http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Topic: Near-miss accidents common on school run say parents en Mon, 18 May 2026 18:50:55 +0000 http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153656 Thu, 15 May 2014 15:03:56 +0000 DaveC 153656@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Insto <em>"I passed quite a sweet sight this morning of a mother and son doing the whole 'cycle to school' thing. "</em></p> <p>The last few weeks have been (certainly in Dalgety Bay and Aberdour) Bikeability weeks. Josie has been teaching it for the last 2 weeks. Perhaps this was the parent trying to accompany their chld to school. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153646 Thu, 15 May 2014 14:20:52 +0000 chdot 153646@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/warning-as-girl-knocked-down-at-bonaly-school-1-3412500" rel="nofollow">http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/warning-as-girl-knocked-down-at-bonaly-school-1-3412500</a> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153388 Tue, 13 May 2014 17:54:18 +0000 sallyhinch 153388@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Primary school in London we used to walk in a group to school together - it wasn't far but you had to cross one quite busy road (except on the days when I had to be dragged to school). We also played out in the afternoons entirely unsupervised within certain limits. Of course what my parents didn't know until several years later was that we were living in the same street as Dennis Neilsen. He wasn't interested in little girls (although he did try and chat up the older brother of a friend) but I think our parents would have thought twice after that. We were probably at greater risk from the traffic ... </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153371 Tue, 13 May 2014 15:57:53 +0000 calmac 153371@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Hmm, intersting to think back to what we did as kids.</p> <p>Primary 1-6, shcool was a 10 minute walk. We moved in priamry 7 but I stayed at the same school, so I had a 2+ mile journey. I was supposed to take the train, but I would often walk home and use the train money to buy a fritter. Yeah, that's how I started getting simultaneously fat and fit. </p> <p>Secondary school was a 15 minute walk.</p> <p>And not once in 13 years did I get dropped or picked up by car. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153355 Tue, 13 May 2014 14:51:21 +0000 sallyhinch 153355@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>@Stickman - I suppose you need the 4x4 to fit the kids' bikes in the back... </p> <p>My sister did the part drive + walk/cycle for a while and has now graduated to cycling (once a week) or bus/walk. Some schools do encourage 'park and stride'. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153295 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:43:41 +0000 gibbo 153295@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>[oldman]</p> <p>I don't understand this obsession with driving kids to school.</p> <p>When I went to primary school, it was 1/2 mile away and had gradients of up to 12%.</p> <p>Secondary school was 1.3m until we moved, then it was 1.7m. (That's walking, each way.)</p> <p>That was nothing unusual back in the 70s/80s.</p> <p>Now kids get dropped off at the gate... but, of course, the rising rates of childhood obesity have nothing to do with this...</p> <p>[/oldman] </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153293 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:43:33 +0000 wishicouldgofaster 153293@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Part of the problem in most of Edinburgh is that the roads themselves are dangerous to cycle on because of the state of the surface.</p> <p>If you create a scenario of ignoring bad driving and making the roads difficult to cycle on (regardless of traffic) things are just going to keep on getting worse as more people will start driving. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153281 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:30:22 +0000 SRD 153281@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Better than the parents at ours who drive up to the gate to unload the bike from the boot....</p> <p>If only it did lead them to consider doing more as Sallyhinch suggests. For most people, I don't think it goes much further. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153278 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:23:47 +0000 Stickman 153278@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Sallyhinch - didn't mean to appear dismissive or contemptuous and I accept your point. Just pointing out the slight irony of being concerned about cycle safety for their kids but also driving mahoosive 4x4s. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153275 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:18:01 +0000 calmac 153275@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Headteacher is a... well, I'm not sure what the etiquette is around here for minor sweary words. Let's say she's no friend of honest people, and [self edit to remove something incriminating about her that I probably shouldn't post yet].</p> <p>So I'll go with the Parent Council. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153269 Tue, 13 May 2014 11:09:17 +0000 sallyhinch 153269@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>But surely it's better to drive the kids part way, park well away from the school and cycle the bit that's manageable than join the jam at the gates even if it's just a token effort. Not everyone has the skills (and the time) to manage cycling with their kids through traffic the whole way from home. If we're contemptuous of people's honest efforts to do a bit more cycling, however limited it may be or unskilled they may look, then why would we expect them to persevere? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153253 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:40:41 +0000 crowriver 153253@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>Cognitive dissonance?</em></p> <p>Just the normal attitude to cycling in these islands: cycling is for kids in parks, and for everything else you have to drive. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153252 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:39:08 +0000 crowriver 153252@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>Angry email to Parent Council coming up.</em></p> <p>What SRD said, but also I suggest you e-mail the Head Teacher. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153251 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:38:46 +0000 SRD 153251@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Good point. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153250 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:36:14 +0000 calmac 153250@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I do go to all their meetings. But if you don't line these things up in advance, nothing ever gets done. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153249 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:35:48 +0000 Stickman 153249@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I regularly see parents drive to the west end of Roseburn Park and then get bikes out of the car for the kids to cycle through the park to Roseburn Primary. </p> <p>Cognitive dissonance? </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153246 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:33:17 +0000 SRD 153246@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"email to Parent Council "</p> <p>Good! </p> <p>But go to their meetings / join'em too. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153244 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:27:55 +0000 calmac 153244@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>"It's hardly surprising when you see how they have them walking to school. "</p> <p>That deserves a LOL. No place to run, no place to hide.</p> <p>The car park in my kids' primary school is supposed to be closed after 8.30am, and school starts at 8.50. Yesterday I counted 5 cars going in after 8.45 - three drop-offs, and two lone drivers who are presumably staff.</p> <p>Angry email to Parent Council coming up. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153240 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:20:16 +0000 Instography 153240@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I need to employ more smilies and winkies. The railings are amazing, stretching the whole length of the school.</p> <p>I passed quite a sweet sight this morning of a mother and son doing the whole 'cycle to school' thing. I assume there's some initiative going on because it looked like the mother had never actually cycled before. So there she was braking hard on the most shallow of inclines making her kid late for school as she gamely, determinedly accompanied him to school on their bikes. He was miles ahead, trying to make it look like he didn't know her, probably. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153238 Tue, 13 May 2014 10:13:47 +0000 crowriver 153238@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>I was replying in the same spirit. I understood the joke, but the point of that stunt is the kids should be free to wander in the road outside their school, rather than coralled behind railings like livestock at market. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153233 Tue, 13 May 2014 09:59:15 +0000 Instography 153233@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>You have to follow the link to the report get the joke. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153230 Tue, 13 May 2014 09:49:32 +0000 crowriver 153230@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><em>Sustrans says the most recent government figures on road deaths and injuries show that in 2012, across England, Wales and Scotland, 33 children under the age of 16 died in accidents while walking or cycling and more than 1,800 were seriously injured.</p> <p>"If a whole classroom of children had been killed under other circumstances there would be public outcry," said Sustrans chief executive Malcolm Shepherd.</em> </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153229 Tue, 13 May 2014 09:46:03 +0000 crowriver 153229@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>Aye, shut them all up in cars and kep the doors locked until you're right at the school gate. Then there'll be no traffic incidents.....oh wait. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153227 Tue, 13 May 2014 09:30:05 +0000 Instography 153227@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p>It's hardly surprising when you see how they have them walking to school. </p> http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=12803#post-153217 Tue, 13 May 2014 08:39:05 +0000 amir 153217@http://citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/ <p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27381676">Over two fifths (41%) of parents in a survey for a transport charity say their child has had a near-miss traffic accident going to or from school.</p> <p>Road safety is a bigger concern for parents than "stranger danger", suggests the survey for the sustainable transport group, Sustrans. </a> </p>