Colour blind son wanting to cycle to secondary school

[jus3351]

Just wondered what peoples views were on this as it will be a point I'm raising at appeal for preferred secondary school. Didn't get preferred choices and have been allocated a school we hadn't even considered as worst performing school in area.

My son's primary school have actively promoted cycling to school, there are excellent storage facilities, the cycling proficiency courses are offered (Bikeability) which ds has taken full advantage of. The last course he did took them onto quiet roads preparing for cycling to secondary school if they wish. Our ds enjoyed it so much he really wants to ride his bike to and from new secondary school.

We have one problem though, he is colour blind (protanopia), and with regard to traffic signals, he has learnt top light means stop (he doesn't see light as red) and bottom light means go (doesn't see green), there are certain weather conditions where he can't see which light is lit at all. So, a bright sunny morning for instance would be a perfect day for cycling but if it is particularly bright he sometimes finds it difficult to see any light extinguished, and approaching in dusk or fog the same thing. So he would need to watch what the traffic is doing around him as well as watching the traffic signals on a very busy high street - this is allocated school journey, and far too dangerous to cycle, if we don't win appeal he won't be able to cycle to school.

We wanted to support his wish to cycle as we understand the healthy and long lasting benefits associated with cycling. Getting more children cycling to school is currently one of the Government's key objectives, TFL are encouraging it too as well as many local councils and schools.

We had many valid reasons for our preferred school choices, but this was one of them.

The preferred schools were more suited to our ds for a few important reasons but also would involve journeys via very quiet routes with excellent provisions in place for him to cycle to school.These routes were extremely safe.

Although we understand convenience of journey cannot be considered at an appeal, we are arguing that it's about safety whilst supporting his wish to cycle, obviously if he can avoid cycling through traffic signals it's considerably safer. we feel he should have a right to do this and be safe.

Any views, positive or negative would be helpful to listen to. Thanks.

Dunno where you are. Given that you have a nominal " choice" of secondary schools I'd guess this is a big town/city.

Whilst it a lovely utopian thought that you son would cycle to school, l taking out the colour blindness factor I wouldn't let my son cycle to school at 11 along busy roads and he has no visual defect.

You do realise that deaths on the road peak at 11-12 yrs mainly because boys of this age find judging speed difficult ? (and are out with their mates etc etc)

Yes if the route were cycle paths. No if it's roads at least for the first year or so.

I think deaths on the road peak at that age because kids are out with their mates, messing around - not using the bike as a form of transport having been trained to cycle safely and be aware of the traffic around them. I've seen plenty of near misses with kids on bikes who are cycling along the pavement two abreast then swerve into the road to avoid a pedestrian / bin etc without even looking to see what the traffic on the road is doing. It doesn't sound like the OP's son will be taking those kinds of risks, if anything being aware of his limits will make him more cautious.

However I doubt the school will place much weight on his desire to cycle there. Although I'm not doubting how important it is for your son, it could easily sound implausible to a non-cyclist!

If you don't get into the cycle-able school is there more you could do to foster his love of cycling? Club or track cycling would pretty much eliminate the problems caused by his colour blindness as he will be cycling with others / there will be aural as well as visual signals and he would still have all the health benefits etc!

Thank you both for input and views.

Theas18 - Yes I had read up on statistics, however the preferred school choice has a journey which is off road and along designated shared paths for pedestrians and cyclists making it extremely safe, it follows London Cycle Network.

The other preferred school is via back streets which are extremely quiet residential roads, we have checked and re-checked these routes at the time our son would be travelling to school and they are perfectly safe for him, he has received formal training to travel along routes just like this.

Cycling to allocated school would never be an option - even when he's 14 or so, it would still be too risky as his colour deficiency won't ever change, and mistakes with traffic signals can be made at any time.

Grumpla - Yes, ds belongs to various sports clubs and regularly cycles with friends at cycling track which is great, however he feels very strongly about wanting to cycle to school and has questioned why he shouldn't be able to. The appeal panel may think it's totally irrelevant and that he shouldn't necessarily be given a right to cycle but we'll push for it anyway, surely they'll take it into consideration and consider the safety aspect. Fingers crossed we'll get an enthusiastic cyclist on the panel!

I thought traffic lights also differed in luminosity, so that all of them appeared at different brightnesses, even to people who could distinguish no colours at all. Perhaps he could learn to take more notice of cues like that? Has he been told that he'll never be allowed to drive? Would polarised sunglasses help for the very bright mornings?

RunAwayHome - yes he can tell the different brightnesses, he sees the white light at the bottom which is obviously green but he calls it white which is fine and the top light he knows is the red light because it's lit up but for some reason, in certain weather conditions it's hard for him to see which light is lit, if he's right there in front of the light he knows straight away, but if you're cycling you need to be prepared as you're approaching and from quite a short distance he sometimes gets confused.

So, for us, we chose a couple of schools which were most suited to him for many reasons and the plus point was that each of these had extremely safe routes for him to cycle, no traffic signals to worry about.

I'm not sure if the sunglasses would help, perhaps they would, I'll look into that one and will ask the doctor who did his colour vision tests too as they may know - thank you.

It sounds like the appeal is worth a shot. If he didn't cycle to his currently allocated school, how would he be getting there? Is that mode of transport safe for him? If not then you'd have a stronger case IMO.

How do people with colour blindness drive? Would he not be able to because of the danger of him not being able to see what colour the light is?
Nothing to do with your op but just nosy!!

mockinjay - he wouldn't be able to cycle to the allocated school, the journey is too dangerous for him to cycle, he'll have to take the bus and won't have the choice to cycle at all as not safe enough.

dexter73 - my dad was colour blind too and he drove, but not sure whether he had any problems and can't ask as passed away a long time ago. In the UK, you can get a driver's licence if you are colour blind but my dad was the only person I knew who had this and so I don't know if they ever struggle and there are no stats on road accidents and whether there has been any connection to colour blindness as I guess if you don't have to declare it when applying for a licence then you'll keep it quiet.

People with colour blindness will learn that the top light, when extinguished is always stop etc.

As he's just 11, one of the arguments for appeal is that he should be encouraged with his wish to cycle and his safety should be a serious consideration, therefore hopefully for this and many other reasons he'll be offered one of the preferred schools....If not he'll won't be able to cycle and will take the bus each day, not what he wants but certainly not the end of the world.

Thanks jus3351 - I just wondered as the only person I know who is colour blind doesn't drive.

I know lots of CB people who drive, no particular problems.
Problems dressing in coordinated colours, yes, plenty big problem .
Dunno about your appeals, but good luck.

Colour blindness covers a wide spectrum of difficulty, and inability to distinguish red from green is at the extreme end. DS, like the majority of colour people, is simply unable to distinguish different variations of the same colour.