School run solution without using a car or walking?

[Deleted member 174758]

Even an electric car still takes up space although it gets round the pollution issue.

Not really - what it does is transfer the pollution elsewhere. After all we still generate a lot of electricity using fossil fuels (gas, oil, coal) and carbon-containing fuels (such a biomass). I don't agree with the comment that "pollution is not an issue" - car engines generate the most pollutants when they are cold (source: RAC), in other words in the first 5 or 6 miles of running, and school runs are generally so short that the car engine has not got enough time to warm up.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

The probably around our school is not pollution, its people parking on pavements forcing kids to walk in the road, blocking driveways, blocking the road completely (2 cars parking on opposite sides) stopping larger vehicles getting through, and driving at speed causing regular near misses. Pollution really not an issue, avoiding getting run over is!

The only solution really is to either change school or work times so parents have more time to get their kids into school. Overseas some school start at 7.30am, gives parents time to drop off in a civilised fashion, then get to work for 9am.

That is exactly the same here too. We have several schools and the roads near to them all become impassable at pick up/ drop off times. Double yellows, police and parking attendants make no difference at all to the parking problems. Before and after we have the parents tearing down the roads at speed, oblivious of the speed limits making it risky for those kids who do use their legs.

 

[JP_]

Our local school did control it for a while, the head teacher from the infant and junior school stood out on the road every morning for a week, where there have double yellows, informing people they cannot stop. The moment they went back to their jobs, people started parking again. Some people just don't care, and that is the problem, and a problem that is impossible to fix really.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Our local school did control it for a while, the head teacher from the infant and junior school stood out on the road every morning for a week, where there have double yellows, informing people they cannot stop. The moment they went back to their jobs, people started parking again. Some people just don't care, and that is the problem, and a problem that is impossible to fix really.

One local school has a massive banner hung along its steel railings, say no picking up/ dropping off. Another, which regularly had the road outside completely blocked by parents cars, had the police attend twice a day to ticket the parked cars. Yet another large school has a turning circles for buses busing kids in from the area, which was regularly blocked by parents parking their cars there and ignoring the 'buses only' signs.

 

[JP_]

Yep, we have banners too. Some people are so selfish that they honestly think that all these banners, yellow lines and signs only apply to other people.

 

[foxhole]

One local school has a massive banner hung along its steel railings, say no picking up/ dropping off. Another, which regularly had the road outside completely blocked by parents cars, had the police attend twice a day to ticket the parked cars. Yet another large school has a turning circles for buses busing kids in from the area, which was regularly blocked by parents parking their cars there and ignoring the 'buses only' signs.

Thats interesting, our local police force do not enforce parking, nor do the council, left to private contractors.

 

[Ian H]

I’d go with:

Z900RS

Or circus cannon

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Not really - what it does is transfer the pollution elsewhere. After all we still generate a lot of electricity using fossil fuels (gas, oil, coal) and carbon-containing fuels (such a biomass). I don't agree with the comment that "pollution is not an issue" - car engines generate the most pollutants when they are cold (source: RAC), in other words in the first 5 or 6 miles of running, and school runs are generally so short that the car engine has not got enough time to warm up.

There is massive pollution in manufacturing and even more pollution when they come to be scrapped at end of life, in fact they are really not all that green. The problem with green policies is how short sighted they are, they just don't take in the entire picture or even close to it.

Existing petrol and diesel cars could be made much more efficient and less polluting on short runs, by the use of pre-heaters. My diesel has such a pre-heater installed, it burns diesel in a miniature boiler, very efficiently to heat the engine up to operating temperature, before I turn a wheel.