Cycling on TV tonight

[PrettyboyTim]

Bit disappointing it's not up on the BBC iPlayer. I would love to see the bit with that woman complaining that the parking tickets would start coming out of her clothes money again...

 

[vbc]

It was far more balanced and fair than I thought it would be, just a shame it was so London centric.

 

[magnatom]

Bit disappointing it's not up on the BBC iPlayer. I would love to see the bit with that woman complaining that the parking tickets would start coming out of her clothes money again...

LOL! My wife was reading a book at the time, half paying attention. She dropped the book when she heard this comment. I think it was because she found what the woman said hysterical and not because she was worried about parking tickets eating into her clothing budget........ I think

 

[cannondale boy]

Watched the programme very interesting to a point. I think we just live in a culture of which if an object is in front of us we need to get past and get to our destination quicker. Pointless when you might shave seconds off your journey. I thought the school run was a nightmare, there is no infrastructure and i think the council are to blame with that one, but not completely. You do have to stress that parents with 4x4's, vans, what other big sized vehicle are taking up half the road, on a narrow road...complete idiots! If you can afford a big car, surely you can more or less buy a small car to do the school run. Its greed, and who rules the road that is the problem. Britain needs to adapt like other countries, of solving a way through this spaghetti junction. Others will know that cycle lanes start for 200yards (if that) then end, but why...a)did the paint run out b)didn't have enough time so the workers called it a day or c)No one really planned it properly. If we had cycle lanes that worked properly, and the lanes that were smooth, then i think that there would be a divide between car and bike in a proper manner. Which would result in safety in some aspect.

 

[walker]

the school run made me laugh, the man that was complaining about someone doing their Job getting in the way of his half mile trip to the school. He clearly had far to much money and no common sense at all, idiot.

 

[LLB]

Watched the programme very interesting to a point. I think we just live in a culture of which if an object is in front of us we need to get past and get to our destination quicker. Pointless when you might shave seconds off your journey. I thought the school run was a nightmare, there is no infrastructure and i think the council are to blame with that one, but not completely. You do have to stress that parents with 4x4's, vans, what other big sized vehicle are taking up half the road, on a narrow road...complete idiots! If you can afford a big car, surely you can more or less buy a small car to do the school run. Its greed, and who rules the road that is the problem. Britain needs to adapt like other countries, of solving a way through this spaghetti junction. Others will know that cycle lanes start for 200yards (if that) then end, but why...a)did the paint run out b)didn't have enough time so the workers called it a day or c)No one really planned it properly. If we had cycle lanes that worked properly, and the lanes that were smooth, then i think that there would be a divide between car and bike in a proper manner. Which would result in safety in some aspect.

The problem is the school run itself, not the fact that large or small cars are being used. In my town over the last 40 years, I have noticed the closing of many schools, and the vast enlargement of one or two to fulfill the requirement. The prices of houses in most areas is governed by the catchment for the local schools, and parents will drive their kids miles to get them into decent schools. Much of this problem has been created not by the parents, but by the LEA, and central government policy.

As for the big car assumption, the money to run any vehicle is a finite resource. Running two cars is much more costly than running one due to insurance, VED, MOT & servicing as well as storage for the 'spare car' whilst not in use.

 

[magnatom]

The problem is the school run itself, not the fact that large or small cars are being used. In my town over the last 40 years, I have noticed the closing of many schools, and the vast enlargement of one or two to fulfill the requirement. The prices of houses in most areas is governed by the catchment for the local schools, and parents will drive their kids miles to get them into decent schools. Much of this problem has been created not by the parents, but by the LEA, and central government policy.

As for the big car assumption, the money to run any vehicle is a finite resource. Running two cars is much more costly than running one due to insurance, VED, MOT & servicing as well as storage for the 'spare car' whilst not in use.

Come on linford! The real problem is that a lot of these people (not all) are too lazy to walk the 500 yards to school. If they walked there would be no problem.
I probably walked about a 1.5 miles each day to my primary school with no problems at all come all weathers. Why can't these kids walk a few hundred yards?

Oh and linford tell your avatar that Christmas is over

 

[LLB]

Come on linford! The real problem is that a lot of these people (not all) are too lazy to walk the 500 yards to school. If they walked there would be no problem.
I probably walked about a 1.5 miles each day to my primary school with no problems at all come all weathers. Why can't these kids walk a few hundred yards?

Oh and linford tell your avatar that Christmas is over

Its Christmas every day in Linford Land, Its resting on my other PC

I'm not defending these people in the documentary, but we are fortunate that our kids schools were within easy walking distance (1/2 mile each way) from home, and I can count on one hand how often the eldest was driven there in 12 years of education. This was within stark contrast of the 75 mile round trip I was driving every day last year whilst she was commuting from home to the nearest college whci she could do her course which was hard on her, me, the car (worn it out and scrapped in 8 months), and the environment as a whole. Better now as she is residential there, but some parents do this for years as the local choices just aren't there any more !

 

[wafflycat]

Come on linford! The real problem is that a lot of these people (not all) are too lazy to walk the 500 yards to school. If they walked there would be no problem.
I probably walked about a 1.5 miles each day to my primary school with no problems at all come all weathers. Why can't these kids walk a few hundred yards?

Oh and linford tell your avatar that Christmas is over

My offspring regularly cycled the 11-mile round trip to high school and then the 26-mile round trip to sixth-form college. In all weathers. He survived and he's developed far more 'road sense' than his non-cycling peers for the most part.

 

[the reluctant cyclist]

Whilst it is sad that the kiddies don't walk to school any more and I can't see an excuse for parents who are not working (and therefore simply dropping the kiddies off at the school on thier way in) to not walk them to school I did agree last night with what the Jeep driver said about his child trying to cycle on those roads. What a nightmare they were because of all the cars - I think they said there were 1,000 for the school run.

Until all the cars aren't there I would agree that it is a dangerous cycle area - I couldn't like to do it myself. It's a shame because it would be lovely to start children cycling to school so that as adults its more automatic.

What they need is one of those cordened off cycle lanes like in Belgium and a couple of parents/teachers to supervise a load of children to cycle in that way - never happen in a month of Sundays though will it?!

By us they have a "walking bus" which is great and they pick the kids up on the way!

I think the biggest problem with traffic congestion and therefore most of the problems on that whole programe is people driving to work in their car on their own - traffic jams are always a sea of cars with one person in them.

Wonder when that is going to be properly addressed?

 

[MartinC]

I watched yhis program and my immediated reaction was that it wasn't too bad - covered a lot of angles and wasn't a rant. But then I thought about it. What it was doing was showing all the fringe groups in the traffic problem. The 'ordinary' motorist who just uses their car too much and is too impatient wasn't part of the program at all. It never addressed the central problem that there just isn't space for everyone to use cars as much as they like.

 

[walker]

When I was at School, I walked the whole 2.9 miles (It was 2.9 as the school wouldn't give me a bus pass as I wasn't over 3 miles). Seems like some of the Parents today don't think its safe enough to let their children into the wilderness.

 

[HLaB]

When I was at School, I walked the whole 2.9 miles (It was 2.9 as the school wouldn't give me a bus pass as I wasn't over 3 miles). Seems like some of the Parents today don't think its safe enough to let their children into the wilderness.

I lived about 400 yards short of 3 miles and I walked for two years until I got jumped by folk from another school , it was the bus after then for a year . My little sister then went to the school too and then it was the car .