Mandatory number plates for commuting to school

[MattH]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-45636870

Apparently it's for the safety of the children and to encourage cycling. They won't be allowed into school on their bikes, nor allowed to lock them up on school premises, unless they are showing a school issued number plate.

[hulver]

Yes, because number plates on cars work so well in stopping vehicles performing stupid manoeuvres near schools. 

[Cudzoziemiec]

It's a similar logic to slaloms, barriers and other forms of Silly Sustrans Gate. The basic thinking is that cycling (and to a lesser extent walking) facilities have firstly to minimise danger in various ways, rather than increase convenience, and this will somehow encourage people to ride. Never mind the trouble, feel the safety!

[Kim]

I assume this is actually a number plate, of a size readable by a random member of the public for identifying troublemakers, rather than some sort of identifying tag for matching parked bikes with their owners (which I could see being reasonable to prevent vandalism, for example).  Which makes me wonder who's paying for them, who's ensuring that they're installed in a manner that doesn't create a potential hazard, and how they're preventing fraud.  Because if it's an easily-imitated Mk 1 bit of laminated card held on with zip-ties (ID number in Comic Sans, because school), it's surely going inspire bullies with an exciting new way to get their victims into trouble.

Anyway, why not go the whole hog and mandate prison numbers on their school uniform?  Surely it's not just the BloodyCyclists who commit petty crime and/or intimidate people by Being Young In Public.   

[trekker12]

If I were a parent - and tbh thank goodness I'm not in this modern society - my kid would go to school with a note in their pocket, having copied it to the head and board of governors explaining why I think this is a silly idea and that if they refuse to allow my child to lock their bike up I will hold them responsible for it's theft.

There is no law preventing anyone cycling to school and I'm sure somewhere in the local council documentation there will be a cycling facilities policy ensuring this is accessible for all.

It won't be policed anyway, the article says the school will ensure this rather than anyone outside of the school. Well, mrs trekker is a high school teacher and on account of all the other paperwork being dumped on her desk she occasionally has time to attend her duty post* but not always and there's at least half of her colleagues who never bother with duty at all.

*From what I can work out mrs trekkers duty post mostly consists of wearing a hi-viz jacket whilst dodging 4x4/SUVs mounting the kerb over the zig-zags and causing various other chaos, but that's not dangerous enough for anyone to do anything about.

[ian]

I wonder how many children actually cycle to the school anyway, it's quite possible the school is aiming for a negative number. I'd imagine even a perfunctory understanding of teenage psychology would uncover the flaw in their plan (our school tried to make us take the cycling proficiency thing, death by ignominy for a BMXer, so erm no). Possibly teenagers have changed since I was one, but I'd have a few doubts.

I mentioned elsewhere that it shows the intentional invisibility of our driving culture. It's easier to ignore an actual problem (one that actually kills and injures children, not to mention the pollution and other collateral negative effects) and replace it with a made-up problem that can be 'solved' (or some measure of solved).

[sizbut]

Its another headteacher gone "I am the ruler of all the world and all shall bow to me" mad as in wrong shoes, wrong hair, wrong brand uniform, wrong, wrong, wrong, do as I say. Except in this case its an "Executive Head Teacher" which is a new one on me but presumably means 'pay me more'.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Ian's point is one that we should all be reminded of regularly. The very ordinariness of driving blinds us to how unnormal its normality is.

[Kim]

Ian's point is one that we should all be reminded of regularly. The very ordinariness of driving blinds us to how unnormal its normality is.

From last weekends FNRttC:

Rider behind #1: There's a lot of these [Mobikes]!
Rider behind #2: They do look awful littered around everywhere though.
Me: Yeahbut, so do the cars, and they take up way more space.  You just don't notice because it's normal.

[bobb]

I wonder how many children actually cycle to the school anyway

I live opposite a school and I can tell you how many children cycle. None. They're all dropped off by very orange women in SUVs. And they constantly park across my driveway and that pisses me off immensly...

[ian]

I'm sure I pointed out the irony of local councils (and residents) fretting about hire bikes 'blocking the pavement.' It's the same process as endless worrying about the menace of pavement cycling while ignoring that pavement driving – a practice that kills and injures with grim regularity, not to mention makes pavements unpleasant and often unusable  – is absolutely the norm.

No one cycles at the school I walk to. Tbh, the road that runs by it is uncycleable, so you'd only make a child do it if you really disliked them and fancied trying for a better one. It's a modern irony that one of the stated reasons for driving children to and from school is the danger of traffic.

[DuncanM]

A few kids cycle to my daughters (primary) school, and loads (>>100) cycle to the secondary at which my wife works. Oxford is (supposedly) a cycling city. 
And yet I was sitting in (yet another) traffic jam this morning taking my daughter to school thinking "I wish we could cycle - it would be quicker and much more pleasant". Sadly, even here, about half the route would be on narrow city roads choked with cars and busses, and that's not a situation she would be comfortable/safe in.
Thinking about it, I've not seen the schoolkids riding dangerously though. Students, deliveroo people, people in NHS uniforms, random other adults who should know better, but not kids in school uniform.

[ian]

I think it tells us everything that we need to know that they're more concerned with a child cycling along a pavement than a 3 tonne SUV doing the same thing.

[Woofage]

I wonder how many children actually cycle to the school anyway

I live opposite a school and I can tell you how many children cycle. None. They're all dropped off by very orange women in SUVs. And they constantly park across my driveway and that pisses me off immensly...

Get some YPLaC stickers 

[Wanlock Dod]

I think it tells us everything that we need to know that they're more concerned with a child cycling along a pavement than a 3 tonne SUV doing the same thing.

Many a time I have come very close to buying a whole load of (suitably hi-viz) stickers declaring "I drive on pavements"

(click to show/hide)

Last time the main reason I didn't buy them was that cheap ones are rather small, and it might take me many lifetimes to hand out all enough to be worthwhile on my own

Does anybody know where I can get some YPLaC stickers?

[Cudzoziemiec]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Idiot-Sticker-Decal-Bumper-Vinyl/dp/B071KV9MJJ
https://www.etsy.com/uk/market/bad_parking_cards
etc

[ScumOfTheRoad]

I must say that I lived in the Swiss Canton of Geneva 30 years ago. As a penniless oaf student.
You have to have a numberplate on your bike there. You go to the local Post Office (everything governmental is handled by the post office in Switzerland). You purchase a yearly plaque velo which has a number of it and the fee covers third party insurance. Nowadays I gather that it has become a sticker for the bike.
The Swiss, being law abiding people, all seemed to have one.

[Greenbank]

The Swiss abandoned that years ago: https://www.yearinitials.com/about?lang=en

[LittleWheelsandBig]

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

[mattc]

Does anybody know where I can get some YPLaC stickers?

If anyone else didn't know what YPLaC stands for, I suggest you google it. But not while drinking hot fluids. Best laugh today 

[The Family Cyclist]

Our local secondary schools have heads and they are overseen by a executive head as part of an academy organisation.

I left the office when this was on Jeremy Vine as don't like him and wasn't expecting any sense. My kids cycle or walk and are generally in the minority with the minorities who aspire to be like the masses and driving.

I'd happily put a plate on their bikes if it meant the idiot drivers were dealt with as well as anyone causing trouble on bikes but really who is going to deal with it anyway.

[Jurek]

Does anybody know where I can get some YPLaC stickers?

If anyone else didn't know what YPLaC stands for, I suggest you google it. But not while drinking hot fluids. Best laugh today 

Boom! 

[Arellcat]

Mr Amin said the measure was in response to incidents of children cycling in a way that "endangers themselves and others".

As anyone who cycled as a child will know, this is equivalent to "children cycling like children" and is not in and of itself dangerous: lesson-learning perhaps.  All that charging about, pulling wheelies…they'll be wearing their blazers inside out next.  I suspect that it's not really about cycling or safety at all, but protecting the school's public image.

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.

[Butterfly]

I wonder how many children actually cycle to the school anyway

I live opposite a school and I can tell you how many children cycle. None. They're all dropped off by very orange women in SUVs. And they constantly park across my driveway and that pisses me off immensly...

Since the first place I saw this was the letter tweeted by the owner of a local bike shop, who had, I think, received that letter as a parent, I suspect there are a few pupils cycling - 1 at least. I've seen some kids cycling to the school, but we moved away 18 months ago, so I couldn't say how many do now.

[Greenbank]

There is hope.

My daughter's school (admittedly in a bit of London where you only get a place if you live within about 1000m as the crow flies, but some people do move away when their families grow):-

* 5% bus/walk
* 5% cycle (school has zero space for cycle storage so bikes in public racks nearby)
* 10% driven (although some are getting the message to park safely a few roads away and walk the last bit rather than choking the limited area right near the school with double/treble parking)
* 80% walk/scoot

There are some amazingly lazy parents who persistently double/treble park, block driveways, park on corners obscuring views, etc. This is all in spite of considerable campaigning by one of the parent governors.