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Nothing like studies and statistics to get in the way of a perfectly good prejudice.
I do wonder about the school run being a symptom of peoples desire to drive to work. I would imagine the mechanism is rather the other way around, that the thinking is; "If I am already driving sweetie-pie to school I may as well just drive the extra into work while I'm at it, save a double journey."
They can't all be spring cleaning their holiday homes in Provence. Is there a corresponding and comparable reduction in rush hour journeys by public transport? If not then could that indicate the modal choice of the parent is predicated by the perceived transport needs of the offspring.
Anyways, hooray for fewer cunts in 4x4s.
middleofnowhere
I know 'the school run' often comes in for a lot of attention, but it's really not the most deserving target of disapproval. It's just another case where the chosen target of attack are people who seem easier to attack than those, a larger number of people, who don't drop their children off at school and still drive in, usually one person to a car (on average, it's mostly about 1.2 or so).
While the latter don't turn up at the school gates or pick fights with dancing james, and so their behaviour isn't as evident, they are actually a more important focus. As Greenbank says, 'school run' parents often drop off their children at school on the way to work. That's the underlying cause; the 'school run' is a mere symptom. Tackling the wider cause will also include the 'school run' without letting the others off the hook.
There are plenty of sensible reasons to drive--carrying heavy loads, carrying people with mobility difficulties, travelling very long distances where there aren't train connections, and so forth--and, surprisingly enough, carrying your children can be one of them. The issue is one of risk perception and management.
A lot of people genuinely, if perhaps mistakenly, believe that their children will be safer if they carry them in a car. Now, we know all about inactive children and child obesity, and there are numerous other reasons to disagree with these beliefs, but attacking a group which most definitely includes people who drive their children because they want to keep them safer, even if some among the group are likely to do it mainly for convenience and not so much out of consideration for their children, isn't such a good idea. After all, if you thought that your children might be at greater risk if you walked with them to school (and most primary schoolchildren in Inner London live within easy walking distance of their schools), or if you allowed your teenager to cycle to their secondary school, which is often more than walking distance away, you would act in the same way.
The reason why the 'school run' gets so much attention is because of the resulting pressure on the very limited space outside schools. I've seen it made a topic for more than a decade now, and I've seen it obscure several other, related issues like the above that are much more important.
With positive measures and better education, I've also seen driving rates to school fall:
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/stp.htm
http://www.hackney.gov.uk/Assets/Documents/School-travel-news-January-2013.pdf
These are successful programmes, but let's not forget the large amount of work on other causes of driving that cause considerably more problems than the 'school run'.