What would convince you to ditch the car on school runs?

[amispeakingintongues]

Just that really.

Hit me with your suggestions please.

School doors open at 8.45 ish (normally 8.50),
I start work at 9am and it takes 20 minutes to get to work.

So until my children are old enough to be left in the playground at 8.35 ish I have to drive. Another 3 school years really.

Extremely long legs, Inspector Gadget stylee.

Safe cycle lanes, ones that are not in the road but are alongside, wide enough for plenty of people cycling. With also room for pedestrians to walk and accompany children scooting.

I'd go by bus if there was a route, but the bus routes don't seem to take into account travelling to primary schools and go into town, to the train station etc instead.

I'd also consider an organised walking bus with drop off points within reasonable reach.

Currently I drive and park a distance from school (to avoid the congestion and to always be able to park) and then walk the last section.

A safe rural cycle path that connects villages. Local bus (once in a blue moon) doesn't meet school bus . Nearest bus stop to school is 7 miles away, school is then another 8 miles. There is literally no way for my DC to get to school without me driving them to the bus stop 7 miles away and paying £120 a week. In theory they could cycle but they'd be on National speed limit country roads where people drive like idiots.

Well, I think you have your answer, OP. As individuals, we can only fiddle around the edges. It takes proper joined up infrastructure and consideration of the transport needs of working parents, especially mums.

Banging on about cycling and walking doesn't make much difference when there are no separated cycle paths, no pavements etc. It just creates conflict with drivers (yes drivers should drive considerately but our roads are fundamentally too narrow for what we're asking them to do).

I was surprised when I started looking at primary schools that parents' (mostly mums) needs for wraparound and location of schools were considered irrelevant to the process. At least location is easy to discover, but there seemed to be no requirement for schools to publish what wraparound there was -- but this is absolutely crucial to anyone who has to start or finish work at a fixed time, has a commute etc.

we walk to school when I’m not working but on my work days I don’t have time to walk. I have to drop at 2 different schools and then have 25 mins to get to work. It would be impossible if I walked on work days and I need to work.

I agree with this. Once you’ve got the option of driving, it’s easy to avoid exercise completely. I don’t view time walking as time wasted, because if I didn’t do it at all, my health would be worse. That means my estimates of how much time driving would save look different to some other people’s even for the same journey. If I’d need to go for a walk later instead then driving the school run in the morning wouldn’t free up any of my day.
I’m also find that people underestimate the time spent using a car, because they only count the actual driving time as the journey time. Neighbours who drive our school run don’t actually save themselves any time. By the time they’ve messed around with getting kids in car seats and finding parking and traffic, it’s just as quick to walk.
That said, I also had some really shitty secondary school bus commutes as a child and that also shaped my attitudes as to where I was prepared to live when I had children and which schools I was prepared to send them too. It’s not by chance that we don’t have to drive for primary or secondary.

School bike racks. We could quite easily have cycled to school, then l could have cycled on to work. It was 3.5 miles to school so too far to walk. Schools had bike racks in the 80s, why were they removed?

Without safe dry storage, it won't work. Even on cycling proficiency week, the school got hissy about having bikes on site all day.

Not having my flexible working request refused. Then I would have time to walk. I don't drive right to the gates, I park in proper short-term parking bays a couple of streets away.

Nothing🙈I like the convenience of the car. The nursery is a 3 min drive away but I always take the car

Why?!

@MolliciousIntent because I can.....Because sometimes it's raining or cold......because I don't want to walk.....

But it's not really up to you is it? Surely your health and the environmental impact is more important. There are things called coats, fleeces and earbuds to make walks easier.

Decent public transport. Both school and work are 3.5 miles away. Takes over an hour and two buses to get to school, from there there are four buses a day to my work, none of which will get me there within an hour of my start time. Two buses are run by one company, the third by another so on top of the weekly pass (£8 for kids, £18 for adults) we'd need another return ticket each (£5 x3) every day. And I would never get to work on time.

So without a car I'd be paying £39 a week in bus fares and spending 4 hours a day travelling just to get us to work and school. And I'd get the sack. Sort that out and I'll ditch it.

Such a good point about cost too. My journey would be 2 different companies and one doesn't do weekly tickets. Pricing it up for DC and I it's £57/week. I filled up my car for £75 today and one tank will usually do me at least 3 weeks, and that's with other journeys to supermarket etc.

Not having to go to work afterwards or living within a 5 minute walk to the school

Do you drive an electric vehicle @Mrsmch123? Because if not, do you realise that on those very short journeys you are exposing yourself and be your child to very high levels of toxins? www.google.com/amp/s/www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/cars/article-5708973/amp/The-5-minutes-car-journey-expose-drivers-higher-levels-pollution.html

@caoraich yes, exactly. (Actually I've just recalculated and it would be £47 for me).

Public transport here doesn't work in terms of time or money and I'm sure it's the same in most of the UK. If it worked in terms of even one of those (ie if it was cheaper or easier) then it would be a viable option for more people, as it is in London, but mostly it's both more expensive and very time consuming.

Mostly 'the school run', unlike a standalone commute, involves multi stage journeys with set times at each stage. Because public transport is so poor across most of the UK, a car is the only real practical way to do it.

Same as for people who drive to work who don't have kids (and where are the discussions quizzing them about why they're not walking or cycling?), cars mean they can get to work on time more easily than using other forms of transport. And unlike people who only have themselves to get about, parents also have to transport dependent children which adds a logistical complexity. Of course they drive.

@TwigTheWonderKid nope petrol car. That's ok I will take my chances🤷🏻‍♀️Better than walking in the rain ect.

Being fitter

30 Mike round trip twice a day is a little beyond me, let alone them. School bus too inflexible (7am there, 7 pm back -no other options). Bad enough for extra curricular activities, utterly useless for exams (of which there are plenty).

Don't know who bloody Mike is? Damn phone! MILE

You are seriously saying that you would rather expose your child to a range of substances that have proven links to asthma, heart disease, stroke, dementia and much more that the rain?!

Sorry, that was to @Mrsmch123

@TwigTheWonderKid guess so as I'm not walking in the rain🤷🏻‍♀️

If the bus was cheaper than driving.

School is an hour's bus ride away. This is obviously not walkable. Our LA does not offer any school discount for students so bus is £90 per month for children. Driving is so much cheaper! The bus has gone from full to half empty since this decision was made and now more than half thd parents are forced to drive. Madness!