Cars

[Moon Maiden 10]

Taken really from some comments made in the bus strile forum. There was something on the early morning news about how a new satelite tracking system could be used to invoice people for travelling in their cars at peak times??

 

It is supposed to tackle congestion on the roads. To which they started going on about parents on the 'school run'.

 

What is this school run??? Have legs become useless???

 

Moon Maiden

[Cycleracer 10]

May be this is a wind up but the school run is parents, mainly mums taking there kids to and from school in there cars.

This adds to the mysery of the congestion caused by folk getting to and from work.

The tracking system will be fitted to all cars but the good point to this is that the tracking system can be used to detect stolen cars.

The school run actually is a big contributer to congestion as most journeys are short and not neccasery.

[mikey 10]

The school run traffic congestion is added to by pupils coming from out of catchment area.

 

Local kids going to local schools = reduction in traffic

 

simple equation

[DaBouncer 13]

Originally posted by "mikey"

 

The school run traffic congestion is added to by pupils coming from out of catchment area.

 

Local kids going to local schools = reduction in traffic

 

simple equation

Maybe if the government were to adopt the American view and put on Government funded school buses the congestion would slim down considerabley.

 

I'm not one for using my car a lot, but I don't like the idea of this tax at all. Just another example of Rip-Off Britain IMHO.

I'd rather people protested outside the petrols depots again and bring the Government to it's knees.

 

F****** Labour!

[Mike 10]

I think another thing that fuels the amount of people making the school run is the paranoia about "stranger danger" - many parents are too scared to let their kids walk to school for fear of them being snatched, despite this being no more likely than it ever has been.

 

I remember reading somewhere about "walking busses" (can't remember the exact term used) which I think is a great idea. Basically the kids are escorted to the school along a "bus" route, guided by responsible adults. Of course, there's no bus, everyone is walking, but it means there's an adult to guide the kids, and the kids are never on their own in the dark streets, etc.

 

Has the added bonus of a bit of exercise for the rapidly fattening population.

[Moon Maiden 10]

many parents are too scared to let their kids walk to school for fear of them being snatched, despite this being no more likely than it ever has been.

 

Just a thought, but have you noticed when a wanring goes out from a school about a vehicle and it's occupants trying to entice youngsters the car is ALWAYS white??

 

Moon Maiden

[DaBouncer 13]

Originally posted by "Mike"

 

I think another thing that fuels the amount of people making the school run is the paranoia about "stranger danger" - many parents are too scared to let their kids walk to school for fear of them being snatched, despite this being no more likely than it ever has been.

 

I remember reading somewhere about "walking busses" (can't remember the exact term used) which I think is a great idea. Basically the kids are escorted to the school along a "bus" route, guided by responsible adults. Of course, there's no bus, everyone is walking, but it means there's an adult to guide the kids, and the kids are never on their own in the dark streets, etc.

 

Has the added bonus of a bit of exercise for the rapidly fattening population.

I very much like that idea. It would give the kids exercise. But what do you do in rain/sleet/snow?

[Moon Maiden 10]

I very much like that idea. It would give the kids exercise. But what do you do in rain/sleet/snow?

 

Extra layers of clothes, wellies and some waterproofs. Illness and allergy rate may drop then too.

 

Moon Maiden

[Mike 10]

Originally posted by "DaBouncer"

 

But what do you do in rain/sleet/snow?

Yeah, it'll give them some extra "moral fibre" - bit of rain never hurt anyone (says he, who never walks anywhere!)

 

If the weather is *that* bad, then mummy can always use the 4x4....

[DaBouncer 13]

I can't see many parents wanting/allowing their kids to be escorted to school in the weather I described.

[Mike 10]

Here we go - knew I'd seen it somewhere before:

 

http://www.walkingschoolbus.org/

 

Not sure if I've ever heard of one in Sheffield, but one of those links has a link to a friends of the earth document on how to set one up - nothing to stop somebody going for it.

[Phanerothyme 12]

Originally posted by "DaBouncer"

 

The school run traffic congestion is added to by pupils coming from out of catchment area.

 

Local kids going to local schools = reduction in traffic

 

simple equation

Maybe if the government were to adopt the American view and put on Government funded school buses the congestion would slim down considerabley.

 

I'm not one for using my car a lot, but I don't like the idea of this tax at all. Just another example of Rip-Off Britain IMHO.

 

If its a rip off, don't buy it, that's my advice. You can always get it somewhere else cheaper.

 

I'd rather people protested outside the petrols depots again and bring the Government to it's knees.

 

F****** Labour!

You think the Tories would be any different?

 

After all it was the Tories who introduced the 'fuel duty escalator', the mechanism by which fuel duty was automatically increased every year, regardless of the cost of oil. Labour abolished it and now all increases in fuel duty go through the budget and are adjusted to account for changing oil prices. And that all happened way before the blockade.

 

As for protesting outside petrol depots again, all that did was make the UK genuinely the laughing stock of Europe.

 

Really, I heard little else but snorts and howls laughter from my European resident friends that people would be so stupid as to deliberately engineer a fuel crisis to try and force the government to lower fuel duty when petrol companies put the price up. One of the few times I felt compelled to point out to befuddled overseas visitors to Sheffield that 'No, I wasn't British, and yes they are crazy'. (normally you can't tell I'm not English)

 

I almost wept with laughter at the pathetic panic buying, survivalist mode so many people got into; I would have laughed had it not been so tragically dim. But still not as dim as the HGV drivers (none of whom use petrol) who blockaded fuel depots, not realising that they were were trying to blackmail the government into reducing fuel taxation, by threatening a total breakdown of civil and commercial day to day life.

 

I have no doubt whatsoever that any government, whatever their complexion, would have taken the strongest measures possible in order to break the blockade, including the use of force, because they were endangering the lives and livelihoods of others for the sake of extra pounds in their pockets.

 

As it stands this country runs on petrol as much as it does on oxygen. Blockading the supply of either is like taking a big dump in your own paddling pool.

 

The problem with the car is that we've been wedded to it for 60 years or more, we have built our country our cities and our habits around it and since we're all conservative types and hate change. we're loath to give them up.

 

I have a car. I hate the thing. I need it to get to work 2 days a week, my better half uses it the other 3 to get to work. We both want jobs in sheffield so we can get rid of the great smelly thing.

 

Cars have seduced us into the 'instant gratification' culture of doing things when and where you want to, rather than learning a little retraint, patience and forethought. It's not just cars, and it's not necessarily a bad thing, buit it caters more for the egotist inside us than the altruist.

 

We should have like Poland, a ministry of hitch-hiking.