Commute to work so much shorter when schools are off

[Ifo]

I believe that traffic levels have gone up since parents were able to choose which school their DCs go to. Parents apply without thinking about how their DC get to school. Yes car.

It’s half term here and my journey to work during term time is 1 hour - 1 hour 10 mins. This week, I left home 15 minutes later and arrive 10 mins earlier than the ETA upon leaving.

This is even with more people doing hybrid/WFH.

i think admission policy should revert back to postcodes. Except for in DC with severe SEND.

Yeh it could of done with the <flippant> because that wasn’t clear lol

Most kids go to their nearest infant/junior round me. They're 20 minutes walk apart and start at the same time.
It's about 40 minutes walk down to the juniors ( where you can drop 20 minutes early) then a race back uphill for 20 minutes then 20 minutes home again.

I did walk most of the time, but it's not as simple as go to your nearest and that's fine.
We're not in a rural area either, but it's the way it is set up. It would take another 5 minutes past the juniors to get to another primary school...

Something from my home country that works better in terms of traffic is staggered start/ end times for school hours. As a child I started at 7.30 on some days and at 12.30 on other days.

I agree it's an unfortunate vicious circle. Employers locate their offices/sites in the area they choose, and then expect employees to spend huge amounts of time and money to get there. In theory if everyone who commutes into a city for their job paying £X decided to take a big pay cut, live in smaller houses etc, and get a lower paid local job, employers would be forced to put their offices in the locations where people actually live in order to get the staff they want. Unfortunately it won't happen unless they are forced, so now we're in this hole I don't know how we get out of it.

I guess many individuals could choose to make a more environmentally friendly employment choice though. I knew lots of people who lived in Glasgow and commuted to Edinburgh, and vice versa. Both expensive cities to live in, both nice cities to live in, both have great variety of employment. There's really no need for that.

Parents only get a preference. When mine started school we put down our nearest school that we could walk to. We wasn’t given it as it was oversubscribed we had to drive to the school we were given.
It’s the same now at secondary school we are not even in the same borough so again I have to drive them.

Many parents also drive even if school is local as they have to rush off to work and don’t have the time to walk back again after drop off.

Maybe you should restrict yourself to jobs within a mile of home so you can walk, it may not suit you but not all schools suit all children either.

I live in Scotland where most kids go to catchment school. Commute is definitely quieter in holidays but I put it down to parents taking leave, also teachers not commuting. I don’t think your proposal will make any difference.

This is not a new thing - for as long as I've been driving (which is a looooong time) this has been the case. School holidays are always quieter on the roads - yes some of that is down to parents dropping kids at school, but it will also be down to teachers and school staff not travelling to school (I know some will still go in for various reasons, but rarely the whole staff), catering companies etc not delivering to schools, parents taking holiday from work to spend time with their children.

I actually think a far better solution to 'rush hour' traffic would be for businesses to stagger their start times more. If everyone wasn't rushing to get to school/work for the same time, it would be more spread out and less of an issue.

It's parents on annual leave and associates drop in services etc. I work in a hospital 1/2 our dept were on annual leave last week for school holidays, which means neither they nor their parents travelling in. Great commute and parking all week.

If everyone who can get public transport to go to work (and got local jobs, irrespective of how suitable the jobs were) there would be far less traffic on the road.

wanting a job that pays better and/or suits you better is no different to wanting a school that gets better results and/or suits the child better.

Children are people too!

I live in a part of the country where by and large people go to their local catchment school. Traffic is still lighter in the school holidays. Both pre and post covid (though I’d say overall traffic is slightly lighter post covid). I don’t believe it’s all ‘drive to school’ parents (though it’s a factor), but more that people with young children are on annual leave during the holidays.

The majority of parents that drive their children to school do it because they also need to drive to work, not because it hasn’t occurred to them that they in fact have legs.

Not sure you even read my post.
Why are secondary school parents driving their children to school when they live within walking distance? Have they not realised that their children have these legs you speak of?

That would be amazing.
My commute is glorious during school holidays.

I live close to a school and the way they just abandon their cars is horrendous. I have to be hyper vigilant because of some twat parked like an idiot/doing illegal maneuvers/blocking the road.

Occasionally I email the school and council. It's hilarious to see them scatter when a traffic warden rocks up 😁

Not as strict as this anymore. We pass 3/4 primary schools to get to ours but got in no problem. We're Birmingham and the school is Worcestershire so different districts too

If their parents are driving past the school on their way to work why does it concern you?

Some people are so over obsessed about the lives of others.

@Heyitsmeeee what I described is the admissions process. The fact that you got into a school quite far away doesn't mean the admissions process is different or "not as strict", it means that the school that you were offered a place at was not requested by children who lived nearer to the point that there was a place available for your child. It was under subscribed, for whatever reason. Perhaps due to falling numbers of children local to where you are, or factors to do with that specific school.

It also doesn't mean that most parents can choose whatever school they like for their child, regardless of catchment or distance.

Absolutely! I love commuting in during school holidays as I can leave about 20 minutes later and still get in early

They are not driving past the school on their way to work; they are making a conscious diversion to go there.

The purpose of this thread is extra traffic congestion due to driving to school.
Parents driving to secondary schools where their children can walk are part of that problem.

I can't believe the amount of lazy arsed parents who drive to our local primary. 2 of my neighbours do this, it's a 6 minute walk from our estate. 😮

It concerns me very much. A child is going to be hurt/die one day where I live because of these selfish arsehole drivers, who have to get as close to the school as possible, mounting pavements, driving whilst kids are walking by

Have you also factored in the cuts to school transport services? Have you noticed a difference since wfh became more common place?
i haven’t commuted for nearly 15 years, but even then Fridays were noticeably quieter when people were working from home or off work.

My ds goes to a secondary school where 95% live within 1 mile of the school. You should see the roads around the school at beginning and end of school. Absolutely ridiculous and causes chaos. I live literally a 5 min walk from a primary school and my neighbours drive their dc to school there.

My children go to their closest school.

Its 10 minute car drive or an hour walk.

Car is a no trainer when I have to get back to work.

I wish we lived close enough to walk!

I don’t often drive into work but when I do there’s a dramatic difference during school
holidays.

Outside of school holidays it takes between an hour and 90 minutes. During school holidays it can take as little as 20 minutes on a good day.

Like night and day.