to ask if you've heard of School Streets, and whether you think it's a good idea?

[Toomuchstuffwillkillme]

I just caught a bit of 'Clean Air for Kids' on R4 about School Streets in Hackney. Had not heard about it. (Must listen to whole programme properly in a bit!)
Seems like the sort of thing we should all be thinking about? I appreciate actually getting car-loving parents on board might be difficult, and there are probably a lot of issues that would need ironing out, but worth a try?
hackney.gov.uk/article/4379/School-streets

It could work very well for our school. It's on the entrance to an estate so every resident has to use that road. There are other options for parking within 200 metres.
Maybe the exemptions need to be less stringent than Blue Badge requirements but revenue raised by fines could be put to walking buses from drop off areas.

It's only for 20 minutes at dropping off and picking up times at our school. Which I know will still be annoying if that's the 20 minutes your visitors want to arrive or leave, but the residents in our street think this is a small price to pay for not having their street clogged with parents cars blocking their driveways and parking in inconsiderate places.
It was the residents who campaigned for it in the first place. But I guess the geography of each school area is different.

how much pollution is actually caused by school traffic as opposed to other traffic ?
I've never driven to school but I think the focus on lazy drivers is unfair- they need to offer a reasonable alternative to driving - so for example there was a large carpark within walking (15 minutes) distance of my son's school- it would have made sense to me if parents were encourage/allowed to park there and also if potentially some means of escorting children as a group existed (to save parents the 30 mins round trip which for many wouldn't work)

the restrictions sounds like the congestion charge which I think worked for a very short period before drivers just got ssed to the additional cost

I can think of at least half a dozen schools in my area off the top of my head that are situated on major roads through towns / villages.

Closing those major roads, even temporarily at school drop off / pick up times, would cause havoc.

I support it. Our local school has a significant number of parents driving, despite it being in London with excellent public transport options. Parents drive then park on pavement, double yellow lines, driveways, school emergency access etc near the school. They also often idle their cars. It's dangerous for children at the school and local children.

Maybe one solution would be to have more parking wardens actually enforce parking restrictions around schools.

So more double yellow lines or residents only parking on streets around schools, and hire more parking wardens to enforce those and fine parents who park where they shouldn’t.

*Maybe one solution would be to have more parking wardens actually enforce parking restrictions around schools.

So more double yellow lines or residents only parking on streets around schools, and hire more parking wardens to enforce those and fine parents who park where they shouldn’t.*

We have this. Unfortunately it doesn't work. All of the streets surrounding the school are controlled. Sadly parents just park on the pavement opposite the school, even if there is a parking attendant.

I am shocked how few of you realise how dangerous air pollution is on a child's growing body. Children growing up in areas of high air pollution have 90% of the lung capacity of children who live in cleaner air. It's a major health issue, especially in cities, and it's worth making some big adjustments for. I hate the way parents sit in cars idling up until the bell rings and they let their kids out, makes me so angry - an idling car let's out the most toxic combination of pollutants. This isn't about convenience, it's about letting our children breathe. What would you do if someone was smoking in the playground? Just let them? Air pollution from cars is even more damaging to them.

@MrsJamin I agree, the level of ignorance/ complacency is horrifying.

@NewSchoolNewName extensive double yellows would be the solution for schools like that

Pollution is literally killing our kids, something needs to be done about it.

Also seems like a lot of these responses are from people in smaller towns and villages where (a) public transport is terrible and (b) pollution is nowhere near as bad, so the issue is much smaller.

Yes, there need to be exemptions for blue badges and ideally if there are families with other issues with limited mobility, but honestly, children are dying, and every day at our London school we see tons of cars idling outside, often carrying a stay at home parent.

How would this work in rural areas where the schools tend to be on quite major roads?

How would this work where children are being bussed in from outlying areas (again, rural areas, high schools have very large catchment areas)?

I have long since said 1/4 mile around schools should become permit only around drop off and pick up.

Sometimes needs to be done. Ds is a blue badge holder so we need to use the car a lot of the time (we can sometimes walk in the mornings) he finishes school 20-30 minutes before the rest of the school as he can’t cope with pick up bug often I can’t park when I arrive because of parents sat in the cars (with engines running) over half an hour before their child finishes!

How would this work in rural areas where the schools tend to be on quite major roads?

These are not the pollution hot spots where kids are dying. The big issue here is inner cities, where pollution is high, public transport is usable for 95% of the population, and most kids can only get into a school that's under 500 yards from their gate - but able bodied people still choose to drive to school and idle on the street.

I my experience the ‘lazy’ parents are usually the ones working full time and drop and pick up kids in the way to or from work. It’s incredibly stressful trying to get everyone where they need to be - in time. Maybe a root cause analysis would help?

"Yes, there need to be exemptions for blue badges and ideally if there are families with other issues with limited mobility,"

It's not ideally, it's there must be.

Am assuming there would be dispensation for those like District Nurses, home carers etc who have such busy schedules, kit to carry etc?

I am shocked how few of you realise how dangerous air pollution is on a child's growing body

The solution isn't make loads of parents unemployable as they can't get to work on time and the siblings loose potentially an hour of school daily though because they can't get there on time either and fined because of this.

We need to work out why people are hovering around the school from r ages and make a workable solution. Such as can there be a quick.drop off zone where the children can go into school more than 5 mins before the school day starts?

what would happen with residents living on the street having deliveries where you can't choose a time and it may clash with school run times?
Would the residents get a permit to give to visitors too? Sounds very restricting to me for people who live on the streets next to a school

I just can’t see it working where I live (rural).

DD’s journey to high school involved a 2 mile walk to the bus stop (I had left for work), a bus to town 1, a walk across town, a bus to town 2, a walk of maybe 10/15 minutes from there to school. Her total journey time was just over 90 minutes. And that’s the closest school she got in to. Journey in distance terms of around 25 miles.

The school was split site, both sites on arterial routes into/out of town 2. Also there was one set of buses in the morning that worked and one set in the afternoon. If she did after school activities there was no set of buses that could get her home and she had to be collected.

Similarly, primary school was 4 miles away. No standard bus. And on a main-ish route to and from a number or villages. School ran a school bus to pick up and drop off. But the bus did not run if children were doing after school activities.

It would never work outside of very large cities.

And here it goes with the “but but but” reasons!

Parking a few street further away at worst means leaving the house a bit earlier. Even working parents can manage that. Most schools offer breaskdast and after school clubs. Many offer walking buses from set points.

There are plenty of alternatives for those who can walk it just takes a bit of thought and not hoping in the car for a 30 second journey

Where I live, the streets where the school doors/entrances are (except for main streets) are all one way permanently, with no parking on the school side of the street. You can park on the other side for a few minutes. Residents of the street get a permit to park and 'blue badge' spaces are reserved.

If I was dropping DD off to primary school I couldn’t drop her off before 8.45. It took me 25 mins to get to work. My start time was 9am.

She had a childminder who put her on the school bus in the morning. But there will be other parents who dropped and went to work. Why should they have additional cost?

And the school had no breakfast club and no after school club and still doesn’t. Rural school. No call for it, basically.

Why are all parent that drive to school being labelled as lazy? Not everyone lives within walking distance of thier child’s school unfortunately. Those days are long gone!

To be honest if I could spare the time to do the 1hr walking round trip twice a day I would do it for the exercise, but unfortunately it’s not possible.

Doesn’t an exclusion zone just move the problem somewhere else? And in areas where there are quite a few schools you would get parents from 2 or more schools all trying to park in the same places. What about the impact on those residents/safety of those roads?

Yes you would stop some people from driving short distances, but certainly for most people I imagine driving (certainly where I live) is just necessary to fit everything in.