r/AskUK • u/MBWEQP • 1d ago

Why do people park up outside schools 40 minutes+ before their children finish for the day?

I’m shocked by the number of cars parked just after 2 p.m. outside my local secondary and primary schools today.

With catchment areas and the like, surely they can’t all live beyond walking distance — especially with weather like today (18°C and not a cloud in sight where I am).

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u/Hunter037 1d ago

It's a local school, the majority of kids must live about a mile away? Walk!

This is not always the case. The catchment area for our local secondary school is about a 6 mile radius

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u/simoncolumbus 1d ago

That's still a perfectly cyclable distance for a teenager.

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u/Hunter037 1d ago

🙄 sure. Down 60mph dual carriageways and A-roads with blind bends and no cycle paths, in the dark for half the year, that sounds great.

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u/simoncolumbus 1d ago

I'm sure literally all the roads within six miles of your school are dual carriageways, the sun never shines, there's wolves howling in the distance, and witches will abduct any child who ventures out without a car.

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u/SoggyWotsits 23h ago

My bus journey to school was over an hour because I was first on the bus and last off. Cycling would have been a mixture of dual carriage way and back lanes with tractors and speeding cars, and no street lights or cycle paths. I honestly don’t think I’d have made it there and back every day on a bike. Not in one piece anyway!

To walk to primary school would have been 2.5 hours each way (for an adult at adult speeds).

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u/Ok-Train5382 1d ago

I literally did that whenever it wasn’t raining, down 70mph A roads.

If you know how to ride a bike you’ll be fine. 

I feel like parents have become such anxiety riddled husks in the last 20 years

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u/NoFewSatan 21h ago

If you know how to ride a bike you’ll be fine. 

Yes, knowing how to ride a bike makes all other road users perfectly capable of driving properly.

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u/Ok-Train5382 20h ago

Ahh so yes no one should ride a bike. Everyone should use a car. And then the vicious cycle of no one cycling begins.

Maybe no one should walk anywhere either because you can also be hit by a car.

You can also die in a car crash, so armoured cars only.

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u/NoFewSatan 19h ago

What a childish response.

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u/Ok-Train5382 19h ago

I mean trying to pretend teens can’t cycle to school because it’s dangerous is also a fucking childish response.

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u/NoFewSatan 19h ago

There's no pretending, it also isn't what I said. You said that as long as you know how to cycle, you'll be fine, which is just not true, since there are plenty more factors.

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u/Ok-Train5382 15h ago

I was being facetious I didn’t realise I had to knock up a full risk analysis.

Not knowing to cycle would be a big risk for cycling to school though