Send the kids to work too, I say. 14 hours in t’factory or oop chimney 
I liked the idea that was put about by (I think) the Greens a couple of years back… everyone gets a ‘CO2 Allowance’ that is your to ‘spend’ as you choose. There would be individual allowances, but also corporate allowances which companies could allocate according to staff/business need - so if you ‘need’ your employee to fly to New York for a business meeting, you have to allocate that from your business’s allowance. The idea being that it would force companies to make choices as to what travel was strictly necessary. The idea for individuals was similar… you can drive your 19mpg Chelsea Tractor or wham-boy Subaru Impreza if you want, but not much as you’ll use up your allowance pretty quickly. If you ‘need’ to travel, you’ll need to buy a more environmentally friendly car. All pretty socialist and totally unrealistic and unworkable in practice, but I quite liked the sentiment, and it would be nice to force people into making choices about prioritising their travel instead of just jumping in the car to run their kids a mile along the road to school, or 2 minutes round the corner to pick up a pint of milk from the local shop.
Actually, we have cycled a few times and it worked OK :-). But the trouble with cycling is that you have to be certain that you can also pick the kids up by bike - so we don’t get to do this often.
Superoli , I guess I never see the “mums every morning in their casual clothes dropping kids off” who “certainly dont seem in a rush to get to work”, probably because I’m rushing to work an hour before they get there! But I do know that there are lots of parents like us
Alex , hate on people with kids all you like, but I wasn’t “using the fact that I have kids as the most important priority in the world for every and all topics” - I was discussing it in a topic where people were talking about the school run, which is all about dropping kids off. I’m pretty sure I almost never discuss them on here, other than when I occasionally use them as an excuse to skip a ride-out :-). In any case, I didn’t take your post personally, I took the sentiment personally: “I’m also in favour of banning parents driving their kids to school” is pretty clear-cut, and targets everyone! It’s about as sensible a sentiment as this:
A one line comment that I didn’t spell out all the parameters. Common sense would assume that I don’t just want to clear ban everyone but I guess I have to spell it out on a forum where sense is anything but. It was a one liner comment not really intended to be taken that seriously but hey ho. In any case, perhaps I misread or read way too much into your (in my view) condescending response and went a bit OTT with my above post. Whatever, it’s irrelevant, I’m off for a spot of chinese…
But you comparing my one liner on a forum I mostly post for fun to a journalist who is given newspaper room to develop his ‘idea’ and is supposed to be a serious one, is a bit poor…
what happened to the walking bus that was around a few years ago? havent seen it for a while now but the kids would all walk together to school 2 abreast in a line and the kids nearer the school would join them on the way. there were two adults doing the walk (parents who worked a rota system amongst themselves) . obviously the whole school couldnt do it but the kids on the route knew what time the “bus” was coming and joined on. = less cars used, kids got to and from school safely and parents got more time to get ready themselves. is this walking bus still around anywhere? or did elf and safety find out about it?
Alex, let’s sit down and drink a beer together some time, will be a much better way to talk :-). I totally didn’t mean to be condescending, apologies if I was OTT! Enjoy your chinese 
ban anyone caught driving while using a mobile. or anyone who can’t parallel park. for life.
i reckon that’ll cut the numbers down a bit.
Sure thing… 
Ban kids all together:D
No children equals less traffic equals you also have more money to spend on yourself lol
When I was a kid we never got driven to school, we all either walked or cycled but then again that was in the 70’s and there was a lot less traffic, no internet, no computers no mobile phones and a lot less immigrants. I liked the 70’s life was very simple :rolleyes:
Ahhh yes, the 70’s…
Dodging bombs from the IRA, the Red Brigades redistributing wealth amongst the nation, the Vietnam war…good times. :laugh:
besides, all the cool people were born in the seventies. 
Incineration of car and driver for:
-Box junction blocking nobbers.
-Those arseholes who block an entire high street by stopping with their hazards on while they pop to the cashpoint.
-People who drive to the front of a queue of traffic before trying to cut in front of everyone by changing lane at the last second.
-Just about anyone on the roads who isn’t me 
That’ll solve a lot of the problem right there.
I’m sure there must be a lot of unnecessary car journeys in south London too - I see hundreds of cars driving along my morning commute route with one person in the car, where are they all going too/from?
I absolutely hate driving in south london - it’s one of the most frustrating things I can think of. Why anyone would choose to do it when there’s another option is beyond me. I seem to be in a minority though - I have friends who see driving as the obvious default position, even when it would be quicker and more pleasant to walk or take public transport.
one schoool in my area out of 16 does it…the kids love it and so do the parents. I have no idea why it isnt more popular.
Errr to work maybe! haha I usually bring the car to work a couple of days a week and the bike the rest, it’s a long old commute, 54 miles each way, I commute in the car on my own, no one I work with lives anywhere near me so car share isn’t an option, if it was I’d defo do it.
Yes, thanks for the tip, I’d managed to make the logical leap that they’re probably going to work
My point is, why are so many people driving when the public transport system in London is really very good despite all the compliants - I can get pretty much anywhere in London by PT and the trains buses etc are pretty regular. I realise that there are people who need to travel out of hours or who need to carry tools etc. but I suspect that most of the people sat in and causing rush hour congestion could make that journey without using the car.
They’re the easiest win for reducing congestion, they just need to be encouraged out of their cars and onto the already available transport network. far better than trying to totally reorganise the logistics of a city to remove delivery vehicles.
As I mentioned, it wouldn’t take much to convince me out of a car if I drove but maybe I’ve got a lower tolerance for sitting in traffic staring at the back of a bus & breathing in diesel fumes than other people.
Irrelevant for me anyway, I cycle to work so simply float above the congestion on my green halo 
Haha you worded it like you were genuinely confused about it 
I think people just take the easy option although IMO sitting in London traffic is far from easy.
Can you imagine though how packed the tube/ buses/ trains would be if they stopped driving?
I mean on most trains and tubes and buses in the rush hour you often have to wait for the ‘next one’…
It’s a fine balance.
I don’t think you’d even notice the extra to be honest, except at the very busiest times.
http://www.london.gov.uk/media/mayor-press-releases/2013/06/bikes-make-up-around-a-quarter-of-rush-hour-traffic-in-central
Roughly 2,500 cars, trucks & motorbikes on kennington park road between 7am and 10am. Assume that half of them are bikers and the vehcles that need to drive (carrying tools, disabled drivers, delivery vehicles etc.) so we have 1250 cars that don’t need to be there.
If there’s an average of 1.5 people per car (and most I see are only single occupancy) then that’s 1875 additional people to move by PT over 3 hours. With northern line trains every 3 minutes or so that works out at around 30 people extra per train, some of those would no doubt go by bus or even walk/cycle. I know the trains are at capacity at the very peak but there’s plenty of space on the rare occasions when I get the tube at 7:15am, some of them would even get a seat.
For comparison - I think the stated capacity of the train is about 1000 (I’m sure they get a lot more on than that), so 30 people = roughly 3% of the capacity
Sitting in the traffic listening to the archers on radio4 is my rest periods … if your marching you’re not fighting 
If you think its bad now, just wait until we have uncapped immigration from Romania and Bulgaria!
Why are they ALL going to work in London and drive in haha