you at speed and then cut in front narrowly missing your toes . I have balance issues (vertigo) and have very nearly fallen head first over a scooting child many times!

On the whole though, I would agree that the key is decent parental supervision whilst scooting.

What's wrong with a bell on a scooter? Cyclists have them and better that than being unaware until they whizz past at the last minute.

Cyclists are on the road Nicky

Urgh I hate adults on scooters lalalaa. They look like utter knobs.

My children scoot to school. They have been taught to stop at roads, to get off as we approach school and the pavement is busy and to stop and walk past other pavement users. I scoot too otherwise I can't keep up and then they are unsupervised.
DS took a while to learn to be safe (he has an ASC) but if I felt he was being unsafe I stopped him and made him walk with me.
Every morning as we leave for school we have the same conversation about stopping, walking and having consideration.

I hate scooters. They shouldn't be allowed on pavements imo, and don't get me started on kids being on them in supermarkets and shopping centres.

I've lost count of the amount of times I've almost been knocked off my sticks by kids whizzing around on scooters. They don't care who is in front of them, they expect you to jump out of the way. Only I can't.

I don't think scooters are the problem. Imo, its children who haven't been taught appropriate manners and aren't properly supervised that are.

Lots of children scoot to school here. The vast majority are considerate and careful, but there are some that are downright dangerous and rude.

They are banned in the playground, as there have been so many collisions, one of which resulted in a broken bone for the non-scooting child, but some parents still let their children zip around on them. The most dangerous ones there are the toddlers, as they don't look where they are going and can be easily missed in a crowd.

I like to see kids scooting to school, I'd rather see them scooting than being driven.

That said, as with all things it doesn't mean you can abdicate parental control: the kids need to be respectful of other pavement users and dangers from cars.

Also pedestrians could be more mindful of other payment users.

king I have the worry about a generation of people with a wonky walk because they've been scootering so much lol Surely it must be a real concern? Most the kids I see on them don't switch legs, probably have a dominant leg they use the most for the pushing off bit. They also don't tend to push off and then glide for a long time, like you would with skateboarding. It seems to be constant pushing with the one leg which is at the very least going to give one leg a more defined muscle than the other, surely?
Maybe I've put too much thought into this? My son is 2 and someone bought him a scooter for his birthday. He hasn't used it yet and he will only be using it at the park.

I guess it's where you live. Loads of adults use scooters to get between tube stations on the commute where I am. Don't even notice them any more.

A bit on the fence reply
Yabu. I got my D's to scooter to school in reception due to wanting to walk at a reasonable speed. He also scooters now when he gets chance. Physio recommendation
Yanbu though as common courtesy and road sense should be part of that. My D's gets off scooter to cross the road. He also knows to keep his distance from people. They did a scooter safety day at school a couple of years ago. Really good idea

well my kids (little hellions) ride scooters to school about 50% of the time (so when it isn't raining), they're 5 and 3. No way would they be on the road, that really isn't safe. the pavement is wide, and if there was a cycle lane they'd be in that but there isn't.

They know to stop and wait for me at roads, to stop if there's someone in front of them, to stop and wait at specific points on our route (frequent) and to NEVER go whizzing off too far that they can't hear me telling them to stop.
I toddle along behind (or occasionally in front, yelling to "hurry up!") with the baby in the pram. They are never very far from me, so are supervised.

If they were to cause an accident I'd make very sure they apologised.

Oh and they're very disability aware as when I don't have the pram I have to use sticks too.

if they don't follow those rules, they don't get to scoot the next day.

Have I satisfied all of the PPs requirements? No, because they are still on scooters. Can't win.

the old man on a bicycle who ran into my pram because HE was on the pavement and not looking, he's a liability! (and no, I wasn't too busy watching kids on scooters, the scooters were folded and in the basket under the pram as I was on my way home)

Oh people can always find something to moan about can't they? I've never yet been hit or seen or heard of anyone being hit by a child on a scooter except here on MN. In fact there's a lot of things that supposedly happen on MN that I have never seen or heard of in RL. It's a place that's just full of surprises and unusual scenarios isn't it?

But you get that some areas are very different to others, right? So in some areas, kids on scooters will be a lot safer than others.

For example you're far less likely to get hit by a child on a scooter in an area with wide pavements, cars that park on the roads and smaller primary schools.

Compared to my area for example, where the roads are so narrow that cars have to park (legally) on the narrow pavements, and the 1920's built primary school in the middle of a huge residential area, now has an intake of 950 pupils, all arriving at the same time?

So what may be an 'unusual scenario' to you, will be completely normal to others in different areas.

Ban the cars, more room for scootering