Cycling UK Forum

atoz wrote:

Bmblbzzz wrote:

gaz wrote:Distancing due to Covid-19 currently reduces public transport capacity to about 15% of normal. In 2014 more secondary school pupils went to/from school by bus than by car.

Mini-me passed his Bikeability at primary. He showed no interest in cycling to secondary, about 4 miles of murder-strip alongside a 50mph road leading to a large 40mph roundabout and a final mile choked with school run traffic.

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Following decades of 'encouraging' rather than 'enabling' cycling no amount of hi-vis and helmets will keep children walking or cycling to school safe from frustrated careless drivers on a dark winter's morning/evening.

Interesting to see that. Basically, it seems there's a shift from car to bus between primary and secondary. Some reasons are obvious: secondaries are more likely to have bus services, those services are more likely to be subsidised due to distance, and secondary kids can be trusted to get off at the right place! But that last point shows it's a bit of a lump to put all primaries together – kids' capabilities increase vastly from 5 to 11. Similarly, some (probably quite a lot, actually, in rural areas0 of the 17-18s will be driving their own cars to school.

Post 16 students at college don't usually have special buses, they use the service bus. People forget just how many are in this group. They won't be driving to college as they will find it difficult to find affordable parking, but in any case they will find it difficult to afford to buy, insure and run a car. These are not middle class undergrads, just kids doing courses like social care, hairdressing. Some who live close could cycle but colleges don't usually have secure cycle parking, and without that it's a non starter.

You're right to raise the issue of secure parking. It's not just a factor at schools, of course, but probably even more so at workplaces and on streets.

It's not only post-16 colleges that don't have dedicated buses, most schools in urban areas don't have any special transport other than for school trips (whether days out or just going to the playing fields, in the many cases where the previously-adjacent ones have been sold off). But in many places there are discounted fares and/or travel bursaries available.

As for cars, I no longer live in the town where I grew up, but when I passed it a couple of years ago on a school day, there was a large area of what had been field now used as car parking, and they clearly weren't all staff cars.

Is some one seriously suggesting that parents happily walk their children, maybe unable to actually walk or pushing a pram, along roads that have no verges, tights bend and only a single lane in the near dark with rain? What a lovely idea Even passing cyclist would be a perceived hazard.
Lack of realism or acceptance of life won't make things better.
As in so many things that pop up in the cycling campaign world the bright ideas have no concept of rural living.
Clark was telling Viv what to do with herself by the way.

Pete Owens wrote:

atoz wrote:This comment was made on the FE news website by a schools transport specialist

"Walking or cycling to school is simply not viable for the millions of children who have miles to travel each day. Before lockdown, 61% of pupils required transportation to school, which rose to 71% of those living in smaller towns and villages, meaning that taking away the option of public transport will leave the majority of children and parents no choice but to travel to school by car."

https://www.fenews.co.uk/fevoices/50615 ... -september

Comments?

Richard Woods (Chief Operating Officer of CoachHire.com) is basically talking self interested <i>[rude word removed]</i>.
Fewer kids than that get actually get transported to school - let alone are "required" to be.

Can I point out that FE news is aimed at FE colleges who are largely post 16 providers and therefore the word children doesn't quite mean what you might think in this context.