Andy Leighton wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Sep 2007 09:02:39 +0100,
> JNugent <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Marc Brett wrote:
>>
>>> JNugent <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Marc Brett wrote:
>>>>> JNugent <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>> Geoff Lane wrote:
>>>>>>> I thought that I read an article a few days ago about a primary school who
>>>>>>> achieved zero cars on the school run and all the children walk or cycle to
>>>>>>> school.
>>>>>> What about the teachers?
>>>>> Don't you worry yerself, Mr. Nugent. There are still some people there
>>>>> who, like you, cling to their automothingies.
>>>> It is teachers, other school staff and term-time parents released from
>>>> school-holiday-absence from their jobs who make most of the traffic
>>>> difference between term-time and holiday-time.
>>> An interesting assertion. References?
>> Does it need proof?
>>
>> Why else would it be that the traffic (in the SE at least) drops
>> noticeably during school holidays even well outside the "school run"
>> times? You can feel the difference at 06:45 and at 17:45, not just at
>> dropping-off and picking-up time.
>>
>> Can you not see that all those people (as well as parents taking their
>> children taking to school - by whatever mode) travel in the rush hour
>> during term-time but do not do so during school holidays and half-term?
>
> Hmm. Let us consider a primary school of say 300 pupils.
>
> They would have 1 head, 1 admin person, at most 20 teachers and support
> staff, maybe a few dinner ladies and a cleaner. Even if all those drove
> it still wouldn't be that many. But still quite a problem if the school
> has to provide parking places.
As an example take my Junior school. 297 pupils, I head, 2 admin, 9
class teachers, 23 LSA/School support staff, 1 SEN, 6 lunch supervisors,
5 kitchen staff inc cook, 5 cleaning staff, 1 caretaker(me). Some of
whom are part-time and not all work at the same time.
Out of all those only four walk to work, yet only two live more than 3
miles away. 3 use bicycles. The rest use their cars, none car-share.
All teachers, admin staff and LSA's use their cars.
Similarly at my Infant school, 275 pupils, 1 head, 2 admin, 10 class
teachers, dunno exactly LSA's etc as it changes frequently but the
school 'staff picture board' has 49 people on it, including me.
Only six walk to work (inc. me), six live more than five miles away, 2
cycle. Rest use cars, only two car-share. Again, all the teachers and
admin staff and most LSA's use their own cars. In addition there's a
Playgroup which has 4 staff, all of whom drive and a Nursery with 7
staff, 1 of whom cycles the rest drive.
* We did a study last year of just this problem as it's exascerbated for
us by having two schools on the same school field area, and accessed
'around the corner' from each other. It was noted that those most
highly paid staff (Teachers) were the only section to solely use cars,
and were the ones most unlikely to give them up, whatever the
alternative offered.
> A reasonable figure for pupils getting to school by car is 40% (although
> some schools do very well and have a much lower figure). Obviously a small
> proportion of those will be siblings. So I would say that would be
> around 100 cars nearly all of which would be trying to access the same
> road at approximately the same time.
>
> I think it is obvious which is the worse problem for congestion. But
> I would think that the school should also look at putting together a
> travel plan for staff as well as pupils. It would help set a good
> example for the kids if they see some of the teachers come in on bikes
> or walk. In fact they may well have already done this - I don't know
> and I guess you don't know either.
Teachers, it was noted, are almost desperate NOT to have to give up
their cars, however good an example it might set. The cleaners and
kitchen staff are the opnly people who use bikes to get to school.
Indeed, Teachers wouldn't even consider giving up their cars. All the
LSA's said they'd consider walking/cycling, with various reasons
(weather, convenience, fitness) being cited both for and against it.
Our big concern recently is that we're shortly to have a 'Community
Health Centre' built which will take up some (more) of the school
grounds, but the architects have promised more car-parking area too ....
We currently use a fair proportion of one side of the school fields for
car-parking. It's a quagmire in winter and I regularly have to bring my
Land-rover to pull cars/delivery trucks out.
Empirical numbers I know, but I think indicative of the problems faced
when trying to educate people into not using their cars. In this case
the educators (teachers) simply don't see any benefits. Indeed when
asked for a benefit/problem balance, they came up with so many problems
with not using their cars it was felt and agreed that the _BEST_
solution was to increase car-parking for staff and make the
entrance/exit gates wider. (We have problems with the gateposts
constantly being hit by female members of staff who have problems
fitting their cars through the gap!)
We are getting a 20 mph limit imposed on all the streets in the area of
the schools, and there are soon to be 'residents only' signs going up on
the most adjacent streets as parental parking is a major problem.
Indeed we close the school gates at 8.20 each moring and 3.15 each
afternoon so parents can't use the car parks to turn around in or drop
their kids off.
--
Paul - *** (mobile)
