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

Terry

zuutroy wrote:

Terry, if you eat bread, you're part of the problem. Old Mr. Brennans vans clog up the arteries of out nation every morning!

I buy my bread from a bakery which grows its own produce at the back of said bakery.
All ingredients are grown and processed on site.

Zaph

Driving along the Rock Road every morning the amount of SUVs, Volvos, Mercs and BMWs coming out of Blackrock College is staggering. This is a school that has a bus lane running outside the front gate with stops mere yards away, and Booterstown DART station is just across the road. In addition to pedestrian lights there's a lollipop lady to make sure no-one gets run over crossing the road, although traffic moving at 5km/h tends to to leave too much damage. I can understand driving kids to school when there's no alternative, but what excuse, other than the fact that the kids are lazy little sods, is there for driving the kids to this particular school? Or any of the other schools in that general vicinity for that matter?

liberty 2007

D.T. Jesus wrote:

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.

Yea ,I know of a similar situtation, women regularly pulls out of her driveway in her SUV, into traffic to travel the 200meters to the school and back???

MooseJam

It's a conspiracy, the lizard people are trying to fatten up our kids for future eating

Sonnenblumen

Duckjob wrote:

"When I were a lad, our father used to beat us to sleep with broken bottles"

Seriously, I despair when I see those fat-assed parents struggling their way out of their fat-assed SUVs and waddling to the school gates with their jowelly-faced kids in tow.

and who's paying ? why it's all those skinny folk!!

Snake Plisken

On this note, our local counciller is trying to get the Dept of Transport to fund a pilot school bus for the primary schools in the Lucan area, this would hopefully take some of the cars off the school run, as for the "why don't parents hire a mini-bus" suggestion, we looked into that and it would cost 40 euros a week per child to get this up and running. Anyway hopefully this pilot scheme will get the go-ahead and we'll see if it reduces traffic in the Lucan area.

Snake

jimmycrackcorm

On the odd day I do the school run, I drive to it even though it is only several hundred metres away because I will then have to drive to work instead of taking the bus. Because all the X busses end around 8, I wouldn't get into work until 10:30.

Fighting Irish

Mizu_Ger wrote:

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).

lol @ you if you would let your children walk/cycle to school

Sonnenblumen

I had to laugh though listening to some Dept guy 'pushing the rope uphill' trying to persuade parents on the benefits of children walking to school. He even had some Homer logic of taking the kids to school and dropping them off 500 m so that they can walk. I mean where do these guys live.

The city is full of commuters young and old and the majority are increasingly fearful of being isolated and they think kids should walk?? Dream on Max, the world has changed.

A more likely but still only emergent trend is for the Leaving Certs students to be driving their own car. Yes as soon as they can get their hands on a Provisional licence they're driving their own cars to school , well lots of them where I live.

Walk to school on the Aran islands, in Dublin, thing of the past. big time.

Capt'n Midnight

Sonnenblumen wrote: »

A more likely but still only emergent trend is for the Leaving Certs students to be driving their own car. Yes as soon as they can get their hands on a Provisional licence they're driving their own cars to school , well lots of them where I live.

Walk to school on the Aran islands, in Dublin, thing of the past. big time.

didn't someone post a link a while back that more female leaving cert students drive to school than cycle

as for the Aran Islands, don't they have to go to the mainland for post-primary ?

vorbis

I don't get why some people feel kids can't walk to school. Certainly from secondary onwards at least! Some parents have seen too many scary stories on tv! Despite what the media might infer, there is an incredibly small risk of your kid getting assaulted on the way to school.

Nevyn

Even by other pupils ?

dame

I think some of the mummies who drive the kids to school in the SUV every day (before spending the rest of the day at home until collection time) are just trying to justify having the vehicle in the first place.

Wife: I really need a big SUV Dear so I can bring our little darlings Chloe and Ben to school safely every day.
Husband: But it's only a five minute walk down the road.
Wife: They might get a chill or even get caught out in a drizzle! :eek:
Husband: Nonsense, they'll be grand, do them good, wake them up before sitting in the classroom for the day!
Wife: Oh come on, you know how rushed we always are in the mornings...
Husband (thinks to himself): Yeah that's cos you put on so much slap in the mornings.....and don't get your ass out of bed in time....
Husband: Sure it takes as long or longer even to drive there in the traffic and then you've to park...
Wife: Look we're not walking. I want an SUV.
Husband: You know an SUV is pretty expensive, wouldn't the oul banger you have not do the job? Why don't you walk them to school every day unless it rains?
Wife: Oh no, I have to go shopping afterwards and, and, and.....
Husband: You can walk to the shops from here, they're five minutes in the other direction and anyway why wouldn't shopping fit in the boot when you've to get a week's groceries?
Wife: But I want it, whine, whine, whine.....
Husband (thinks to himself): Well, I suppose it would show all the neighbours I'm earning a fortune :
Husband : Fine but you'd better use it then.....
Wife: Oh, I will!
Wife (thinks to herself): Yes, now I have the yummy-mummy machine I must be really yummy ....... Right now I need to buy some sunglasses to match the SUV, a Juicy Couture type expensive tracksuit and find myself a few ladies-who-lunch who'll let me join their gang......Ohoh, better remember to renew the gym subscription to lose a bit of weight..... (she doesn't seem to realise that walking would do her and the kids good, she'd rather pay to stroll on a treadmill for a half hour every day instead :rolleyes:)