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?

When we lived a mile from school it was quicker to walk than drive, only a couple of minutes in it, but no real time saving. The problem comes when instead of returning home you need to go somewhere else, on those occasions I drive. I have neighbours who drive less than a mile to drop off/ collect kids. I personally feel its immoral given the climate emergency to do that! I also don't understand people driving to school then going out running or gym or whatever?
People are lazy, I see people in my village driving instead of walking for 10 minutes. On rainy days the traffic is awful, why can no one walk in the rain?
I also think half a mile will only take 10 minutes so you're not really saving any time.
I'd like to see a half mile zone around schools where only residents can park. The smell of fumes as we walk to school is awful and can't be good for the kids lungs.

I love how much I'm told that I'm lazy.

Perhaps you would do better to make your own choices without needing validation from strangers on the internet. Personally I think it is very lazy to drive when you could walk but we live in a free country so you can make that choice regardless of what I think. Your problem on this thread is that you wanted people to pat you on the head and validate your choices and your miffed because they haven't. If you don't like people thinking that your lazy, either ignore them and carry on or make the relevant changes to your lifestyle. But do stop trying to garner sympathy. You clearly don't care enough about clogging up the roads to walk instead of drive so don't expect other people to care if you're late for little Tabitha's baby yoga.

I'm definitely lazy.

I still walked DS to nursery, while exH SAHD took the car to pick him up.

I really cherished that time with DS, then. I still like to walk with him at 15 yo, when I can. It's a great time to catch up.

It was -8 this morning where I live with a strong breeze. It was fine. I recommend thermal base layers for cold weather and a buff or balaclava to pull over your face if it's windy.

If you choose to make the lifestyle change and embrace active transport more, it is quite easy to solve issues like this. But people generally aren't looking for solutions, they're just excusing themselves.

Here comes @MimiLaRue to prove my point

Because I dont enjoy walking about a 2 miles in gales when its pouring with rain? fine- ive proven your point! Now you can enjoy your self satisfied soaking on every walk to school- expect your medal in the post within 7 working days! Congrats on being so much more moral and superior than everyone else

If we move close enough go walk to school I’ll be a fair weather walker if it’s anything more than three minutes I think.

I don’t have the option of driving so mine walk to school in all weathers. Never once yet dropped them off to sit in soaking cold clothes all day. They need proper cold/wet weather clothes anyway because the school turfs them out at playtime for anything less than a hurricane.

Really shocked to hear about the schools that effectively ban coats. Why FFS?

www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/apr/10/vehicle-pollution-results-in-4m-child-asthma-cases-a-year

Will we look back on car pollution in the same way we do on cigarette diseases? Pollution inside the car is far worse than outside www.independent.co.uk/environment/air-pollution-driving-car-travel-pregnant-women-study-baby-a8966806.html

It would be interesting to compare the pollution levels from smoking one cigarette to being driven to school in the pollution, we wouldn’t dream of giving a child a cigarette but we happily pop them in a car constantly, without any thought about it

www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/jun/12/children-risk-air-pollution-cars-former-uk-chief-scientist-warns

I drive in gales too as I think it's unsafe with small children. But a gale is over 30 mph. Fair play if you mean an actual gale.

Yes, that was the research that really upset me about my miscarriages and made me determined to move, ivykaty. When I was pregnant I was so careful about things like caffeine but it turns out that just living where I do was as bad as smoking, with a comparable raised miscarriage risk. I hate thinking about what DS's little lungs are exposed to daily while we sit in the car on the way to nursery and work and can't wait to move (though of course it's reliant on someone else buying our house and then living with the air pollution, which when I think about it doesn't feel great)...

Schools banning coats!! Are they insane?!

Of course it's not fun to walk in very bad weather (although it is fun to walk in heavy rain if it's not too cold and you've got waterproofs on - puddle splashing is fun for everyone!) but it's still better for the environment and your health. DD walks to school in all weathers unless it's colder than -20 because frostbite is a bit more serious though if there's no one to drive her then she has to go in that too.

Just wondering why 20 min return walk isn’t seen as good use of time . It’s good exercise and fresh air and above all it’s free. I think you’re bonkers sitting in a car for a journey like that. It’s also massively uneconomical on fuel as well as being massively polluting.
Also on your own you could walk back without kids much faster.

Isn't the key to find flexibility at the other end of their schedule once you've dropped off? Staggered work times, or choose a child group with a different start time..?

I'm not sure how easy it is for most working parents to just "find flexibility" though. For most people, starting work later (if this was even agreed which is by no means a given) would mean they have to finish later which then has implications for childcare at the end of the school day or cut down their hours (also by no means a given this would be agreed) which means being paid less.

Oh yes ... staggered work times ... why wouldn’t anyone think of that? Isn’t it lucky that most people get to choose their own working hours

75% of trips are less than 3 miles & could be done by other means than car, which would ease congestion, reduce pollution

People want to drive cars & wont let go, regardless of whether the pollution is deadly

Mimilarue - you forgot to add more healthy to that list

I drive because I want to. It’s quicker, warmer and more comfortable. Not sure why this annoys walkers so much.

You want to walk? Walk. Not really your business what anyone else does.

Driving makes my morning easier. I chat to my child and can bundle my toddler in PJs in the back without having to get them dressed first. I’m happy with that.

I don’t eat meat. I recycle. We do our but in other ways.

The people I know who walk do it because they prefer it - it’s rarely an environmental decision.

I’ve never heard anyone say “gosh, I’d love to drive but...you know...the environment”

People walk the school run because:

They like to walk
Exercise
Not confident drivers
Don’t own a car(!)
Their child prefers it

No-one’s doing it to save the planet.

@SpokeTooSoon

You don't eat meat because of the environment, but you're happy to pump out particulates and fumes into "walkers" kids lungs? Isn't that also an "environment" to consider, or is that just other people's kids so..

Out of interest, do you drive a diesel car?

@SpokeTooSoon

Your definition of "the environment" seems to be that loose one that encompasses a nation arbitrarily pumping unseen gases into an atmosphere - something we can't really feel or see unless the summers get a bit hotter etc

Mine in this case includes a more micro environment - namely the air outside schools.

There was a school in London which had serious issues with children having respiratory problems because of traffic directly outside the school.

That's an environment is it not?

No-one’s doing it to save the planet.

That’s bollocks. I know people who are.

No-one’s doing it to save the planet

How do you know? Can you read their thoughts?

Realistically, there are many benefits of walking. Saving the planet is just one of them. Health and exercise is a major benefit too. No one wants to get a metabolic related disease. So if walking can prevent that it's less strain on the NHS.

I like walking because it's fun but also I like it because it is healthy and is good for the environment which means I can feel good about it too.

but you're happy to pump out particulates and fumes into "walkers" kids lungs? Isn't that also an "environment" to consider, or is that just other people's kids so.

Pumping far more pollution into her own kids lungs than those outside walking

No-one’s doing it to save the planet.
I have made the decision that I will not drive for journeys that start and end in my village. I was driving to the shops, a mile, so a 40 minute round trip on foot. I felt guilty every time so I got a bike to make it a doable non-car journey, even if I discovered at 5pm I was out of whatever was needed for tea.
My kids whine about walking in the cold and rain and I tell them polar bears are relying on us to not pollute the planet.
I drive because I want to. It’s quicker, warmer and more comfortable. Not sure why this annoys walkers so much.
Because as I'm walking to school I'm walking past stinking polluting cars queuing to get in and out of parking spaces. My kids are breathing in filthy air and it upsets me, its anti-social.

This wasn't a post about the environment, not a post about the weather, nor was it about the damn parking, it was about time. The other things are separate debates.

Why are sahp and their children are not allowed the time efficiency of a journey that the working person is allowed?

You don't know what drives a sahp schedule. But you're quick to judge me based on very little information that it couldn't be time dependent (it is), that I can be flexible (I can't), that I'm simply lazy (I'm not - until after the kids bedtime, then I flop). You don't know what I do with my day or its relative importance to me, my family and society in general. Because my time only matters if I'm being paid?