Tuesday 14th August 2007

‘Exclusion zones’ planned around schools and shops

Drive less, walk more, save yourself and the planet, says report

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Setting up car ‘exclusion zones’ for frequently

Leave the car at home, says report

accessed areas could help tackle obesity and climate change, says the Institute for European Environmental Policy.

The report titled Unfit for Purpose, says that “Car use is clearly an important contributor to the decline in physical activity." In congested areas where local shops, schools and other services exist, the ‘zones’ could be introduced to help people understand the importance of physical activity and help them ‘commit’ to walking.

The extra walking, the report says, could displace at least 11 million tonnes of CO2 from cars – amounting to 15.4% of the total emissions from passenger cars.

The report also says that large scale behavioural

Don't drive your kids to school. Make them walk

change interventions will cost millions of pounds to implement and will need to be maintained over the long term. But these costs are dwarfed by those incurred by the NHS and society through inactivity, ill-health and premature death.

Carolina Valsecchi, from IEEP, said: “The twin crises of obesity and climate change are clearly interlinked through the switch from muscle power to engine power for transport. Concerted action is needed to reverse both these trends.”

[mwmackenzie]

Yep, good idea but what will actually happen is your just moving the congestion up the road a bit!! It'll be worse!! They might even provide car parks and then make money from you dropping your kids off at school!!!!!

Mark

[nicedude1976]

Back to the dark ages. Street lighting being removed (A40 - Paddington Flyover for instance), cars being gradually banned & overtaxed, "public" transport ridiculously priced. Average people gradually immobilised. Welcome to New Britain. Mind you, if I'm skinny maybe I can stile drive ?
Not that driving everywhere is the best idea...

Edited by nicedude1976 on Tuesday 14th August 10:44

[PetrolTed]

...and if you live near a school are you to be banned from driving between 8am and 9am.

More ill thought out knee jerk nonsense.

Freedom as we knew it 20+ years ago is gone forever.

[crankedup]

Mayor of London sets good example

[motormania]

PetrolTed said:

...and if you live near a school are you to be banned from driving between 8am and 9am.

More ill thought out knee jerk nonsense.

Freedom as we knew it 20+ years ago is gone forever.

Just what I was thinking...

I live some 30 odd miles away from the office I work at, and on the route in the morning as I approach the office based in Hitchin, I pass at least three school entrances, so are they saying I will not be able to drive on that piece of road outside a school?

If so, I could see my 30 odd mile drive each morning becoming 40 or 50 miles as I have to be diverted onto back roads not fit for purpose which equals more fuel used, more wear and tear of the car and longer journeys to work.

Have these people really thought it out???

Edited by motormania on Tuesday 14th August 11:15

[jon-]

motormania said:

PetrolTed said:

...and if you live near a school are you to be banned from driving between 8am and 9am.

More ill thought out knee jerk nonsense.

Freedom as we knew it 20+ years ago is gone forever.

Just what I was thinking...

I live some 30 odd miles away from the office I work at, and on the route in the morning as I approach the office based in Hitchin, I pass at least three school entrances, so are they saying I will not be able to drive on that piece of road outside a school?

If so, I could see my 30 odd mile drive each morning becoming 40 or 50 miles as I have to be diverted onto back roads not fit for purpose which equals more fuel used, more wear and tear of the car and longer journeys to work.

Have these people really thought it out???

Edited by motormania on Tuesday 14th August 11:15

You're right, not the smartest idea but I'm sure you'll agree, anything that encourages kids to walk / take the bus is a good thing for the roads. I live in hitchin and with the schools off I can be in St Albans in 29 minutes, come october that will be 1h 15 minutes.

[Tris]

Oh my god I hate this government! Why do we not rise up and overthrow our evil environmentally obsessed tyrants?!? This Co2 non-sense really is going too far, a report released last week from NASA read that actually climate scientists had made an 'error' and that the hottest year on record was 1933 not 1998, hmmm proof positive that more cars equals global warming then! All I can think of is that some people somewhere are making an awful lot of money from this half-baked and UN-PROVEN theory of Co2 influencing climate change. In fact if you read some info on NASA's website 87% of Co2 comes from the sea! .04% from cars and 7% aviation.
So please for the love of god will the people who still have sense please stand up against the eco-mentalists. Otherwise like the bloke said, we will be reversing all the progress towards equality and freedom to travel that we have made in the last 100 years which ultimately would be the biggest crime of all.

[GingerNinja]

Well that conclusion is in direct conflict with this, indicating driving to the shops is better for the environment than walking....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/a...

[mat205125]

Get School mums off of the roads at rush hour. Remove there badly and selfishly driven 4x4s from stopping and blocking traffic to allow their spawn out of the car?

Is this the holy grail? Is this finally a sensible suggestion that could actually easy congestion, and improve the safety of road users and pedestrians alike?

[sad61t]

I'm waiting for the ban on central heating. Not only would this save fuel (the biggest user of energy in domestic households) that we're using to heat the atmosphere (evil, evil people), but we'd need to burn fat reserves to stay warm, thus reducing obesity. Plus, as pensioners are particularly susceptible to the cold, it would solve the pension crisis.

It's a winning solution. Or should that be final solution...

[Timberwolf]

I suspect the moratorium would be on parking, rather than on driving through - you'd be a bit hard pressed to get anywhere without driving past either a school or a parade of shops!

It would be a bit harsh on people who worked/lived near the aforementioned and had to park on the road, though, even so.

It would make a lot of sense to provide a sensible pickup/dropoff area about five or ten minutes' walk from schools where parking outside is difficult, it's a traffic nightmare as drivers are parking, pulling out and then trying to turn round all within the space of five minutes, often on roads where it's really not a good idea to be stopping in the first place.

As for towns, I've always parked on the outskirts and walked in, I can't see the point in spending half an hour burning my petrol fund in a traffic jam when I can park further away and spend five minutes walking there. In a way, banning parking from outside the shops would disadvantage me as I suspect the cheap/free car parks and quiet side streets wouldn't be quite so easy to get to, or for that matter quite so cheap, if everyone had to use them.

[beefcake#42]

as a better way of combating fat kids and removing co2. Turn the electricity to the schools off.. Get the fat kids on exercise bikes connected to a dymo..

no fat kids

no carbon bum print

no need to ban people from getting on with thier lives.

[motormania]

Timberwolf said:

It would make a lot of sense to provide a sensible pickup/dropoff area about five or ten minutes' walk from schools where parking outside is difficult, it's a traffic nightmare as drivers are parking, pulling out and then trying to turn round all within the space of five minutes, often on roads where it's really not a good idea to be stopping in the first place.

This is not the answer, all you've done is move the problem away from the School entrance!!!

When I was at school, back in the 70/80's no one came via car. Everyone either walked (who lived nearby) cycled or was picked up by buses.

Once we have sorted out the school run, then we need to solve the problem of getting haulage off the roads and getting it back on the rail network where it belongs.

As for fat kids, this is because the Tory government encouraged schools back in the 80's to sell off playing fields for development.

However there is another way...

An alternative to the school run is to enforce that all schools must provide breakfast and afterschool clubs. We now live in a society where the vast majority of both parents work and if we didn't all get forced to drop off within a 10 minute period in the mornings then the traffic would not build up.

I'd love to drop my son's off as I go to work at 7.30am in the morning and then either my wife or I would collect them from school when we finished work at 5.30, rather than paying overpriced child minders to collect our children at 3.30!! Afterschool clubs would get kids active again, keep them off the streets and enable less educated ones to get further education in a safe environment. Those children who do not have a proper breakfast could get it at school in the morning.

This would solve a lot of our problems, and save money in the long term, but we have a government who do not think in the long term and just see the initial outlay they would have to invest for more staff and facilities at all UK schools to solve the problem.

They'd rather spend vast sums of money (OUR MONEY BY THE WAY!!!!!) on an illegal war that is killing our men and women for a cuase that no one believes in, unless you are that American Oil barran Bush !!

I'll stand down from my soap box now

Edited by motormania on Tuesday 14th August 12:22

[Timberwolf]

motormania said:

Timberwolf said:

It would make a lot of sense to provide a sensible pickup/dropoff area about five or ten minutes' walk from schools where parking outside is difficult, it's a traffic nightmare as drivers are parking, pulling out and then trying to turn round all within the space of five minutes, often on roads where it's really not a good idea to be stopping in the first place.

This is not the answer, all you've done is move the problem away from the School entrance!!!

Ah. But is it as much of a problem if you find a decent off road bit of tarmac to stop and turn around, somewhere with good access, than in the middle of a town centre or congested commuter route?

Also, we had a scheme like this when I went to school (no dropping off outside school gates, use a car park some distance from the school), enforcing at least a small walk does dramatically reduce the number of people doing school runs without overly inconveniencing those who live miles away.

[imfinlay]

There are almost no fat kids at my kids' school. Guess why?

They have playing fields and play competitive sports, and use the facilities multiple times per week per class.

Thanks to money-grabbing politicians selling off playing fields, and the lentilistas objecting to any competition, we can't drive out kids to school. Is that the idea?

[simba1]

And i asked my labour MP why we should provide free travel in public tranport for under 16/18 and was reminded it's to reduce congestion due to the school run. Of course this did not happen but instead now he kids will travel in the buses to the town centres anytime of the day to cause mayhem. I have actually witnessed a mob get in a bus only to alight at the next stop 50 metres down the road. Alot more calories burnt just to get on and off the bus than walk, me thinks.

[Spunagain]

And how does this play with their other proposal to make school places decided by lottery and not by catchment (i.e proximity to the school) so many more kids could wind up living miles from their school?

They just don't talk to each other do they?

[DannyR]

GingerNinja said:

Well that conclusion is in direct conflict with this, indicating driving to the shops is better for the environment than walking....

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/a...

No one noticed this when i posted it upon becoming a newbie

[Seven Smiles]

"Get the fat kids on exercise bikes connected to a dymo.."

What? And have the place knee-deep in plastic strips with slightly wonky lettering?

Edited by Seven Smiles on Tuesday 14th August 13:26

[sideways11]

[quote=mat205125]Get School mums off of the roads at rush hour. Remove there badly and selfishly driven 4x4s from stopping and blocking traffic to allow their spawn out of the car?

Here we go. Another 4x4 basher who clearly beleives his entitlement to the roads during the rush hour is greater than others. What a saddo!