Mandatory number plates for commuting to school

[mzjo]

Bicycle registration scheme always cost more to administer than their revenues return. I don't recall anywhere in the world with a current acheme.

M. Macron (M. Le Président) wants to bring one in in France as part of his new soopa doopa scheme to encourage people to use their bikes. It will be compulsary as I understand the news reports, along with a host of other solutions to non-existant problems. This one won(t cost much to administer (except to the poor cyclists, and who's concerned about them?). The FUBy will probably administer it to attract/coerce new members!

[ian]

Meandering up to our local pool/school earlier, about an hour before kicking out time, it was obvious that the car park is already overfull to the extent of staff parking on the double yellows of the access roads and driveways. I didn't count them, but that's a lot of cars for a modest secondary school. It's amazing how things change – when I was at school mumble years ago, there was space for about a half-dozen cars at the end of the playground. I guess some teachers parked on surrounding streets. There was no vehicular scrum though, most kids walked themselves or mums' (always mums') gathered outside. Of course, when the parents turn up, you may as well be starring in a new Mad Max movie.

To be fair, the school is a victim of the build-on-the-edge-of-town phenomenon (the better-located schools having been deemed unsuitable, closed and sold off cheap to property developers some years back). That said, it's not a big town and much of the catchment area will be within 20ish minutes walk, there's a school bus, and evidently, the barbarian hoards who walk past my house are getting the TfL bus down the valley and walking up the hill.

But anyway, I wouldn't ask any child to cycle there, even crossing the road is a bit fraught – it's a wide, 40mph road. The only saving grace is that at 8.30am and 3.30pm it's a line of slow-moving traffic.

All-in-all, it's a bit grim.

Very different in the US (though like everything it depends on the town, county, state etc.) – the local high school near my place in Connecticut had a drop-off area, but you needed a permit which you'd only get if your kid wasn't on a school bus route. Parking near the school was a serious no-no, the police were keen to issue tickets (it's how the town was funded) and under State law, all traffic violation tickets are double in a school zone. Which considering it's the US, home of the car-fueled society, seemed quite enlightened.

[Greenbank]

Here's the classic US footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLpCMdVcqTI

[Kim]

Here's the classic US footage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLpCMdVcqTI

Seemed a bit contrived, but when you read the description it appears to be an attempt to do SCIENCE with a new queueueueing arrangement, which they concluded didn't work.

I commend this approach.  Perhaps British schools could run similar experiments, perhaps testing the effect of parents trying *not* to cram their wankpanzers within 15mm of the school gate, or the effect of something we used to have called 'school buses'.

[Greenbank]

It was more to do with the sheer volume of monster trucks cars (admittedly I don't know the size of the school), including just how much they blocked the main road (in both directions). Of course things are different with a rural setting like the school in the video.

It's also an elementary school and it's rare here for primary schools to have school buses (well, very rarely for the infants anyway).

[quixoticgeek]

I commend this approach.  Perhaps British schools could run similar experiments, perhaps testing the effect of parents trying *not* to cram their wankpanzers within 15mm of the school gate, or the effect of something we used to have called 'school buses'.

Well we can see who you follow on Twitter :p

J

[Cudzoziemiec]

Interesting, but not at all surprising, that the only mention of driving in the school's notice was:

We were informed last week that one of our students was involved in a collision between their bicycle and a car, fortunately one which did not involve injury – but this has been a timely reminder that action is necessary.

and even then we don't know if the child cycled into a parked car, or cycled into a moving car, or was hit by a driver.

There was no driver. There was a car and a bicycle. And a student who was "involved".

[Cudzoziemiec]

if your kid wasn't on a school bus route.

And there is definitely no school bus.

[ian]

Interesting, but not at all surprising, that the only mention of driving in the school's notice was:

We were informed last week that one of our students was involved in a collision between their bicycle and a car, fortunately one which did not involve injury – but this has been a timely reminder that action is necessary.

and even then we don't know if the child cycled into a parked car, or cycled into a moving car, or was hit by a driver.

There was no driver. There was a car and a bicycle. And a student who was "involved".

Would I be cynical to assume the main focus of the exercise is more a concern about cars being scratched than child safety?

Re the US, I wasn't suggesting that it's better, just an example that it can be better. The US is very different, a motivated town and well-appointed school board with sufficient funding, and affluent educated parents quite often have the power to make things happen – while at a local level in the UK there's little power and at the county level, indifference. I've no idea how typical it is, I'm only familiar with schools near big university campuses and cities like Boston and New York, which may not scale to suburban Surrey.

[Kim]

I commend this approach.  Perhaps British schools could run similar experiments, perhaps testing the effect of parents trying *not* to cram their wankpanzers within 15mm of the school gate, or the effect of something we used to have called 'school buses'.

Well we can see who you follow on Twitter :p

Can you?  I thought 'wankpanzer' was a YACFism?

[Gattopardo]

Is this serious?  Or just another clueless fuckwit moaning about kids cycling.

No what does the highway code say about children cycling?

[Gattopardo]

I commend this approach.  Perhaps British schools could run similar experiments, perhaps testing the effect of parents trying *not* to cram their wankpanzers within 15mm of the school gate, or the effect of something we used to have called 'school buses'.

Well we can see who you follow on Twitter :p

Can you?  I thought 'wankpanzer' was a YACFism?

So did I.

Wasn't there a news item a while ago, about parents complaining about cars parking on the clearway outside a school.  The council sent a camera car and cctv the offenders and issued fines...  Now can we all guess who the cctv caught?

[tatanab]

I thought 'wankpanzer' was a YACFism?

It is from Ben Elton novels where motor vehicles tend to be in three categories, luxo-barge, toss-mobile and wank-panzer.

[quixoticgeek]

I commend this approach.  Perhaps British schools could run similar experiments, perhaps testing the effect of parents trying *not* to cram their wankpanzers within 15mm of the school gate, or the effect of something we used to have called 'school buses'.

Well we can see who you follow on Twitter :p

Can you?  I thought 'wankpanzer' was a YACFism?

Ian Walker, if NC4000 fame, used it in a tweet last week, and was picked up by a lot of cycle campaigners as an amusing, but accurate term.

Didn't know of it prior to that use. Maybe he got it from YACF... Or a YACFer...
J

[tatanab]

The Ben Elton novels I referred to are from the early 1990s, so predate YACF and its ancestors by some way.  I noticed "luxo-barge" being used in the motoring press last year.

[Kim]

I got it from YACF several years ago.  It's been a long time since I read a Ben Elton novel, but it certainly sounds like the sort of thing he'd come up with.

[ian]

I sort of thought I'd invented wankpanzer, it probably slipped into my consciousness from somewhere (possibly here), though I'm sure I've not read a Ben Elton novel.

I'm quite liking gammon wagon at the moment, the conveyance used by the sort of fat white middle-aged man who is always angry about something (and quite possibly everything)  – it's often a Range Rover, but any kind fat brontosaur poop-sized car will do. You know the type, their blood pressure is measured in metres-of-mercury.

Then there are the Main Suburban Battle Tanks piloted by distracted school-mums, sort of an absent-minded weapon of mass destruction. They're convinced that having a child means they need a car the size of Ikea to fit everything their child might possibly need during the first 40 or so years of their life. There's only a matter of time before Audi debut a 'car' the size of a NASA Launch Vehicle Manoeuvring Platform. That way if they crash into anything smaller than a battleship (given the way some of them drive on the school run that's not entirely unlikely) they're intent on coming off best.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Veering wildly off course, like a warship on double yellows, but the "risky driving group" seems to have changed over the last few years. It used to be boy racers who blitzed past you. Now it seems all the boy racers (including those who are girls) are well behaved. They might even be Friends of Cyclists. So it's common, out in the lanes or the sub[urb et ubi]s, to find a long line of razzed up Subaru Imprezzas and similar waiting patiently behind you, their massive spoilers and wings temporarily muted. Come to a wider section and they pass, at reasonable speed and well over the white line, before screeching into the distance. It's the commuters nowadays who seem to pass closest and most impatiently. I guess losing a race isn't such a big deal as getting a bollocking from boss or head teacher for being late signing on or picking up.

[Ben T]

Veering wildly off course, like a warship on double yellows, but the "risky driving group" seems to have changed over the last few years. It used to be boy racers who blitzed past you. Now it seems all the boy racers (including those who are girls) are well behaved. They might even be Friends of Cyclists. So it's common, out in the lanes or the sub[urb et ubi]s, to find a long line of razzed up Subaru Imprezzas and similar waiting patiently behind you, their massive spoilers and wings temporarily muted. Come to a wider section and they pass, at reasonable speed and well over the white line, before screeching into the distance. It's the commuters nowadays who seem to pass closest and most impatiently. I guess losing a race isn't such a big deal as getting a bollocking from boss or head teacher for being late signing on or picking up.

It could also be that they've got black boxes.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The racer boys and girls? Could be, but that doesn't seem to restrain them once they've overtaken. It's the careful way they overtake that's the striking thing.

[Kim]

Veering wildly off course, like a warship on double yellows, but the "risky driving group" seems to have changed over the last few years. It used to be boy racers who blitzed past you. Now it seems all the boy racers (including those who are girls) are well behaved.

I've had similar thoughts.  The main threat from boy racers is that they'll throw the remains of their McDonalds (or the dozen eggs they must keep in the glove compartment just in case) at you, rather than bad driving.  Evidence of participation in some form of actual motorsport, rather than simply kevving up hatchbacks, is usually a good sign - I assume because they have nothing to prove when they're on the road.  I suspect insurance premiums are a strong influencing factor.

[Ben T]

The racer boys and girls? Could be, but that doesn't seem to restrain them once they've overtaken. It's the careful way they overtake that's the striking thing.

Don't know.

I do know that the ratio of noise made to progress is higher for boy racer cars to other cars so could be that they seem to be racing off but are actually still only going 30mph in 2nd.

It could be that they respect cyclists, which is possible, but doesn't explain any noticeable shift from some time ago to recently.

[hellymedic]

You know the type, their blood pressure is measured in metres-of-mercury.

<science pedant>

I don't think blood pressure can exceed atmospheric! 

[Cudzoziemiec]

Evidence of participation in some form of actual motorsport, rather than simply kevving up hatchbacks, is usually a good sign - I assume because they have nothing to prove when they're on the road.  I suspect insurance premiums are a strong influencing factor.

Yeah, some of the best driving I've witnessed from that sort of vehicle has been around Castle Combe (which incidentally holds cycle races too), but I don't know if they've been competitors, spectators or just locals.

[Cudzoziemiec]

The racer boys and girls? Could be, but that doesn't seem to restrain them once they've overtaken. It's the careful way they overtake that's the striking thing.

Don't know.

I do know that the ratio of noise made to progress is higher for boy racer cars to other cars so could be that they seem to be racing off but are actually still only going 30mph in 2nd.

It could be that they respect cyclists, which is possible, but doesn't explain any noticeable shift from some time ago to recently.

Could be the increased popularity of and visibility of cycling. In the past, cyclists were simply geeks who couldn't afford to drive to work, now they're potential Wiggins-Froome-Thomases. Sort of thing.