Kids not cycling to school - uniform issue?

nomdeboardie

Anotherr media comment on the vanishingly small percentage of secondary school girls who cycle to school. Here’s a thought: Looks like there are a lot of school uniforms involving a skirt still out there… I can’t imagine that helps.

NamelessPhil

Safety pin between the legs turning the skirt into a kind of culotte.

If it was one of those convent-school heavy, pleated tartan skirts it worked well. The method was to unroll the skirt from the waistband where it had been hoicked up to display as much leg as the principal would let you get away with, pin the skirt at about knee level, straddle the bike and try and sit on the saddle without banjaxing yourself. The skirt would stay in place enough on the way home to stop it from turning into a knicker-revealing tent when you cycled into a headwind.

At least that's what I used to do back in the day. It would hold for at least a few miles home. It looks fugly and certainly wouldn't lead to you getting any other form of ride!

Jaysus lads ye had it easy!

nomdeboardie

NamelessPhil wrote: »

Safety pin between the legs turning the skirt into a kind of culotte.

At least that's what I used to do back in the day. It would hold for at least a few miles home. It looks fugly and certainly wouldn't lead to you getting any other form of ride!

:pac:

Never tried that, but don't think it would have been helpful with the geometry of the garment I had to work with (back in the day)

SparkySpitfire

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Anotherr media comment on the vanishingly small percentage of secondary school girls who cycle to school. Here’s a thought: Looks like there are a lot of school uniforms involving a skirt still out there… I can’t imagine that helps.

Speaking as a recent school-leaver of an all-girls school...

Not a single person I know of cycled to school. For one thing, there were no bicycle racks, but perhaps that would've been different if they actually warranted use.

Our uniform was a long skirt, shirt and ugly baggy jumper. If teachers caught you walking to/from school in a non-uniform jacket then they'd get you for it. So wearing trousers to cycle your bike in was made difficult.

I used to see the boys cycling to their nearby school, but never did I see one girl cycling to mine.

I think it's just an image thing to be honest. Girls don't want to look like an eejit on a bike (no offence!) especially at the secondary school age. No matter who says otherwise, image matters, like it or not.
No one wants to be the girl cycling to school in the rotten uniform, or the person cycling in trousers and having to be awkward by changing into your skirt before class.

It may sound stupid and trivial to you, but I think that is the real reason. Cycling to teenage girls (for the most part) is just not perceived as cool. And cool is all that matters in secondary school.

I think this particularly applies to all-girl schools though. The societal structure there is unique.

nomdeboardie

Probably true. That's why I didn't want to overstate it and just said the skirt mandate "doesn't help"

SparkySpitfire

Yeah, you're right though, it really doesn't help! But its a pity that that's how school girls think...

doozerie

Spare a thought for the poor young fellas too. If modern school uniforms for boys involve the nylon trousers of my youth, then I shudder. In my day your nylon trousers constantly brushing against the sides of the saddle while pedaling made for a potentially incendiary combination. 'Tis a wonder that I managed to ever produce any offspring later.

Back in my day I don't recall many girls cycling to school either. I went to a boys-only school (where the Christian Brothers would have charged to the gate with buckets of holy water to repel any female that might have considered passing too close, with a rallying cry along the lines of "*we're* the only ones allowed to wear dresses here you filthy heathens!"), and lots of us cycled. My route took brought me close to a girl's school (impure thoughts abounded!) and while I would have seen some cycle most of the girls that I saw walked.

nomdeboardie

doozerie wrote: »

Spare a thought ...

:pac:

But, Nah - you still had it easy!

doozerie

Yeah, I must admit that on the cold days, the intense heat being generated by my unnatural trousers at least helped keep my warm, and I didn't envy those fews girls that I did see cycle, their bare legs.

kerry4sam

Their were bike-racks at both my primary and secondary schools. In both schools girls were allowed to wear pants instead of pinafore (primary) and skirt (secondary).
I would imagine though that the heavy bag of books and no actual place to shower / freshen up upon arrival before class would be issues turning some away from cycling into school.

The lockers in secondary were barely big enough to cover sufficient books most days; add in gym gear or sports-wear for activities after school &

It would just be easier to be driven to school in some shape or form and not actually cycle.

Rock of Gibraltar

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Anotherr media comment on the vanishingly small percentage of secondary school girls who cycle to school. Here’s a thought: Looks like there are a lot of school uniforms involving a skirt still out there… I can’t imagine that helps.

They could just use bikes with a skirt guard, like this one
http://www.flickr.com/photos/brijsman/3665371814/in/pool-dressguards
With a good rack for heavy bags and books.

Most of the kids I see cycling to and from school have mountain bikes presumably for all the treacherous mountains on the school run.

Lumen

Teenagers are mostly motivated by doing things that disgust their parents.

On this basis I fully expect my daughter to cycle to secondary school on a full-suspension Trek MTB with aerobars whilst wearing tri shorts under GAA shorts, a current pro team jersey, SPD sandals with pop socks, and a jauntily angled, unclipped pisspot helmet to which will be attached several mirrors.

There will be an assortment of excessively powerful and badly-angled lights attached both to the bike and various parts of the external-frame hiking rucksack (because a rack would interfere with the rear suspension, Dad). The rear lights will be attached to the front of the bike and vice-versa.

The rucksack will be decorated with Christmas tinsel (for better visibility) and vintage Bertie Ahern and Charles Haughey election badges acquired from the sneeringly disrespectful boyfriend she met at an Ógra Fianna Fáil flashmob.

pwurple

It is perfectly possible to cycle to school in a skirt. I did it every day of my secondary school life. The bag goes on the backer with a spider elastic and use a normal commuting bike with a low bar. we went so slow, chatted and freewheeled so much there was no need for freshening up afterwards, it wasn't olympic training, it was day to day cycling. We were commuting, like people do every day in amsterdam and all over cities. Pair of black tights... Off ya go.

The big problem I would see now, is that people seem to live further away from the schools, and there can be more dangerous roads to get across. But it can't be like that for everyone.

SerialComplaint

Fear of 'helmet hair' can be an issue too, even for girls at primary school age. And schools coming out with mandatory helmet and hi-vis rules doesn't help to make cycling 'cool'.

RobertFoster

NamelessPhil wrote: »

Safety pin between the legs turning the skirt into a kind of culotte.

Not knowing what a culotte was, I decided to do a quick image search instead of reading Wikipedia... :eek:

rollingscone

In Copenhagen it seemed to be a thing with certain young women (not school kids!!!!) to cycle around in miniskirts with knickers on display.

Not sure if this was a statement or just that they're so cycle centric that people say "Eh, what're you gonna do, not cycle?"

monument

Interistingly, the male/female gender split is wider at secondary school.

From talking to parents of primary school children: Danger / perceived danger / poorly designed roads / lack of comfort on our roads seems to be the biggest issue for most. This is a blocker which comes into play before any other concern arises.

If they can get over the above issue (which usually seems to equal telling the children to cycle on the footpath) than school bags / the amount of books to carry is the next issue. My sister tells me that at her children's school there's a few parents who drive to school with the school bags while the children cycled.

My secondary school stopped us from cycling up the driveway, or at least half way up.

kavanagh_h

pwurple wrote: »

It is perfectly possible to cycle to school in a skirt. I did it every day of my secondary school life. The bag goes on the backer with a spider elastic and use a normal commuting bike with a low bar. we went so slow, chatted and freewheeled so much there was no need for freshening up afterwards, it wasn't olympic training, it was day to day cycling. We were commuting, like people do every day in amsterdam and all over cities.

I second that. We cycled to school in our thick pleated skirts, green socks around our ankles and purple cold legs most of the time. There were no helmets worn to school 25 years ago and we didnt care what we looked like-we got to school quicker and home quicker than walking and thats all we cared about. Also no bike racks. In fairness it was only a 15 min cycle.

manwithaplan

SerialComplaint wrote: »

And schools coming out with mandatory helmet and hi-vis rules doesn't help to make cycling 'cool'.

Apparently a mandatory helmet rule is being introduced at my kids' school. I believe my compus mentis state after a recent accident even got a mention at tionol. Given my ambivalence on the issue that was slightly ironic.

Wishbone Ash

I surprised no one has mentioned security issues. I didn't cycle to school for the simple reason that I couldn't be certain my bike would be safe. A large cohort in my school took pleasure from vandalising anything they could.

Canis Lupus

I have no stats to back it up but I would have immediately put it down to the increase of protectiveness parents show nowadays with their kids. Children have to be wrapped in bubblewrap, inserted into the largest jeep the parents can buy and then driven to the school gate, removed and then escorted in, in case any peadophiles are waiting to pounce.

dreamerb

I think it may be a cultural risk avoidance phenomenon, quite as much as uniforms and helmet-hair. If something is viewed as risky, girls are less likely to do it than boys - and sadly, cycling is seen as a risky activity.

In general, I suspect most secondary school students - male or female - don't have access to decent shower/changing facilities, so commutes much more than 4-5km may not be practical, especially if you're not reasonably fit in the first place. But I frequently cycled about 4km to school back in the day (weather willing: I had wuss-out options!), and the skirt was only a bit of a nuisance. There were also more girls than boys cycling along that road, and I swear we didn't have that unspoken race home...:p

[first time poster, very long time lurker here]

Wishbone Ash

dreamerb wrote: »

[first time poster, very long time lurker here]

You're very welcome!

RobertFoster

dreamerb wrote: »

In general, I suspect most secondary school students - male or female - don't have access to decent shower/changing facilities

In my secondary school, both male and female showers and changing rooms were available. All things being unequal, the male showers were communal, while the female ones had individual stalls. I don't know about the female showers, but it seemed the sole purpose of the male one was to soak the school bags of the unpopular. Needless to say, lots of Schweddy balls and an abundance of Lynx after PE.

Lots still cycled to my school AFAIK, I don't know the gender divide though.

monument

dreamerb wrote: »

In general, I suspect most secondary school students - male or female - don't have access to decent shower/changing facilities, so commutes much more than 4-5km may not be practical, especially if you're not reasonably fit in the first place. But I frequently cycled about 4km to school back in the day (weather willing: I had wuss-out options!), and the skirt was only a bit of a nuisance. There were also more girls than boys cycling along that road, and I swear we didn't have that unspoken race home...:p

In Dublin, 65%+ secondary school live 4km or under and, in the country as a whole, it's 46%+ ... (if you could include up to 5km I'm guessing that would be again notable higher)



As you can see Galway differs. This is 2006 data, as there's no census distance data for 2011.

BostonB

nomdeboardie wrote: »

Anotherr media comment on the vanishingly small percentage of secondary school girls who cycle to school. Here’s a thought: Looks like there are a lot of school uniforms involving a skirt still out there… I can’t imagine that helps.

I would doubt that has anything to do with it. Its just the media rolling out another lazy article. 9 out of 8 articles with statistics seem to be completely flawed. They pretty much make up mindless crud.

Lots cycle to our local school. There's good racks and lots of badly designed cycle lanes. But it give a lot of kids options to cycle.

On my 14km commute to to and through the city centre. The bit I like least is the bit around my own area. suburban drivers are the most impatient I experience, and the ones most likely to be speeding and giving you least respect on the road. If we didn't have cycle lanes in the area I doubt as many kids would cycle to school. TBH most of the people dropping kids to school seem to some of the worse drivers.

Iwannahurl

Maybe we need an Irish version of Les Sans-Culottes to bring about a revolution in active travel to school?