There are some bits in there that will attract ENews commenters!
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » General Edinburgh
"Parents to be targeted by traffic wardens in crackdown on school run chaos"
(27 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Shame that's the same time as they should be out enforcing the QBC...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I fail to see how they can enforce it permanently as it would require a couple of wardens at every school for minimum 2 hours per day - to the detriment of other parking enforcement.
My son is at Sciennes and I can guarantee (as the weather was bad) that there were loads of cars on the zigzags today with the "surely its ok if I just drop wee johnny off at school, wheres the harm" attitude.
School does what it can - and some parents too (My wife tries to shame them into moving) but as with so much in life it comes down to personal responsibility.
As for that Institute of Advanced Motorists idiot in the article - words fail me......
Posted 12 years ago # -
Well most of the kids manage to jump out of the way in time so it is fine. No problems here then, move along.
So glad to see this problem finally getting some attention. Are people slowly, veeery slowly, beginning to wake up to the fact that cars really aren't that great after all?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Min, I suspect its only some people (hopefully not just us!!)
To be honest, I still like driving my car and do think it has its place (had a great weekend driving round the west of scotland / trossachs this weekend) - its just that IMO its place is most definitely not cities, especially cities which were designed when horses trotted along princes street.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Easy to see the EEN editorial policy in the second paragraph:
"The hard-hitting move would see fresh parking controls introduced around schools and blue meanie wardens ordered to slap problem parkers with fixed penalty fines"
Ooh, look at this, isn't it bad?!?!
Then there are responses like this that show there's a blindness to any way but the car:
"Scottish Parent Teacher Council information officer Eleanor Coner said: “I don’t think it’s the only solution. Where’s the traffic going to go? You’re just going to put it somewhere else, just down the road from the school really."
However, the article does say there are 'mixed' responses, but most of the quotes are actually in support of the measures.
Posted 12 years ago # -
This is what the IAM chap said:
"Neil Greig, policy director for Institute of Advanced Motorists, said: “The reality is very few accidents happen outside schools because the majority of drivers know there’s children around, the roads are busy so the traffic’s going slow, the children are always supervised.”"
Wish more was made of the paragraph two after this which states:
"A five-year-old girl was left in a critical condition after being knocked down at a zebra crossing outside Ferryhill Primary School in September, while a 13-year-old pupil suffered a broken leg after being the victim of a hit-and-run incident near Stewart’s Melville College last month"
Posted 12 years ago # -
This is well overdue. The situation at Abbeyhill primary is ludicrous: pavement parking, parking on double yellows, blocking exits and bends in the road. All in a cul-de-sac with sheltered housing for the elderly opposite the school. How emergency services could attend at drop off/pick up times I don't know.
No.1 son walks (nay, runs) to school every morning, it's only 400 yards or so. No.2 daughter rides her balance bike.
Posted 12 years ago # -
St John's Primary in Duddingston is similar. A couple of times they've had the police there directing traffic. If that doesn't tell you there's something seriously wrong then god help you.
Still find it a delicious irony that many people drive kids to school because 'the roads are dangerous' without actually thinking about just what it is that is making the roads dangerous. There are cycle lanes all around St John's that, at drop-off and pick-up time are simply awash with cars.
(and as for the commenters who think that parked cars aren't a danger... Clearly they've never been Tufty Club Members and been taught about the dangers of crossing from between parked cars - the problem being that at schooltimes there is often no option)
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Where's the traffic going to go?"
Hopefully nowhere, and cars will be left at home.
With the ever rising cost of petrol it probably won't be an issue for long.
One of my colleagues just bought a Helios tandem to replace the car for school runs, although, as she says, she thinks it might be a tad awkward fitting a cello on it. I told her when that time arrives, trade it in for a Fr8 or an 8Freight.
Posted 12 years ago # -
@EddieD, I manage to fit No.1 son's 3/4 sized guitar in a large pannier on our Raleigh tandem (soft guitar cover, neck of guitar pointing up in the air). If he keeps on with it and graduates to a full-sized guitar, I'll probably just buy a hard case, drill into the back and bolt pannier hooks onto it.
Cello a bit larger right enough but perhaps not impossible. Maybe take up violin instead?
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
There are plenty of stories of people carrying cello cases, folded Bromptons and the like strapped to a Bike-Hod."
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Parents to be targeted"? More like "Irresponsible law breakers to be targeted".
What does Neil Greig do, apart from come up with rentaquote "it's not as bad as people are making out" comments?
Posted 12 years ago # -
I was actually only being half serious (or at least, I hope Clair knows I was only half serious..) - I do know one musician who transports a tuba or similar on a brommy
And as always, the dutch are ahead of us...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Parked cars definitely dangerous, as they are usually not 'parked' but stopped and all too often pull out/reverse without checking mirrors for other road-users (as I have detailed here and on blog in boring detail)
Posted 12 years ago # -
Blue meanies.....................mmm !
Few years ago when my son was wee, at primary school, (the one near you Smudge )there was a reall problem with parents parking in the play ground, on the crossings and all over the road, in front of the shop, right at a junction etc.Notes went out from the school telling people that the police would be called and they would patrol, the police didnt turn up and the chaos still continued, the jannitor and a couple of parents and teachers took it upon themselves to try and move people on , only to be berated and abused , buy the parents who "needed" to drive.Only when the police actually did arrive did any change take place, but they still tried to park all over the place, trying to just drop of little johnny, without being noticed !This was in a village, everyone knew evryone else, and who was catually doing the parking !One woman actually used to park regularly in a place designated for a disabled teacher and would have to wait until the offending parent got her offspring safely into the playground so she could then remove her car, "its only 5 minutes" was her regular war cry !
what chance do we have ?Posted 12 years ago # -
"This was in a village, everyone knew evryone else
So you'd know how far people had come and who was going straight back home...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I see exactly the same at Guides (though on a lesser scale of severity) every Monday night in Penicuik throughout term time. What makes a mockery of it is that during the lighter nights of summer I try to cycle the ~30 mile round-trip most weeks. Parents are spending longer trying to park their car to drop their their daughters off and pick them up than they are actually driving from often less than 1.5 miles away.
I agree that cars certainly have their uses (and I wouldn't be without mine - though I use it perhaps once a week) but when the girls are arriving boisterous and difficult to control because they've had no exercise all day, I'm the one who gives them the opportunity and encouragement to let off steam. For some of them, this half an hour a week (for not even every week of the year) is virtually all the exercise they get. And you can tell.
The girls marvel at my shape and it's a bit of a competition to try to beat me at arm wrestling and press ups and sprinting, but I feel very strongly that it shouldn't be an unachievable target to be a fit and strong woman. I'm trying to instil confidence in these girls and help them realise that it's completely in their gift to be how they want to be. It's not rocket science but it is an uphill struggle with this generally lazy attitude so deeply ingrained in society.
My mother-in-law is a nursery teacher and she knows without asking which of her class are walked to nursery of a morning. Though I'm not a parent myself, I really struggle to understand how people can be so intrinsically lazy, particularly when the effect is so evident on their children.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"I really struggle to understand how people can be so intrinsically lazy, particularly when the effect is so evident on their children"
And obviously it's not just girls - though they are even more likely to be kept indoors - 'away from danger' - these days.
For all the talk of "stranger danger" there's more chance of harm from 'someone known to the family'.
Oh - and cars...
Posted 12 years ago # -
The defining feature at my children's school would not be gender but race. A wholly disproportionate number of those driven to school and disembarked right outside the gates by double parked vehicles are of indian subcontinent heritage, but not from the japanese, afro-carribean, or polish groups, so it isnt just a non-white/non-Scots issue.
Posted 12 years ago # -
mgj The same is true at our school - although there are also families of similar background who walk, so it is more complicated than it may seem.
I have written roughly the same post as you several times over the years and then deleted it. But it is true.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Cycled past Sciennes at coming out time on way to post office. Few parked cars but generally all seemed calm within the 20mph zone. Lots of walkers and children on scooters and bikes on pavement. One young lad (p7) on the road heading east towards cut through to Causewayside. Large 4x4 with headlights on caught him up after going by me. He did well to keep his place and did the right turn despite this. Could have done an over shoulder check but quite impressive on a road where there was only his bike and mine plus five times as many cars moving. Hope my observation doesn't cause trouble for him. Basically he was safe but would be nice if more could join him. Maybe one day.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
The Highway Code (@HighwayCodeGB)
21/11/2012 08:15You MUST NOT wait, park, or stop on school entrance markings when upright signs indicate a prohibition of stopping #HighwayCode rule 238
"
Posted 12 years ago # -
This morning outside JGPS there were two police traffic wardens; made no difference that I could see to the number of double parkers (both those I saw fitted my description above, but not very scientific), but kept the single parkers away from the entrance.
When two bright yellow coated wardens cant stop the double parking, notes home from the school certainly wont.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Story on the BBC today about a headteacher in Northampton who has had to take it upon herself to do something about dangerous driving by parents. I particularly love this comment:-
"One parent told me I was doing my job wrong and that I should be getting a multi-storey car park built in the playground," she said.
Displays the attitude nicely!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-25898338
Posted 11 years ago # -
<smug>Our three girls have between them thirty years of walking to school.</smug>
Posted 11 years ago #
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