Kids are back at school Agh!

mike65

Why why why why why why why are modern school children so car dependent? The roads were lovely until 8 am this morning when the usual term time manure hit the fan. I'm lucky in that my route does'nt take me past schools any more but even the minor brush with the 4 pm rush just now make me angry that we have everything arse about tit. Here in Waterford an area of 10,000 people has not got a single secondary school so the little blighters have to be driven cos there are'nt nearly enough buses (CIE does'nt even have any School Run Specials in the city as far as I can tell) and cycling is both beyond the comprehension of the average 10 year old and frankly dangerous.

Rant over.

Mike.

Flukey

Parents feel safer driving their kids to school, for many reasons. Of course, if they didn't, they'd remove at least one of those dangers, namely the amount of traffic on the roads. Kids are spoilt too much nowadays. A lot more of them should be walking or cycling or taking a bus or whatever, except for being driven to school in a car, when other means are available.

Danno

Cue the problem of obesity... fat feckers :P

Flukey

Yes, being driven everywhere is a contributing factor alright. Laziness is unbelieveable at times. When you see the short distances that people take a car or hop on a bus to travel, it is unbelievable. A 5 or 10 minute walk for some people is "too far!" Another sign of our changing society. Get them walking or cycling and help tackle the traffic problems.

godtabh

mike65 wrote:

The roads were lovely until 8 am this morning

Try the N4 at Lucan before 8.

It busy there at 6 in the morning

parsi

A lot has to do with the fact that we are dropping off the children on the way to work. The days of the mammys staying at home and walking the kids to school are gone...

simu

My school had buses hired to transport kids - I wonder why this practise is not more widespread? Sure, my parents had to pay for it but they were glad to be spared an extra journey in the mornings.

gazzer

When I went to school it was a good 20 minute walk away and i either walked or cycled.. You hardly see any kids cycling or walking these days.. instead they are all getting dropped off at the school gates.

godtabh

simu wrote:

My school had buses hired to transport kids - I wonder why this practise is not more widespread? Sure, my parents had to pay for it but they were glad to be spared an extra journey in the mornings.

I used to either walk to school or get the bus (when I was young). My primary school was about 3 miles away. Secondary school was a lot closer.

Kids should be forced to either get the bus or walk to school if they are with in a certain distance of the school say 100 miles. After that their parents can drop them in!

jank

school say 100 miles.

No problem what so ever!!:rolleyes:

layke

Aye got stung with too many mammy busses on the road this morning.

I like the suggestion that schools should start a half hour early like my primary school used to. When this suggestion was brought up Ministers struck it down because kids would be going to school in the dark. What are they going to do, get confused by the dark and go the wrong way or something?

godtabh

jank wrote:

No problem what so ever!!:rolleyes:

I was being sarcastic but it would solve the problem!

godtabh

layke wrote:

I like the suggestion that schools should start a half hour early like my primary school used to.

If all schools start half an hour early the peak times will just be shifted.

There needs to be phased starting times for both schools and work so that not all people are on the roads at the same time

Nevyn

With housing estates being so large it can be a 20 mintue walk just to get out of them and a furter 20 minute walk to the school.

And primary school child can't walk for 40 minutes in all weather and arrive in school ready to start the day in a way condusive to learning.

Thankfully I live with in 10 minutes walk of my childrens primary school and we walk each day; other families don't have that luxuary and have to head on to work after dropping the children.

The ammount of traffic is a danger to a lot of children traveling to school,
there are times in the morning when even with a lollypop person and parents it can be hard to get children across the road safely.

godtabh

Buses to loops of the estates and pick guides up so they wouldnt have to walk that far. Or thats what they used to do.

Do school kids get private buses to school in the big cities these days?

chamar

Would having the schools (or maybe half the schools) starting at 8 am help alleviate the problem?

road_high

The difference in traffic between when kids are off school and back is unbelievable. I reckon traffic volumes are easily doubled this week as compared with last week, espec in the morns coming up to 9.00 am.
Schools and associated traffic are indeed a large contributor to our traffic gridlock in this country.

Mushy

Unfortunately, there is no possible way for me to walk to school. Live 20 miles away sure. Get a bus Tuesday/Wednesday mornings, and home everyday. Get a lift other mornings. I totally agree, it is crazy how many people get lifts to school where I go. I wealk the last 10/15 mins to school when I get a lift(Mammy goes other direction for work), and the amount of people within that distance who are in cars is unreal...some of whom live within that distance. Cant blame anyone for the annoyance, but in 6 weeks, you will all be halfway through a "quiet" morning drive to work. Its mid-term then. Then 5 weeks after that its Easter. So there isnt too much more left to deal with

Stark

layke wrote:

Aye got stung with too many mammy busses on the road this morning.

I like the suggestion that schools should start a half hour early like my primary school used to. When this suggestion was brought up Ministers struck it down because kids would be going to school in the dark. What are they going to do, get confused by the dark and go the wrong way or something?

I think that was also the response when they suggested extending Daylight savings time to all year round. I think it would be great having an extra hour of daylight in the evenings although I can easily see a few kids getting run over walking to school in the dark.

Victor

While not stagger more workplace start times?

kearnsr wrote:

Do school kids get private buses to school in the big cities these days?

Some do, some individual schools organise their own system, while the School Transport Scheme provides some buses.

godtabh

Victor wrote:

While not stagger more workplace start times?

If you were lucky enough to work flexi time then this would be ideal .

Victor wrote:

Some do, some individual schools organise their own system, while the School Transport Scheme provides some buses.

You dont see much of them these days.

Victor

Most of the buses are private hire coaches, no more yellow school buses.

godtabh

Victor wrote:

Most of the buses are private hire coaches, no more yellow school buses.

I'm from Dublin and I wouldnt have seen many yellow buses in the first place.

I was talking about the private buses. I would usually see several of them in the local area droping off at schools but there doesnt seem to be that many these days