Question for those who don't usually walk (or cycle) to school

[zebraZ]

Not to make anyone defensive, am genuinely curious. I live 12-15 min. walk to school and almost all of my neighbours drive it, most of the time. We are trying to encourage more parents to walk to our local school, and since they don't answer surveys, perhaps you gals will!!

Why not? What, if anything, would encourage you to walk more often?

We've never been lucky enough to have a school place in walking distance. (We have a school at the bottom of our road but they wouldn't take our children ). The first school was 3 miles down a high-speed country lane with no pavements. The next one was 17 miles away & the one after that 22 miles away.

Ds1 used to walk to his secondary school (good 30 mins) but now all 3 boys go to the grammar it isn't walkable. The speedo says it is 5 miles each way. The LEA say it's under 3 miles (only as the crow flies, across fields you aren't allowed in & through ditches & across railway lines FGS) so they can't have free bus travel. I cannot afford 3 lots of bus fare at £140 each per term, so it is cheaper for us to take them by car.

I used to work 20 mins walk from the school & that was ideal because I just took DS2 with me to work & he walked from there. Sadly promotion meant a longer journey for me in the wrong direction.

Most of the parents at my school including myself work and my husband drives my son to school and then goes straight on to work afterwards. I generally drive when I pick him up because the bus there is quite expensive and he is only 4 so it is too far for him to walk. Hopefully as he gets older we will start to cycle with baby on the back. Would love to walk though and am quite envious of those that can.

Virtually no-one walks at my dd's school as it attracts pupils from a very large area. They do have school buses but I wouldn't want dd to use them until she was a lot older. It would take us at least 2 hours to walk and I often have to go straight on to work afterwards.

When the school applied for a new building to extend the school and increase numbers they had to address parking and conjestion issues.

The school hs its own car park and they have staggered finish times to make it easier in the afternoons.

Currently you can drop off any time between 8.30am and 9am, reception, yr1 and yr2 finish time is 3.20pm and year 3 and above is 3.40pm or they can stay in the care club until later.

There is also a voluntary one way code down the street itself.

I drive to my DDs school for a number of reasons. It only takes me maximum of 5 minutes to drive there but on the way, I drop DS off to at sisters (his childminder) and collect my 2 nephews to take them to school along with DD.
I also work at the school so can park there!

On nice sunny days when I am not at work, I do walk to the school to collect DD but couldn't manage that in the morning rush!

ds2 brought a survey letter home yesterday asking our views on a walking bus. Apparently the school is in talks with the local Tesco store about parking in their car park and a walking bus going ferom there.

Not practical in my view as I could park an equal distance from the school and let ds2 walk on his own from there. (which I do now).

My problem is that I have two younger ds's and I'm just not ready on time to walk. Walking home from school is ok as I have more time to get ready.

If there was a walking bus going along the end of my road to school then that would be a great idea.

The school my ds will most likely go to is only a 15 min walk but it is along a very busy road with no footpath. We have walked it once to go to the post office and were almost hit by some idiot going too fast around the bends.

If the council put in a footpath between now and when he starts school I would definately walk. I always walked with my mum & sister and really enjoyed the time together.

If the Head requests it, the school can get help from the Local Council, who will have a trained Schools Transport Planner - They have lots of schemes

This is on my local County Council website, all Councils should be doing the same as it is from Gov guidelines:

School Travel Plans

School Travel Plans assist the County Council in achieving one of its main Local Transport Plan targets, which is to encourage more sustainable transportation and to reduce the number of car trips.

Currently about 39% of children in Gloucestershire travel to school by car. This is twice the amount of children that travelled to school by car 20 years ago. An estimated 1 in 5 cars on the road at the peak travel times are on the school run. Congestion around school entrances and on school feeder-roads adds undue pressure to congestion issues around the county. School Travel Plans aim to reduce the number of vehicles on the school run and to improve the safety for routes used by children walking and cycling to school.

The school's teachers, governors, parents and pupils examine their school's daily travel behaviours through the travel plan process. They identify safety issues or problems that discourage children from walking or cycling to school, and these are highlighted to the appropriate authority for further action.

Many schools get their pupils involved, as many aspects of the process fit well into the national curriculum especially for geography, mathematics, personal social health education (PSHE) and citizenship classes.

Each plan sets targets for increasing the use of more sustainable transport modes. The plans are publicised and become 'living documents' that the school can report on and update each year as the travel needs of their pupils change.

We have put together a CD ROM toolkit to encourage School Travel Plans, which takes a school through each step required to put together a travel plan. For a copy of the CD ROM, please call 01452 426449.

The government has set a target of all schools having developed a School Travel Plan by 2010. A capital grant is now available for school whose plans meet the DFES criteria.

We have also dedicated funds to encourage travel plans, and schools can apply for Challenge Fund One or Challenge Fund Two awards. Challenge Fund I awards give the school five days of consultation with a School Travel Plan consultant to assist in developing a plan. Once a travel plan is in place, the school can apply for a Challenge Fund Two award to help fund facilities such as cycle racks, parent waiting shelters, improved footways, or other facilities that encourage more sustainable modes of transportation.

In June 2004, 31 of the counties schools successful applied to the DFES for School Travel Plan grants.

We have engaged over 60 schools in the last two years with Challenge Fund One monies, and also has had contact with over 80 other schools expressing interest in developing a travel plan. Currently 35 schools have completed plans. Sixteen schools were awarded Challenge Fund Two monies this year for the development of facilities to encourage more walking and cycling.

Further information about School Travel Plans is available from the Gloucestershire County Council Travel Plans Officers on 01452 426449 or by email on [email protected]

We live about a 20 minute walk away (without children I can do it in 15) but welive at the top of a steep hill and the school is at the bottom. I can't bear the whinging I get from DSs - we do walk to the library 10 minutes walk down the hill and that is far enough.

A walking bus would be good because the children would be distracted by the other children rather than just whinging at me

During walk to school week, we parked 10 minutes from school and walked. Cut out the hilly bit!

We live 4 miles from DS primary school. I work 2 days a week and drop him off with my mum who lives on the walking bus route. She puts him on the walking bus. On the other days I help with the waliking bus. We park in a pub car park (our school of 400 has 4 walking buses from different areas) and walk from there. As for the gossip you would be amazed at what you get to talk about on the way and even more so on the way back without the kids!
The only other thing I would say is that yet again its mainly PTA people who volunteer to be walkers with the bus.
Un fortunatly in Sept DS starts another school with a drive through drop off facility and I'm really bothered that I wont get to meet any other mothers and I'll spend the next 9 years all by myself.

zebraZ - just can't do it but would if I could. atm, both ds1 and ds2 are in a morning nursery but it is too far to walk (my guess would be it would take around an hour to walk it with my 4 yr old walking and would have to push ds2 (2.5) and ds3 (9months) in the double buggy which is like pushing a stack of bricks! By the time I made the walk back I'd be setting back out again!

Come Sept, ds1 starts primary school but again can't really walk - our house is in between school and nursery which are in opposite directions. It would take half an hour easily to walk to school and then I've got to get from school to nursery in about 15 minutes - impossible, a walk would be well over an hour.

When the kids are all at school and comfortable walking, we may well do it.

I have grimly faced the fact that when DD1 starts school in September I'll probably do the pickup by car - it's a round trip of well over a mile once I've picked up DD2 from childminder and while I'm definitely going for it in the morning (we'll walk DD2 to the childminder, then DD1 to school) I simply cannot figure out a way to get them home without making my four year old walk the full distance home via the childminder and I think after a full day at school she'll be wiped. If I do it the other way (home to childminder then down to school with DD2) DD2 will insist on walking which will take us for Blooming Ever.

That's it MI - sometimes you have to consider the little ones as well. I could do the school walk with ds1 if I just had ds3 (9months) as ds3 would happily sit in his buggy. But ds2 is 2.5 and he's rubbish at walking anywhere - just whines to be picked up and he's just too heavy to push in the buggy along with ds3.

I drive my two to school (10 minute walk) because they have cerebral palsy and can't walk that far, or if they did it would take near on a hour. Am I forgiven!!??

Live too far away & there are no buses. If I walk takes 40 mins to 60 mins - depending if 2yr old is happy to go in pushchair. Now DD3 is at pre-school & that would take me about 2hrs to walk there with my three kids. Would have to get back as well. Also on some roads there is no pavement at all. DD3 only at school in the morning so have to drive. If schools had their own bus that parents could book if they needed it on a termly basis for example.

our road has no pavements and speed limit of 40 but actually a lot faster than that

We are lucky that we have a very long driveway to our house otherwise it would be a nightmare living on the road.

So we do not walk anywhere

I get really hacked off by this. The whole idea that SAHPs (or WOHPS) have all this free time and can easily spare an hour a day minimum to walk to school (i.e. 15 mins there, 15 mins back either alone or with smaller child, then same again in the afternoon = 1 hour and since a school day is only 6 hours, so that takes school aged child free time down to 5 hours). Fair enough for those who WANT to do it but my reasons for not always walking are:

A) I don't want to! I don't see that it's any of the school's business why I don't want to! My children aren't fat and get plenty of exercise in other way (ds at breaktime, in the park fter school and at weekends when we walk a lot as a family, dd on walks with me, at the zoo, in the farm)
B) I have things to do straight after dropping ds. Shopping, cleaning, looking for a job, millions of boring but essential things
C) It's a hideous walk and I'd rather get my exercise in the woods on a nice walk while chatting to a friend, not on the disgusting walk to school through a nasty area

But mainly I guess I don't see that this is any of the school's/government's business. It just isn't IMO. I park legally when I get there so what's it to anyone how I get my child to school? If the govt really want to tackle childhood obesity then get vending machines out of schools, stop them selling off playing fields, stop junk food ads aimed at kids, educate parents about food etc. If it really wants to save the planet then it ought to be sorting out Bush's backtracking on CO2 etc. Sorry, but it's a drop in the ocean. I find it pretty insulting that school feels it's appropriate to interfere in my life in this way actually. There was an old thread where I vented my spleen, I'll see if I can find it. Oooh, it makes me CROSS!

The fact that I have 2 kids at 2 different schools (not through choice ), and the fact that I work 3 days means I do whatever I can - which usually involves taking the car. It is impossible to walk them both to school, simple as that. I do occasionally rely on friends who are walking.

old thread here

Message withdrawn

Agree, agree, agree with WWW

MInferior (& others) -- there's a father who brings his reception-year child to our local school every day on a buggy board (he has a 2yo in the pushchair). Neither the dad nor the mum drive, so they have to walk, they make it work. He uses the Buggy Board in the morning to make sure he gets there on time.

Not telling you what to do, just mentioning it as an option.

WWW, I don't think anyone on here has criticised people who don't walk/cycle, and certainly I haven't. I am just interested what can be done to make it more appealing to walk/cycle. Maybe it's not a problem at your school; but it is as ours. We have congestion around the gates, people parking on the pavement and other places they shouldn't, people come tearing around one of the corners on the route I walk, which makes it scarey to cross as a pedestrian. There is an informal one-way system, and taxis/people who park at the school enter by a separate entrance, but still there are safety issues with so many cars coming and going. I had a panic shout at my 5yo cycling in the other day -- normally feels very safe for us to cycle in together, but a driver in front of the school gates was reversing, because a taxi driver had come the wrong way to the wrong gate and was struggling to turn around....

Zebra - we have a similar problem outside ds's school gates. Although I drive, there are, I feel justifible reasons for it, and I never, ever park right outside the school, or speed up to it - as some parents do. There are also a good number who live less than 5 minutes walk, literally, from the school who regularly drive! The school has started a walking bus, and I complained to the Council about the congestion right outside the gates - they sent a Road Safety Officer along, and they're now putting in double yellow lines, bollards and a designated, marked crossing.

ZebraZ - ds1 not starting till Sept but I agree that congestion and silly driving must be a real issue around school.

Although I'll be driving for the reasons I've explained, I've no intention of driving right up to school. I'm going to park 5 mins away and walk the rest - partly for my own sanity and stress levels!!