Another ill-thought out council plan....

[Rockets]

...the council have excelled themselves this time.

Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday Alleyn Park Road will be closed for resurfacing causing huge disruption to Kingsdale and Dulwich Prep schools. Both schools were informed of the plan last Friday and despite both lobbying the council for a more common-sense approach (delay it a few days as the schools will have broken up for Christmas) they are carrying on regardless. The length of Alleyn Park will be closed from the Gypsy Hill roundabout to the Alleyns Head pub so prepare yourself for traffic chaos at both ends during drop and pick-up.

The stupidity of our council amazes me sometimes....

[singalto]

I presume the pavements are still open so parents can walk their children to and from school. I see few reasons for secondary school children to be picked up or dropped off.

[Nigello]

Agreed, Singalto - let them walk/run/cycle.

[Dohchos]

Some of the children are only 5 and sometimes parents drive because they have to do multiply drops at different schools when the timings are tight, anywho Southwark have agreed to wait until after the 16th.

[Nigello]

And sometimes parents drive because they are selfish and are poor at time management.

[TheCat]

Nigello Wrote:

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> And sometimes parents drive because they are

> selfish and are poor at time management.

I'll agree that the road behavior of some parents when dropping off/picking up is pretty abhorrent. But assuming common decency and all road rules are followed, who is the arbiter of what constitutes a non-selfish reason to use public roads?

[TheArtfulDogger]

Glad to see the council and their contractors have seen sense and moved the works to a quieter time on the road network as it would affect not just the school runners but commuters too.

I did love the irony of a mum I spoke to once when she said that "she drives her kids to school because the amount of traffic on the road at school run time made it dangerous for them to walk"

[Sally Eva]

A Mum at my daughter's primary school was horrified that we walked to school. She drove because of all the pollution

[rendelharris]

Friend of a friend said she had to buy a 4x4 to protect her children against...so many other 4x4s on the road.

[uncleglen]

I lived next door to a mum with 2 kids at the same primary as mine- 12 minutes walk away. She drove her kids to school (she did not work btw) but they were always late because of parking. In the end her eldest asked if he could walk with myself and my children because he was sick of being late for school every day. There were lollipop ladies across the busy roads as well....

[Sally Eva]

I knew (slightly) someone who worked in the Bradenham block on the albany Road. It was very difficult to park around the block. In great indignation she told me that she had driven from her home (in East Dulwich) driven around the Bradenham area FOR HALF AN HOUR and then had to go home and catch a bus.

Not many buses on that route

[siousxiesue]

Maybe rename this thread then, if it no longer is going ahead?

[James Barber]

Whatever peoples views of children walking or cycling to school the timing could have been wiser with minimal effort.

Long list of roads to be one and putting roads with school on the list solely during school holidays isn't beyond the council officers concerned.

[edcam]

Excessive use of cars for school runs needs to be dealt with.

[Dohchos]

I don't see why it's so hard to understand, if you attend a school with no catchment area it stands to reason some parents will drive there kids to school, no real issue to be dealt with, just how it is in some households.

[Earl Aelfheah]

Driving is not a crime,or some kind of moral deficiency. People need to stop being so judgemental.

[flocker spotter]

How can you judge a road improvement scheme to be ill-thought out if you are not privy to the decision-making? There are provably some very good and worthy reasons for planning the work into this week. Besides, if they were to wait until the schools closed, they would be starting work on 22nd December - which would have been ridiculous.

[wulfhound]

@rahrahrah Depends. Ill health, poor mobility? Sure, no problem. Ten miles, fifty kilos of stuff, ditto.

But for routine, sub-five-mile hops around the city - which is what most of what's on the road is doing? How about people stop being blind to the consequences created - which for school run distances, if you're able-bodied, are just plain unnecessary.

Air quality - even if you don't believe the Clean Air Campaign's somewhat hyperbolic statistics about tens of thousands of deaths, it reduces quality of life for many times more.

Noise. (Which, thanks to its effects on blood pressure, may well be responsible for more premature deaths than bad air - and if nothing else, makes the otherwise-lovely outside tables at the cafes on a Village pretty rubbish experience much of the time).

Danger to others (#1 killer of under 25's in the developed world).

Kids losing much their freedom to walk, run, scoot and cycle around the place independently.

Wasting of road space, causing congestion for those trips/people for whom a car really is essential (and the concomitant increase in noise, emissions, etc.)

Healthy habits for life - in the context of the school run, what they learn in their early years sets patterns that are hard to change.

And all for what? Saving a few minutes here and there, keeping your hair dry, maybe avoiding breaking a sweat, not having to sit next to yoofs playing loud dubstep on the number 37. Worth it...?

We live in a crowded city, our choices have consequences for others. Why on earth would you tread more heavily than you have to? The moral dimension here should be glaringly obvious.

[????]

rahrahrah Wrote:

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> Driving is not a crime,or some kind of moral

> deficiency. People need to stop being so

> judgemental.

Agree - large % of EDF confirmed as sanctimonious (and almost certainly hypocritical) prix

[Dogkennelhillbilly]

Also, misogynists

[buggie]

Would have been useful to have warnings of this work on the S Circular.

This is my route to work & had no idea why traffic was so bad the last 2 days - properly

signposted warnings could have allowed me to make adjustments to my route rather than

add to the congestion 😡 (Driving is required for work before anyone suggests public transport - would rather be on bus/train looking at Socail Media!).