town is gridlocked between 330 and 630 every weekday

[badtraffic]

The answer is to build more homes.

I could cry.

If we make all our choices- where we work, where our children go to school, where we go after school, where we go for leisure- assuming we'll drive, then of course we'll think we 'can't live without a car'. If we make those choices around walking/public transport then we don't need cars.

Are you genuinely suggesting that the car is so evil that people should be prepared to compromise their children's education by choosing a school based on whether a car is needed rather than what's best for their child? The answer is greener, and ultimately self-drive cars that can use the roads more efficiently than human drivers....

And not everyone 'makes choices' about where they work- they get a job where they can (and they are pretty scarce in some parts!). As I've said upthread, public transport simply does not exist to be able to get to some places around here!

'Are you genuinely suggesting that the car is so evil that people should be prepared to compromise their children's education by choosing a school based on whether a car is needed rather than what's best for their child?'

Kind of, yes. When we have children dying from pollution-related asthma (I'm not being overly dramatic, my friend's oldest child died 3 years ago) we need to look at our choices. We could get into the school thing- the benefits of going local, getting behind your local school- it's been done to death on other threads. It depends on what we consider 'what's best', as you put it, whether 'best' is our children as part of a community or our children inside a bubble. And no, it's not easy.

Labour were the idiots who opened our doors wide to mass immigration in 1997 and caused a lot of the overcrowding we're now experiencing.

They were also the idiots who put an embargo on new road building projects!

Same here - 4 primary school within 1 mile, the one we got a place in is 2.9 miles away. With current traffic, that's a 2h round trip. We had to send our son to private school (which we can't really afford), because there is no way we could have gotten him to school and back and get to work. Giving up a job we can't afford even less....

I think maybe people have gone way over the top trying to get their point though here. Been greener doesn’t have to mean giving everything up completely.
It just means maybe having a car free day a week maybe, buying a refillable waterbottle instead of buying plastic ones, more recycling etc
Just being aware of your carbon footprint could help the situation getting so extreme that we ruin everything for ourselves and future generations.

You don’t have to use a car to transport children
And pollution is less outside a car than inside

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-40600234

It’s cheaper than running a car on short journeys

2 hours to travel 6 miles in a car is ridiculous, I could cycle six miles in 30 minutes and if you need help then you can use the electric option

Yes, ivykaty, on a similar thread I wrote that children sitting inside a car in traffic suffer more than those walking beside them on the pavement. I was met with silence- maybe people done want to know....

Marieadplastic

Parents would be horrified if you suggested giving their children two cigarettes everyday but think nothing of putting a child in a car which in some towns and cities is as low as half a cigarette and as high as 2 cigarettes

Those cargo bikes look great and ideal for flat places like Cambridge. On my route to town there are quite a metal few barriers with 'cyclist dismount' signs. I struggled to maneouvre the trailer attached to the back of my bike around them and I imagine a cargo bike wouldn't be able to get round either.

then Use the road or write to council and explain the problem

Or just carry on using a Car for you and your children, it’s not going to effect me

Ivykaty - I walk my children to school and cycle to work. I cycle on the road sometimes but as explained earlier in some places there is no cycle lane and heavy traffic. I'm just saying that even well-meaning efforts to promote cycling aren't always very well thought out. I think I will take a picture of the crap cycle lanes on my route today.

What a good idea ghosts - shall we have a thread on cycling to put them on - I have some horrors!

Stairs on a labelled cycling route!! 6 foot fences cutting them in half

Maireadplastic- totally agree

People are in love with the motor vehicle and will not consider the bigger picture when it comes to choosing schools etc. I cycle past kids stuck in cars stuck in traffic every morning. Madness!

Oh jeez. Sounds like where I am. Dh and I live on the town outskirts. Both work in town (well when I’m not on mat leave as I am now). To drive in it should be a 10 minute drive. Because everyone drives in and because we are near 9 schools traffic is awful at peak times. It can take up to an hour to drive during term time.

Our local government’s scheme to reduce traffic in “town” is to make all bar one car park 3 hour stays only. So you have thousands of people fighting to find all day parking spaces.

There is a bus stop right outside our apartment. There’s a bus which leaves at 8am. The timetable says it’ll get us into town at 855 but this implies no traffic. I’ve got the bus once (and it goes the wrong way (away from “town”) to loop back on itself) and because of the traffic I didn’t get to work until 930 (I start at 9). So this isn’t useful for me.

“They” are thinking of scrapping “our” bus. Because not enough people are using it. Sigh.

“They” are thinking of scrapping “our” bus. Because not enough people are using it. Sigh.

Sadly all too common. They pay lip-service by putting the odd bus on that takes forever and is only one per hour and then say there's no demand! You couldn't make it up!

People like their car and they like something for nothing

Free busses for the public would be cheaper for the government to run than the obesity crisis cost
One would help the other, as it is known people using buses have to walk to the bus. Then walk to their place of work and then reverse on the way home.

Although each walking part is small, maybe quarter of a mile, it adds up over a week

Wonderful today am as the private schools are on their 2 week half term.

Lol where I live you have to phone up the day before for the one bus a day...
We can get a train however or cycle or walk - but I understand a reluctance to cycle in that sort of traffic - well the cycle lanes and routes aren't great.

I just think we should be given local schools for local children and if there are too many that means more school. We need more staggered start work places (making them more family friendly too) and fewer people having to go to the office to actually work all the time.

The daily bus times from our village to the nearest large town (11 miles away)

07:39 09:29 11:17 13:42 15:32 17:19

The 7 39 bus frequently doesn’t show up so my neighbour’s son lost his job because he was late so often. There is no bus that goes towards the nearest small town with the doctor and supermarket (4 miles away). To cycle would involve cycling on a narrow 60mph road with no pavement, no street lighting and lots of potholes. 120 family homes are being built in our village, but there are no plans to improve local transport Rural transport needs to be subsidised (perhaps the developers should be made to pay) and buses need to be frequent enough to make using them viable

Sorry spacing fail for the timetable
07:39
09:29
11:17
13:42
15:32
17:19

During the summer holidays, my city was deserted. Right after the holidays ended they started major roadworks that blocked a main road .

Road closed is right near the uni as well so it's even worse.

And they always start roadworks right next to the shopping centre just before Christmas 😡

So many lazy selfish people full of excuses. Anything under 3 miles can be walked, under 5 miles can be cycled. I work with many childless people in their 20s and most of them drive to work even though they live 2 miles away and there are convenient and cheap buses and trains, safe walking and reasonable cycle facilities. And it's flat here. As long as people keep making excuses, traffic will continue to ruin all our lives.

Just to be clear I work at the shopping centre and the roadworks hold up my bus