Mammy dropping kids to school in the car

Jeremy Sproket

The amount of cars that are chocked on the road around 9 AM and 3 o 4 pm is bordering on insanity, especially on the roads around the national and secondary schools. I walked or cycled ALL the time when I went to secondary school in my home country, my eldest brother is 18 now and the youngest is 15 (I'm 28 btw).

My brothers did most of their schooling here and we carried on the normality that they should walk or cycle to school. The amount of cars borders on the ridiculous around the school gates, some of the mammies in their oversized SUVs would nearly drive through the doors of the school. They park in the school bus stop (for the coach that operates to it), disabled spaces are fair game, blocking people's driveways (albeit temporarily) is considered normal so little Fintan or Caoimhe doesn't have to break a sweat or God forbid, get a drop of water on them.

You have 200 cm, 100 kg Rugby players getting out of the car with a packed lunch from mammy.

Why isn't cycling and walking encouraged? As I said in a previous thread, my brother who entered school grounds with a hi-vis jacket had it seized for daring to contravene the uniform policy with it 🙄maybe it's the schools policies that need to change.

What about a camera that constantly surveillance the area, double red lines as in the UK. €200 fine for blocking the road and €1000 for parking in the coach stop.

antodeco

My son's school they were trying to encourage cycling, but they stopped as the main junction to cross at the school is a seriously dangerous junction (St John's Road spaghetti type junction for those who know it). They even put an amber gambler camera there to stop people breaking the lights

Jeremy Sproket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183466#Comment_118183466

Red light cameras and average speed cameras the whole length of the road is the only answer, with dynamic speed limits (ie, lower to 20 or 30 during school start / finish).

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183484#Comment_118183484

What will that do to stop the amount of cars parked at the school.

Jeremy Sproket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183509#Comment_118183509

That suggestion you quoted was in relation to how to mitigate the danger at the junction in the previous post ...... but you knew that already.

eggy81

Why would you need average speed cameras the whole length of the road?

Jeremy Sproket

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183530#Comment_118183530

To slow people down at the junction and in the vicinity of the junction.

Kids will (hopefully) be travelling by cycling or walking to school in higher numbers from other parts of the town. Speeders and reckless drivers need to be punished.

But you knew all that already.

What's wrong with catching speeders?

wildwillow

I drop my grandchildren to Primary school. The eldest is eight and well capable of cycling the two miles but the road is so busy and dangerous that we couldn't even consider it. It is used by heavy traffic as a link road between the M7 and M4.

We drive to a quieter road to walk or cycle. I wouldn't dream of walking with a buggy or a child on the road and feel very unsafe myself walking and cycling until I reach a safer road, a distance of less than a kilometer.

Only children within the confines of the village, where there are foothpaths and lights, are safe and they do walk most of the time.

eggy81

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183548#Comment_118183548

Nothing at all. Could you not just set up a zone with a camera at either end.

It would still IMO be dangerous even if you could eliminate speeders and careless drivers simply because of the volume of cars on Dublin even if they all drove perfectly. It’ll take a big leap for parents to let kids cycle I think.

Jequ0n

Surely increasing the speed limit and mowing down as many children as possible would also help decongestion. Why burden everyone with restrictions?

billyhead

I used to cycle or walk every day to primary (from 1st class) and secondary school. I used to cycle home when using the bike for lunch in secondary too to collect the afternoon class books aswell. It was a 2 mile trip each way to both schools. Children are treated with rubber gloves these days. Can't have my little Jonny or Lucy out in the cold rain or god forbid run over. If the roads are dangerous for cycling they should use the footpath.

SupplyandDemandZone

Private school up by us on Mount Anville Road is ridiculous for it. People in massive 4x4's double parked all over the shop causing mayhem every morning especially. Never seen a single kid cycle to the school and I pass it every day on the way to work

Monokne

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183704#Comment_118183704

Yes, these parents who don't want their children to be run over are doing some serious mollycoddling. In my day, I was hit by a car or two a week.

For f*ck sake you fool.

Burt Renaults

I once watched a fire engine take ten minutes to travel just a few hundred metres past Ballinteer Community School in south Dublin. Cars illegally parked in the cycle lane on both sides of the road. Firefighters had to get out of the truck to push people's mirrors in. They had to physically lift one car out of the way.

It's not just schools - sporting events (especially soccer and Gaelic/hurling) are particularly bad for obnoxious parking.

I imagine Sweden is very like Finland. Every child in Finland cycles, sometimes walks, to school. Hundreds of bikes outside the schools. Small kids of 7 head off alone in their bikes to school.

Of course, it's completely set up for that. Cycle lanes far away from roads, tunnels under busy roads etc. dedicated separated cycle lanes in busy towns and cities. And drivers that drive like there are kids on bikes.

It's very safe for them. Unlike Ireland.

probably like that in Sweden

riclad

I read an article it says girls mostly stop cycling after age 12.one reason schools only allow girls to wear skirts as a uniform , not trousers, cycling on a bike in autumn, winter is way too cold if you are wearing a skirt

To encourage cycling we need more cycle lanes around schools also it seems to be the trend people buying larger cars which take up more space if parked near the school

Flinty997

The school admission policies have removed much of the preference for locals. So anyone from out of an area can get a place now. So they are driven in. Locals don't get in and they are driving out of the area every morning.

Little and poor quality cycling infrastructure around schools. Very little parking. Roads too narrow. School squished on tiny foot prints.

Dire planning basically.

joebloggs32

Everyone drives their kids to school as the roads around schools are not safe with everyone driving their kids to school!

billyhead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183742#Comment_118183742

Why don't they walk to school if the roads are that dangerous? The weather shouldn't be an excuse. I hope your not the type who drives 1km to the local shop. Plenty of those around aswell. No wonder theirs an obesity problem in this country with knock on effects with heart problems and high blood pressure.

I let my kids decide themselves how to get to school. Sometimes they walk. Sometimes they cycle. Sometimes they hop on a bus but it comes out of their own pocket money so that's their call too. I would not call the trip short or long. It's not bad. Google maps puts it at 50 minutes walking but they definitely do it much faster than that as google walking routes seem to err on the side of caution.

I did get some parent approach me in the school once though and strike up conversation about it. It was a comical conversation as he was clearly trying to come across like he was not being judgemental by saying anything direct. He mentioned how he sometimes sees my kids walking or cycling on their way to school. And he came out with a line something like "I considered something like that myself but I felt I would be something of an abusive parent to do that so I didn't do it and wonder why anyone would".

Seemed like a really mealy mouth cowardly round about way to say "I think you are engaging in child abuse". Straight out of the "how to influence others" play book I think where you talk in the first person rather than the second person to make things sound less judgemental or directed. :)

At the time I gave him something of a comedy laugh - a short answer related to my thinking on the matter - and just walked off. His own kids are - relatively rotund to put it mildly - but I did not feel any urge whatsoever to say "If I kept my kids fisting fast food and cake into their faces I'd feel like an abusive parent" - because I do not particularly care about how other people parent their children in most cases.

All that said though it probably does not make a lot of sense in some places to moan about parents driving kids to any given school with "In my day we walked/cycled" before really looking at the walking and cycling infrastructure in a given area. Rather than trying to get parents to change their ways - improve that infrastructure and many of those parents will change themselves without being preached at.

Billgirlylegs

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183704#Comment_118183704

It is illegal and dangerous to cycle (at any age) on the footpath. Where do you propose to send pedestrians. How about cyclists reading The Road Traffic Act and find out how to to use roads to get about on their bicycles.

spuddy4711

And as for collecting after school. The earlier you get there, the closer to the school gates you will be. Chilly in winter, best leave the engine running, kids won’t catch cold after leaving a warm classroom, hot in summer, that’s sorted with aircon. Too busy on phones to think of engine fumes on air quality of playground.

manonboard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183848#Comment_118183848

Can confirm as someone living over here in finland. The kids go to school on their own alot by walking and cycling. Its very safe for them. The infrastructure is just vastly vastly better. A big part of that is the seperation and extensive safety of the cycle lanes and traffic system. It would not work in ireland at all due to the narrow streets and foot paths. Irish streets are like little laneways in comparison. A street less than half the size of o connell street would be considered quite small. There is never a place where a car needs to let another go first in order to fit side by side. A road doesnt get built without room for cycle lane on each side.

SteM

The young lad goes to a newly built school (actually different 2 schools built side by side) that sits on the edge of a new housing estate. The roads in the estate were all built with cycle lanes so the locals could all cycle to school. Problem is the parents from further away drive in and park in the cycle lanes leading up to the school meaning the lanes can't be used safely.

Enforcement is a joke. In the early days the caretaker and principals from both schools went out to talk to the parkers but were just ignored.

_Brian

We live 6km from the school on narrow busy roads with no bus service, that’s one reason. I pass the school on my way to work anyway so it’s convenient

But even then, schoolbag weight is a serious hinderance to cycling or walking long distances.

Shao Kahn

Don't worry, soon you'll be able to drop your kids to school by drone.

Just sit at home, and use a remote control from your kitchen table.

Lollipop lady will be replaced by an air traffic control tower! 😂

jface187

What i don't understand is the need to drop right outside. The nearby primary school is packed with cars the usual times. There is a little area about two minutes walk from the school. Your on a path dead safe but no Timmy got to be drop right at the gate. As we know having a car makes you lazy and Clearly what's going on here in most cases.

Flinty997

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184292#Comment_118184292

Though interestingly if it's marked as a shared path with some magical paint it becomes safe and legal.

A lot of cyclists have a driving licence and many primary schools have a cycling course that a 3rd party comes into teach.

Won't fix the roads though.

elefant

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183704#Comment_118183704

'Or god forbid run over'

What a line! 😂

Bike! You had a bike? Lucky b@stard. I didn't even have shoes! My grandfather had to share a pair of legs with his brother.

I lived about a mile from school. Only ever got a lift from my dad once (mother didn't drive) and that's because I was late for an exam.

notAMember

School entry policy dictates this in many cases. It's plain ridiculous to me how it works. Locality is bottom of the criteria list for almost all schools , they fill the places before they even get to it.

My children walk to primary school.

I would like them to walk to secondary school, but the entrance policy changes made in the last few years by the dept of education mean because they are not children of past-pupils, or they don't have siblings in there already, they will most likely not get a place in the nearest schools. There are children driven to the school beside us, and we will most likely need to drive our children out into the suburbs.

Same for many of my peers. They drive their children past the door of multiple schools they could walk to, because they could not get a place in the nearby ones.

TLDR: Govt education policy on school entrance criteria creates this problem.

PicardWithHair

It's mental, I went to school in Dublin in the 1990s and we all walked, no traffic outside the school in mornings and evenings - apart from the teachers.

The same kids that are dropped off in Mammy's Range Rover are the ones moaning about climate change and walking out on friday...

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183864#Comment_118183864

That skirt only policy needs to be called out for what it is - Taliban like. Crazy to INSIST on someone wearing a skirt.

Plus some schools have skirts that end just above the shoe - would it even be possible to cycle in those?

OMM 0000

I live in a country which has school busses which pick up the kids in the morning and drop them off after school.

Think of how much traffic (and probably a lot of second cars) as well as the pollution we could reduce if we implemented that in Ireland.

But nah, we'd have to do something new and the government hates new things.

PS this website is still almost unusable. how have they not fixed all the broken crap yet?

JimmyVik

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183466#Comment_118183466

I think people dont realize just how dangerous the roads are these days. Its drivers not paying attention thats the problem.

At my kids school the vast majority of the parents have been taking the kids to school now since about 10 years ago when a child was knocked down on the way to school and ended up in a wheelchair. No way will any tickets or cameras convince any parents of children at that school that the kids should be walking or cycling.

About 5 years ago my niece was knocked down crossing the road at the green man on the way to school. Thankfully she only sustained a broken arm.

A few years ago a woman with a pram was mown down off the footpath too. She died and the child was seriously injured. The driver got two years, said he fell asleep.

The roads just arent safe enough to let kids walk or cycle to school. Roads are busier and there are more kids now than there were years ago.

Add that to the fact that both parents have to work now to pay the rent or mortgage and noone has the time to be walking their kids to scholl because they have to shoot off to work themselves after dropping them on the way to school.

ARX

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183726#Comment_118183726

A few years ago I ended up in a conversation about that with a lady, and was told that many, if not most, of the parents parked on the double yellow lines outside that school are suffering serious financial hardship (how this was relevant to the illegal parking was never explained). I pointed out that if they were hard up they could sell the SUV and get a small car, or send their children to a non-fee-paying school, but this was not received well.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184274#Comment_118184274

If the infrastructure was there then lots of people would probably use it. But the infrastructure will never be built without a lot of people engaging in behaviour thst could be described as "preaching" the virtues of spending considerable money on that infrastructure while probably also disrupting the existing private car roads.

Enforcing things like speeding checks, traffic calming and even basic things like not parking in cycle lanes, is unpopular. A politician would be a fool to spend money, take from car lanes, make cycle lanes and then fine drivers for speeding and parking where they used to park (because its now a cycle lane) unless those people understand WHY they're doing it.

Unfortunately, trying to build concensus and explain the virtues of doing all those things can be easily dismissed in a few pithy phrases such as "preaching", " snowflake" and "virtue signalling".

TLDR: ts tricky to get things done and nigh on impossible to do so without "preaching" or at the very least "virtue signalling".

zom

"You have 200 cm, 100 kg Rugby players getting out of the car with a packed lunch from mammy."

200 cm, 100 kg Rugby players state for 1% of thise kids so if your porobem is only 1% that means you are a problem.

zell12

We have laws on parking etc.

Garda and wardens simply refuse to enforce it.

crossman47

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184537#Comment_118184537

You have a point re smaller children but I have seen big lads being driven to St. Marys in Rathmines (probably rugby players). And the mammies are clearly not on the way to work either - plenty time to chat with the others.

The roads aren't safe - that much is true. Neither are the footpaths with all these kernts cycling, skateboarding, and scootering on them. And then; there's mammy and daddy parking up on the footpath (sometimes taking the whole path up, so as not to inconvenience other drivers 😧) to collect their kids from school; thereby adding to the safety problem, with people being forced to walk on t'roads . Why they can't park a couple, or a few hundred yards away, is beyond me.

McGrath5

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184938#Comment_118184938

Roads are safe, its the 1500KG pieces of metal flying around that are the problem.

There are nice new wide footpaths for kids to walk or cycle to school nearby to me with plenty of pedestrian crossings to but alas there is a large cohort of parents who insist on driving their kids the few hundred meters to school.

boardlady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184537#Comment_118184537

You have succinctly summed up the two main issues there. It's a bit similar to the 'please tell me you don't drive the 1km to the shop for milk'. Unfortunately, if it is 9pm at night and blowing a gale and you have 1000 things to do yet before you sit down that evening, then yes, you will drive for it.

The infrastructure is just not there to allow parents to let their children cycle or walk. We are simply too aware of the dangers. Yes, we all walked and cycled in the 80s and 90s but there was far less traffic then, less speed, and I believe, lives weren't so busy - we are all distracted drivers with the busy thoughts going round and round in our heads now. We are time short, harassed and anxious. Covid on top of it all. I do agree that it is not ideal though. Choking the roads with fuel guzzlers and making school entrances dangerous. Infrastructure, infrastructure, infrastructure ... I wont hold my breath though.

boardlady

I also forgot to say, my lad could happily cycle to school a lot of days as there are back roads to the school but the weight of the bag makes it completely impossible - and believe me we have tried several ways!

jaysus boards really has just turned into a comment box at this point.

mammy's dropping their kids to school????? what's next, cooking their dinner!!!!

Cdemess

Mammy??? People still say this lol

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118184274#Comment_118184274

Are your kids in junior infants then is it

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185254#Comment_118185254

I have a daugther 11 and a son 7. Other two kids are too young for any of that lark yet :)

monkeybutter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185336#Comment_118185336

you are making your 7 year old walk 2 hours, 8 to 10 k is it, a day, on their own with different end times at least.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118185371#Comment_118185371

As I said I do not "make" them do anything. They have three options in normal to moderate weather. Walk. Cycle. Bus. I am generous with their pocket money. They can choose to use some of that money for a bus ticket when they wish. Sometimes they do. Sometimes not. I find it instils in them a good sense of the value of their money. They get to choose how to use it and spend it. And they get the sense that money can be used for comfort ease or convenience - or small comforts sacrificed in the interest of conserving money. And that is a choice we all have in life every day. There are things we spend money on because of the ease or convenience it brings us. But we can save that money too if we so choose.

BENDYBINN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118183742#Comment_118183742

Agree, the odd belt of a car didnt do us a bit of harm.. It toughened us up