This morning's commute and other commuting stories

How can you be certain it was cow shit?

They do. But my eldest goes to the third closest school to us as we didn't get into the closest one (good school, catchment area has been shrinking rapidly as more people move closer to the school to guarantee a place), and the second closest one would have meant changing child minder for the younger daughter.

If you miss out on the schools of your choice (of 6) you can end up anywhere. A couple of classmates of my daughter have to travel over 3 miles to school each day. Which is difficult to do either on a bike or by public transport if you, as a working parent, have to be somewhere else shortly afterwards.

Of course if cycling was actively encouraged, with proper infrastructure, then many, many more children and their parents would cycle.

There are parents who choose to drive 3 miles because they think the school options are better for them.

There are children getting the bus outside my house at 7am to goto secondary schools in Bexley.

Granted there are also kids getting the bus for 1 mile as well.

Cycling infrastructure would solve many problems.

Catchment areas are a right ball ache. There's a brilliant school behind the horniman. 300m is its catchement area.

Move to Horniman Gardens, embrace your inner tramp, feed off discarded croissants from the museum cafe.

I'm gluten free.

I know my shit!

then got blown by Katie all the way to Wimbledon

fnarr

.

As a campaigning topic, the school run is as old as the hills, and a lot of work has been done on it in the last few decades. It ties into the whole 'active kids' agenda, and much progress has been made using School Travel Plans, so much so that where I live, in Hackney, the school run isn't a very significant concern any longer. That may change again, of course, but the trend is that more and more schools are being opened as the population increases, and at least in Hackney, schools have also benefited from much better funding and increasing reputation. I realise that's not the case everywhere, but as that's my experience, all the following is going to reflect it. There are obviously problems of greater distance to school elsewhere, such as Damo's experience with kids going to Bexley.

One caveat is that the school run is an often overstated problem. This is because the real problem behind it is obviously car commuting. Very few parents only take the kids to school by car and then return home. Most go on to somewhere else, be it work or shopping etc. What happens is simply that these trips get pooled into one. I've always found it very interesting that it's the school run aspect of these trips that gets attacked the most. People often attack the easiest target (I'm not saying you are, by the way, it's perfectly valid to notice it as an issue, but in my campaigning experience it's been an issue that has sometimes prevented progress on other things and drowned out what people wanted to say about more significant issues), as they know they can't attack the hard targets, such as the perception of the car as the 'universal transport tool' that's great for everything and that really helps with life. I mean, just think about it, you can plonk the kids in the car, unload them, and then put the shopping where the kids were. Or something. You can also arrive at work looking smart and smelling fresh as a daisy. That sort of perception is the real problem, not the school run. A lot of people think it's simply safer to take kids to school by car. Well, as Mayer Hillman and John Adams have shown, it's not that simple, but I think it's a non-starter to attack people where they're trying, albeit mistakenly, to keep their children safe.

The main reason why the issue is so visible is largely because of the nasty scenes that often play out in front of school gates (I've witnessed a few). However, in statistical terms the issue is really not a priority compared to the other, more major problems behind it. Also, again, it's obviously different in Outer London compared to Hackney. I'm not going to deny that where travel distances to schools are long, it's still a significant problem. @IdealStandard used to work on school travel plans for the Dulwich school cluster, to which many pupils travel from far afield, so he could probably add a few things about that.

Again for Hackney, at primary school, most children walk to school, and the percentage has increased by about ten percent as car travel has gone down. There's never going to be a significant percentage of kids cycling to primary school here, as the vast majority of primary school age children live within a couple of hundred yards of their school, and getting the bike out etc. is just too much faff, never mind bike sheds at school. A good few parents do take kids on child seats or in cargo bikes, but like drivers those are parents who go on to somewhere else. Most Hackney parents would take public transport to continue their trip.

At secondary school level, the vast majority of kids walk or use public transport. There, travel distances increase considerably, as in Damo's Bexley-bound kids, and much more progress could be achieved for cycling, but with increased distances comes greater perception of road danger by parents, too. Also, kids increasingly make their own decisions at those ages, and cycling is simply not seen as 'cool' in most areas when kids are that age, e.g. you might get wet, and then what about your school uniform?

Anyway, it's far from being an ignored issue, and as ever the work has to continue.

Good people to contact are local school travel plan officers, but headteachers or school travel plan representatives in schools will be in touch with them, anyway. All schools should have such plans, and if you're a parent/governor, you can help influence them, as some are, quite frankly, not very good (not in Hackney, of course :) ) and need gradual improvement. As indicated above, the key factors are distances and trip concatenation, and both of those need concerted action at all levels of local authorities, from land use planning to social work, but it's not an intractable problem.

A great book, for those who want to do some work on it as a parent, is 'Let Me Out' by Ann Kenrick (LCC chair). It came out in 2009, so is still pretty up-to-date. It's conceived as a resource for parents and other people who want to campaign around their local school.

Just about to set off. It is just starting to spit with rain, whilst raintoday.co.uk looks like biblical downpour approaching from the west...why when its been dry all day?! Anyone in Putney/Richmond/Kingston tell me if its as bad as the satellite looks?

Pissing down in Richmond.

and cycling is simply not seen as 'cool' in most areas when kids are that age

Huh?

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Cycling for transport, perceived completely differently. I'd love to see that change within my lifetime. :)

Well that was grim in the end.

It was pissing down here, didn't help me cooking supper on the smoker this evening.

Horrible downpour completely spoiling the ecstatic first-cycle-home-during-daylight of the year. Waaa

300m is its catchement area.

Some in Wimbledon are down to as close as 120m (Dundonald School I think).

Many schools are now moving to a ballot (e.g. names from a hat) as the tie-breaker in an oversubscribed category rather than distance from school. Round here (Putney) it's been insane with people renting flats close to the school for a year just to get in and so that should put a stop to some of that. I'm sure the house prices near the schools have taken a bit of a hit.

One other reason that cars appear on the school run is that a growing family (either having more children, or elderly relatives moving in) means that a bigger house is required, and those people may not be able to afford a bigger house locally. Still lazy, but it's one reason why some people do end up living several miles from the school.

The Governors at MiniGB's school are shit hot about dissuading people from driving and, according to the recent report, car use for drop-off/pick-up is at the lowest since 2004.

It's not perse laziness, some of my colleagues share care, so one collects and one drops off. If one does it all they'll be latish at work and need to leave early too as crèche closes early.

Means two car journeys though.

Sketchy weather here, I suspect I may get rained on ;)

The pattern here at the mo is gorgeous weather in the mornings, downpour on the way home. Makes bike and clothing selection all the more important. Got it wrong yesterday, remembering my waterproofs today...

Damn, was thinking of riding the hhsb today. But you're right.

Easter here was "come on out it's sunny...." SPLASH COLD RAIN HAHAHAHAHA!!!

So I stayed in. A mallard and a pair of mallard ducks in the parking at work. Got a undignified ducksound from the mallard for disturbing his peace. No food for them in my workbag alas (you're not supposed to give them bread not good for them)

Had a reverse commute along the canal through hackney this morning. Many cyclists treating it as a road, forcing peds to the side, last minute overtaking, charging around blind bends... It goes to show that twats use all modes of transport.

I know commuting isn't a race, but there's this guy who regularly skins me on a Scott road bike. I hate his impassive face, his propensity to quasi-jump reds by anticipating the change and his stupid boring bike and clothes.

Anyway, because I'm on gears this week, I managed to overtake him three times like "wheeeeeeeeeeee keep up m8 lol". HA! Take that MAMIL-in-waiting!

Remember kids, commuting is not a race.

Also, my lungs are now inside-out.

Had some guy on those brompton copies this morning like this...pedalling his heart out to try and get past me...got out of the saddle just as he came up beside me and left him for dead haha.
5/7 for trying ballbag