Four-in-10 Dublin children driven to school every day

Mizu_Ger

http://www.independent.ie/breaking-news/national-news/fourin10-dublin-children-driven-to-school-every-day-1117542.html

No wonder the roads are jammed in the morning. Surely its not that dangerous to let a child (of reasonable age) walk or cycle to school (accompanied by fat-arsed parent if need be).

Dragan

Hmmmm , i get the feeling you might not have been a pedestrian for a while?

Have you ****ing seen the way some people drive at that time in the morning? No way would i let my kid walk or cycle till they were in secondary school.

The bus is all good though, no?

Mossy Monk

I think 9/10 children are driven to school in Waterford. It is ridiculous. But then the bus is ****.

Doctor DooM

Every parent in the school in newcastle seems to have some huge SUV parked precariously on the edge of the road, making the trip plenty dangerous for those of us trying to get by.

Thats said I dont notice the children walking. Because they AREN'T in a a huge ass car.

Terry

In my day we walked barefoot through mountains.


Obese kids FTW.

GhostInTheRuins

A few years ago on the way to school, me and a few mates stopped in one of the estates opposite the school because one of them wanted a smoke before going in. We were about 30 meters maximum from the school gates. On the opposite side of the road a mother and a kid from the school came out of their house, hopped into the car and drove the kid to school. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and thought that maybe the mother was going to the shops or something and decided to drop he daughter off on the way. Not a chance, about a minute later, the car comes back and the mother goes back into the house. Talk about lazy.

Mizu_Ger

Dragan wrote:

Hmmmm , i get the feeling you might not have been a pedestrian for a while?

Have you ****ing seen the way some people drive at that time in the morning? No way would i let my kid walk or cycle till they were in secondary school.

The bus is all good though, no?

I've been cycling all my life (since school ), so I know what the roads are like, but one of the parents could at least walk with them.

Degsy

I dont think i was ever driven to school.When i was in primary we used to walk to school(often in a gang as protection from perverts lol),and when i got to secondry i used to a have a good walk AND a bus journey.Bloody stupid women in thier 4x4s parking half on the road,half on the path really get on my nerves,and are usually responsibel for the bottlenecks outside primary schools.

eth0_

My parents made me get the bus to school from the age of around 11.
There's few kids who genuinely live outside the scope of walking or public transport.

As for not letting them walk because "Have you seen how people drive??" - i'm sure these parents have no qualms about letting their kids out onto the streets to get them out of the house at weekends and evenings.

BaZmO*

Of course they're being driven to school. With the amount of psychos and paedos out there you'd be mad to let your kids so much as walk 2 feet of the journey to school. :rolleyes:

I also find it quite ironic that back in the day when it was ok to walk to school it wasn't the sicko strangers that you needed to worry about it was the people that were looking after you!!

Degsy

There were allways horror stories about Evil Men hanging around schools and attempting to grab kids.Nobody i knew had ever actually seen one but they allways had beards apparantly.

Ghost Train

would have thought it would be higher than 4 in 10

I used get a lift in the car to school, but I'd walk home

There was that story of some weirdo who flashed some kids a few times

thebman

Exactly just teach kids to hate and fear bearded people and the problem is solved over night!

Why don't we have buses to primary schools? There was never one to my primary school but I didn't have a problem with my mother driving me since she was a teacher there.

For secondary school, we had a bus that used to take us to the top of the road from the local primary school and then we transferred to the bus to take us to our school.

What happened to Irish services, the government gets more of our money than ever and all they spend it on is keeping e-fraud voting machines locked up and funding consumer agencies that don't protect the consumer at all (see link in sig).

Of course when the Taoiseach is a person under investigation and the people act like he's god, why can you expect?

Degsy

brim4brim wrote:

Exactly just teach kids to hate and fear bearded people and the problem is solved over night!

Only people with full-face beards mind.People with goatees are okay.;)

Nevyn

My kids walk to and from school, but thankfully there are traffic lights and a lollipop lady at the two raods they need to cross.

Terry

See attacxhed image.

Everywhere east of the crudely drawn river is served by the schools which I have marked out.
In that small area you cannot drive anywhere without getting stuck in traffic during school hours.
The furthest anyone has to travel is 1KM, yet the place is swamped with cars every day during school hours.
Lazy bastards.

Red Hand

People often use the excuse of a lack of public transport, but why don't some parents in particular areas come together and hire out a mini-bus in a private capacity?

It worked in the town where I went to school.

My mother used to drive me to school. The only reason for this is that it was a 10-mile trip to my school and for me to get a bus there, it would have meant for me to change buses twice.

However, when I reached secondary school, there had been a regular and (sometimes) trustworthy bus service (even though it was likely to drop us off 10-20 minutes late, needing me to report to the office, explaining my lateness)

Degsy

The plain fact is that a lot of parents dont bother getting up in time to send the kids off by themselves,instead prefering to get up at the last minute and drive them.I regularly see kids being dropped off at school at 9.15.

ferdi

from 3rd class to leaving cert i took dublin bus to school. not once was i molested.

beanyb

Children have just as much of a right to be driven to where they are going, as we all have to drive to work. Sure, many more of them could walk/cycle/ get the bus and probably should. But the same can definitely be said of a fair amount of people driving to work.

Siogfinsceal

I can understand kids being driven to school if its a fair distance away.
However it wrecks my head to see parents driving kids to a school that is 2 minutes up the road! Blocking traffic in a 4*4 thats never even seen a field. No wonder so many kids are obese now

keefg

4 in 10?? No way, it must be higher than that!

I think it's just lazyness on the parents behalf. You can harp on all you like about child abusing fiends but they have been around for much longer than the car and are not a 21st century threat which requires fleets of black windowed SUV's to protect them.

I don't know anyone at my school who was driven by their parents, you had a choice of walking with a gang of mates, ride your bike (with a gang of mates) or get the bus (with a gang of mates). Also, same goes for the fiend situation, I don't know of or ever heard of anyone in the local schools where I grew up being abducted or fiddled with. You were more at risk from the teachers than the so called "Bearded Fiend" in the bushes.

Maybe if the parents had a bit more consideration for other road users when on the school run then I might have a bit more tolerance, but they don't so screw them. They park where they like blocking roads and pavements alike and I have even seen some double park blocking the roads completley with no shame because they have the "I don't care what chaos I am causing because my child is important, therefore I can do what I like" :mad:
They should paint double yellow lines outside every school and have traffic wardens there issuing tickets for anyone who isn't just dropping off or immediately collecting thier brat.

Someone suggested more private minibuses (paid for by the parents) doing the runs, good idea fella.

Phew...end of rant. You can tell I don't have any kids can't you?

BaZmO*

beanyb wrote:

Children have just as much of a right to be driven to where they are going, as we all have to drive to work. Sure, many more of them could walk/cycle/ get the bus and probably should. But the same can definitely be said of a fair amount of people driving to work.

Two totally different circumstances as most kids live within walking distance of their school. The same cannot be said for workers.

Degsy

ferdi wrote:

from 3rd class to leaving cert i took dublin bus to school. not once was i molested.

Not only was i never molested either,but i dont know of anybody who was.I also have three sisters who used to get the bus to school and none of them was molested either.In my day the whole thing started from a story a girl called Gillian something told the schoolteacher that a man with a beard(later called Beardy) tried to grab her.From then on,any man with a beard that was seen anywhere near a school,bus stop,park or other public area was immediatly assumed to be up to no good.It is my contention that *most* men with beards are perverts in some way,its unfair to say they *all* are.

Glowing

I wouldn't mind the SUV runs to school so much if someone had the brains to car-pool - and actually have more than one kid in the car at a time.

If I was ever driven to school, it was a once-a-year treat!

keefg

BaZmO* wrote:

Two totally different circumstances as most kids live within walking distance of their school. The same cannot be said for workers.

Very true. Also, if you parked outside your workplace in the same manner that parents on the school run did, you would soon find your car either clamped or towed away.

Johnmb

eolhc wrote:

would have thought it would be higher than 4 in 10

My reading of the story gave me the impression that 4 in 10 lived within 2 KM of the school and got a lift in. i.e. more than 4 in 10 get driven to school, but the rest live far enough away to justify it!

Glowing

In the 80's/90's when I was going to school, a lot more Mums stayed at home and perhaps had the time to walk their kids to school - fewer families had 2 cars, and the main car would have been used by Dad to get to work. (I know I'm generalising!)

In most families now, either parent drops their kids on the way to work .... no excuse though! :P

Degsy

Glowing wrote:

In the 80's/90's when I was going to school, a lot more Mums stayed at home and perhaps had the time to walk their kids to school - fewer families had 2 cars, and the main car would have been used by Dad to get to work. (I know I'm generalising!)

In most families now, either parent drops their kids on the way to work .... no excuse though! :P

When i was going to school only poofs had their mummys walk them to school and as i recall the only kid i knew who got driven to school was a huge big fat slob who nobody liked and smelled funny.

lawhec

I remember walking to school on my own as a 6 year old a mile from home - and it wasn't THAT long ago either!