Walking vs driving kids to school

[OpportunityKnocks]

I've seen a few rants about traffic on local Facebook pages.

Every single time there is someone who says 'well, if the parents walked their children the half mile to school then we wouldn't have this problem' with an inference that parents are lazy.

Well, actually, people usually drive because it is quicker, just like they drive to work because it's quicker than walking or public transport.

Parents, like the rest of the population have stuff to do. It wound me up because a lot of comments were targeted at parents that don't work. I'm currently on mat leave and drive DS to/from preschool. I have other reasons why I drive him aside from time, but that's irrelevant. Why is my time any less valuable than someone who has to go to work? That half a mile is a 40 minute round trip walking vs a 20 minute round trip driving.

So AIBU to call these people out on blaming parents for traffic?

I'm in zone 2 in London and always walk the 10 min journey. Getting the kids in the car and driving at that time would be an absolute headfuck (and DS2 gets car sick so that would be even more of a pain in the arse). I get that others are in different situations.

A family I see in their car daily, on a shorter journey wind me up. Not because they drive (I don't know why they do that) but because they leave the car running directly outside a school and nursery for ages whilst they drop 2 kids a piece to each establishment. It seems bonkers and wilfully ignorant.

@OldHarrysGameboy well the road outside my DC's school is a hell of a lot more dangerous at school pick up and drop of with cars parking on double yellows, zig zags, in the middle with the hazards on, not to mention the idling of engines.

You can think it's a patriarchal thing if you like. Male or female, choosing to drive 300m and parking dangerously outside of a school is shitty behaviour

Most car journeys aren't necessary as such

Yep.

And most car journeys that are half a mile in distance really aren't necessary.

Your post is not unreasonable but in your personal circumstances you are unreasonable. Getting your kid to nursery is not a commute, even if you are hurrying back home or somewhere else to do something particular. If you have arranged activities that you need to get to then fair enough, but is that everyday?

PS my kids walk to school and back but I drive to work because I’m lazy. That’s literally my reason. It’s a mile . But at least I own the fact that I do it for my own convenience!

You obviously feel... very strongly about this oldharrysgameboy, but your analogies don't work. Absolutely no one is saying 'don't take your children to school', they're saying 'don't do what would be a perfectly walkable journey by car for no good reason'. It does indeed happen that a lot of journeys to primary school fall into this category, but that's because people tend to live close to their children's school. One of my colleagues lives less than a mile from work and he was met with absolute scorn when it emerged that he drives. It's the driving a very short journey that's the issue, not the sex of the person doing it.

"Air pollution is the biggest environmental threat to health in the UK, with between 28,000 and 36,000 deaths a year attributed to long-term exposure. There is strong evidence that air pollution causes the development of coronary heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and lung cancer, and exacerbates asthma."

www.gov.uk/government/news/public-health-england-publishes-air-pollution-evidence-review

@OldHarrysGameboy and the wilful ignorance of people like you is why the air around my home is so polluted and why it's not safe for my DC's to ride their bikes on the road. Ffs.

I myself don't drive btw. Public transport although Google maps tells me I walked 56 miles last month, which I was quite surprised by. But I think it's instructive how in the hierarchy of perceived importance of journey, the ones that are seen largely as to do with women and children are at the bottom.

I think if you can walk then you should

Both DH and I do have to drive DS to nursery, because we can't make it to work otherwise, and I hate it. We sit in traffic and I've read the research on the fumes that being in a car in traffic exposes him to. We're trying to move house at the moment and a major motivation is moving to a place with better air quality and where - crucially - neither of us have to drive to work; we're only looking at houses where I could walk or cycle to work and DH could get the train. Where we live now has the worst air quality in our county and I hate that we're exposed to and, worst of all, contributing to that. I read the most recent research on miscarriage and air pollution and found it really upsetting because I had three miscarriages while living here and working in central London. So sorry but I don't really buy the idea that trying to get people out of their cars is an unjustified attack on women.

My local school has a very tight catchment area - less than 600m. People still drive their kids there and back (London, so no concerns about unlit country lanes etc). It is pure laziness.

@OldHarrysGameboy you just need to see the difference in traffic in term time and the school holidays to see what a huge difference school run traffic makes. It's huge and significant. It's an unfortunate coincidence that those cars are often driven by women. But that's no reason not to tackle it head on.
In London they have the congestion charge. Other cities are looking at banning cars in the centre. So it's not just the school run that's being tackled.

The traffic does reduce outside of term. But that's also because people with children take time off to spend time with said children so don't commute themselves. You can see this more obviously on trains into London.

I'd guess that about 15% of our employees are off during school holidays. That's a significant reduction of commuters.

Well yes, on days where fewer people need to get somewhere, there are fewer cars on the road. Term time traffic isn't just or even mostly people driving to a school and then back home to watch Lorraine though. Most of those people are going on to work and other commitments. Parents usually take leave during holidays, so won't be driving during rush hour for five weeks a year, school/college/university staff likewise for the full 13 weeks. It's really not as simple as selfish women clogging up the roads.

As for London, the congestion charge works there because public transport is reliable and faster than driving. Be interesting to see how places outside it with one bus an hour if you're lucky get on with banning cars.

Snap @OpportunityKnocks.

I'd be late for work plus my catchment school is a 45 minute walk. We're closer to the secondary 15-20 minutes walk and dd1 walks there and back every day.

OP you are being lazy, and ignoring the risk of environmental pollution. And do you seriously walk at 2mph (15 minutes for your half mile walk after dropping preschooler)?
Why not get a buggy board for him/her to stand on? You could get there and back in 20 minutes.

Half a mile for us too (max 10 mins walk each way), and every morning we pass a neighbour getting her kids into the car, and every morning we walk into the playground before them. It's pure laziness and it contributes to the chaos around schools, which is turn is dangerous for pedestrians. As for a 1 mile round trip taking 40 minutes - you're clearly doing it wrong!

Enjoy the short walk with your child, chatting and pointing things out, rather than him looking at the back of your head while you hunt for a parking space.

Wow, some judgy people around here today!

I live a 6 minute drive from school, about 2.5 miles, have walked it once when I was without a car and it took me an hour and a half one way with slow children in tow. Probably took me about an hour to get home. So yes, that is 2.5 hours out of my day that is important to me. I don’t really give a flying fuck if anyone else thinks my time isn’t important.

We would have to leave the house by 6.30am if we were to walk to school, meaning we would need to be up by 5.30am at the latest. I don’t give a flying fuck if anyone thinks mine or my children’s sleep isn’t important, it is to me.

It would also be another 90 minutes out of my children’s day after school, the time where they do their homework before they wind down and have leisure time. I don’t give a flying fuck if that’s not important to anyone else, it is to me.

So yes, I could walk to school, but I choose not to, because my time is important to ME. Just like your time is important to you.

Who drives in silence? We always chat whilst I drive.

No he won't stand on a buggy board.

It doesn't matter how long it takes me anyway, because IABU and a lazy fucker.

How long have you spent on MN today, and this thread specifically?

People who are so "busy" always seem to find time to waste on here..

I work part time. School is just under a mile away so we will walk on my days off. I don’t have time on work days to walk to school and back to drove (past the school) to go to work though so I will drive my daughter to breakfast club on those days.

I love the walk to and from school. We have a good chat and it tires the toddler out nicely. We will stop at the park on the way home if it’s dry.

That said, they are about to impose parking restrictions on all the side streets around the school. It is absolutely the case that some of the parking is completely ridiculous. However, on the very rare occasions that I do drive on a day off (eg very heavy rain) I park responsibly - not dangerously, I don’t block anyone’s drive etc. The fact is that some people will need to drive and they need to go somewhere 🤷🏻‍♀️

I walked when we lived a bit further than half a mile unless awful weather. Now we’re 1.5 miles away and it takes 40 minutes to walk with DS his dad takes him. I tried public transport but it’s unreliable and cost £30 for 5 days.

@AgentPrentiss jeez calm down. People are talking about a 20 min walk!

My sons school is a 7 minute drive, or a 1.5hr walk. We've got A roads between us and the school which adds time on as you need to use subways and less direct routes than you can drive. Both my son and me have physical disabilities that make walking long distances painful, we'll keep driving unless we move closer to school