Stafford Traffic.

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
Big blue, this people is quite well aware that both partners in many couples have to work iot pay the mortgage. Believe me, it's a lot harder if you're not a couple, beside the point though that may be.

But I don't see how a parent having to go to work could stop a child from getting on a bus, were a bus to be available. Or from walking, for that matter. Ever heard of a 'walking bus' or a 'walking train'? One or two (there's doubtless a statutory requirement) responsible adults, duly vetted by the constabulary for tendencies that have already come to the attention of the authorities, collecting small children from their homes or other place of safety, and conducting them on foot and together with a number of their fellows, to the school? Never seen that in Stafford: why not?

I spent five years of primary and junior school sometimes being picked up and delivered by a teacher parent on his own way to work, but more often getting on the bus or walking a couple of miles. Then I spent seven years of secondary school getting on the bus. Once, a saddo exposed himself to me on the bus before running away. That was the only danger I ever experienced. The percentage of perverts in the population is, I'd wager, probably fairly stable. Road conditions and standards of driver training have improved significantly in the last fifty years. People do not drive whilst pissed any more, on the whole. We care more about the safety of kids, true, and rightly so, but where an inch is given a mile is very often taken. There are perfectly acceptable alternatives, which should be adopted by a comprehensively responsible and inclusive society, to the notion that the only safe way for a kid to get to school is by being delivered by car by a parent.
Yes I've heard of walking buses and I have seen them on Baswich and Littleworth on a regular basis. It's a good idea but sometimes this is not practical due to a lack of volunteers. A CRC would be needed for anyone involved and some people may not like it being done - even if they have 'nothing to hide'.

As for taking the bus to school - do you think it's safe and appropriate for a unsupervised 5 year old to get on a bus to go to school? That appears to be what you are suggesting.

And just in case you think I am only advocating taking children to school in cars - my son walked to school all through his primary years accompanied by my wife and all through his secondary years on his own.
 
Last edited:

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
That may be a reason in some cases, but it seems unlikely that the ones that turn up three-quarters of an hour before closing-time, in order to get a 'good spot' fit into that category.
If they are getting to school at 3.00pm or before, it would seem likely that they work part time or not at all.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
I do see the odd walking bus - when I was the sort of age that those kids seem to be, I would already be at home watching Tales of the Riverbank whilst they're still being organised...
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
If they are getting to school at 3.00pm or before, it would seem likely that they work part time or not at all.
Mostly grandparents and wealthy-looking mums, by the look of them.

For my recent chipboard-based assignation with highguyuk, it was necessary to warn him of the potential for him to get blocked out or in..
 

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
Yes I've heard of walking buses and I have seen them on Baswich and Littleworth on a regular basis.

Well that's good then. More needed, please.

It's a good idea but sometimes this is not practical due to a lack of volunteers. A CRC would be needed for anyone involved and some people may not like it being done - even if they have 'nothing to hide'.

Think I said that didn't I?

As for taking the bus to school - do you think it's safe and appropriate for a unsupervised 5 year old to get on a bus to go to school? That appears to be what you are suggesting.

Come down from there and read what I actually wrote. It was in support of school buses. These are usually supervised. And, not that I did actually suggest unsupervised five yr olds etc, I distinctly remember getting the bus home myself at some stage between the ages of five and seven, on my own. But that was when they had conductors and signs about not spitting lest you spread TB. Them were the days.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Maryland

Well-Known Forumite
I have devised a solution to the parking parent pests though. It is putting a spell on them. Haven't worked out the details yet, but I've got a bit of holiday time now to think about it. Possibly some combination of muttering very bad words and flinging a slug in the brown bin, whilst glaring unpleasantly at the latest 4WD to be doing pirouettes in the cul de sac while two sprogs in the back gawp at the funny people who live by the school and don't look very happy.
 

Kickstart

Well-Known Forumite
The tesco junction is a mess and I have raised it with SCC. Unfortunately the junction design standards require the stupid junction that we have.

Unfortunately the problem was allowed to occur by allowing them to build the store there in the first place, or at least allowed them to build it there without other entrances.

All the best

Keith
 

henryscat

Well-Known Forumite
Don't people realise that one of the main reasons children get driven to school now is because, in the majority of cases, BOTH parents HAVE to work to be able to pay the mortgage and the parent who is taking them is actually on their way to work?
I don't think that's the case... Secondary age school kids are by and large very capable of conveying themselves to school on foot or by bus. Problem is that parental choice means that a significant number of kids are not going to their nearest school which they could have walked or caught the bus to - current government policy is generating unnecessary travel. The other issue is that where children are attending a school that they could quite easily walk to, parents are still driving them.
 

cj1

Well-Known Forumite
The only other option would of been to place the entrance off friars terrace given the choices it's probably the best option
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
But I don't see how a parent having to go to work could stop a child from getting on a bus, were a bus to be available.

Buses are already available so I assumed you would have meant those. Schools buses are already provided but, if I recall correctly, the child has to live at least 3 miles away from the school to qualify for free travel.

'CRC would be needed.' Think I said that didn't I?

You did indeed and I explained why some people may not want to volunteer because of having to have a CRC done.

Come down from there and read what I actually wrote.

Come down from where exactly? Aren't I allowed to ask a question based on how I interpreted your post?

I distinctly remember getting the bus home myself at some stage between the ages of five and seven, on my own.

Can I ask what in what age range you are? From that, you appear to be a similar sort of age to me but I never got a bus but did walk home with my sisters and friends.


What I will say is something we all know. Times have changed. Children aren't as free as they once used to be, they aren't given as much responsibility (if that's the right word to use) for their own actions and safety because as well all know, the world has changed and the press has us all believing that if kids are allowed out on their own, they may never come back. Also, children expect more. They expect to be ferried around, they expect to be entertained during school holidays, they don't expect to make their own entertainment like us oldies did. Ok that's enough of being an old git!


Traffic issues need to be addressed but sadly I don't think any UK government will ever do anything more that react to situations rather than being proactive and implementing a progressing traffic plan. Mind you I don't think any of the weasily buggers are clever enough.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Don't people realise that one of the main reasons children get driven to school now is because, in the majority of cases, BOTH parents HAVE to work to be able to pay the mortgage and the parent who is taking them is actually on their way to work?

So people in Stafford going to Stafford schools need to drive them selves and their little darlings the short distance they need to travel and then complain about the traffic right? Surely both the parents and the children could walk or cycle? And if the parent needs to go out of town to work, the child doesn't need to be driven. Any child at High School 'should' be getting a chance of independence and walking or cycling to school. It's an important step to adulthood and being part of a peer group. It also prevents the epidemic of obesity the NHS is currently under seige from. Kids are as free as their parents allow them to be.....

Personally I walked every day from Friars Terrace along Wolverhampton Road to Rising Brook High School, every day for years, a fair decent walk twice a day I can tell you. It never occurred to us to get the bus, we were more concerned with picking up our mates on the way to school. My parents? They were at work, the car was at home, and never once did I get a lift to school. I assume kids still have 2 legs nowadays??

A big part of this issue is the absolute madness of how schools are chosen by parents. Kids in Balfour catchment get driven by their parents to Kind Edwards, Kids in the King Edwards catchment are driven to Weston Road, and kids at Weston Road are driven to Balfour. This merry go round is utter idiocy being that all 3 of those schools offer a good comprehensive education. Should all the kids in these catchments actually attend the catchment school this sheer lunacy would have a massive impact on unnecessary car journeys. Kids driven to school miss out on so much.
 
Last edited:

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Got to agree about crud busses - £1.80 from the train station to the Hospital when I have to get to the bus stop 10 minutes before the advertised pick-up time, wait 25 - 30 minutes for the bus because its running late, put up with hundreds of college students - most of which are ok but a few think it hilarious to press the stop button 50 times - it takes ages because it stops constantly, the drivers are usually as polite / helpful as an ISIS fighter, luckily for me it drops me off where I need to be but I imagine for many people it would drop them off a fair walk away....


Prices of buses is very weird in Stafford. From the Common to Sainsbury is 2.30 on the arriva, 1 way. yet it's only £1 from town to the old B&Q roundabout near The Meadows, a much longerjhourney. Also, £4.60 from the Common to town return on the bus, a total of less than 2miles, yet it's only £6.80 RETURN on the train to Atherstone in Warwickshire, walk on London Midland fare. Completely irrational
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
So people in Stafford going to Stafford schools need to drive them selves and their little darlings the short distance they need to travel and then complain about the traffic right? Surely both the parents and the children walk and cycle? And if the parent needs to go out of town to work, the child does't need to be driven. Any child at High School 'should' be getting a chance of independence and walking or cycling to school. It's an important step to adulthood and being part of a peer group. It also prevents the epidemic of obesity the NHS is currently under seige from.

Walking and cycling is not always the answer. You can keep evangelising about it but it's not always the answer.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Walking and cycling is not always the answer. You can keep evangelising about it but it's not always the answer.

It's the only answer to traffic issues locally, well that and getting the bus. The car will never be the answer because we just don't have and will never have the road capacity in Stafford (or England), and no matter how many roads are built this will continue to be the case.. For any local journey under 3 miles then cycling and walking should be the only answer for fit able bodied people. It works incredibly well in The Netherlands, it works very well in Germany. We were recently in Berlin a massively bigger place than Stafford, with lots more hills, yet every day 500,000 cyclists are out and about. All types of people, grand dads, mums taking their 5 year olds to school, cycling safely on the busiest of roads. The consequence? traffic flows smoothly and the people are healthier. Imagine anoth 1/2 million car journeys on those roads :(. Apart from laziness of the population and a lack of political will, there is nothing at all to stop Stafford and England following the success of the Dutch and Berliners. Why do you keep saying cycling an walking isn't the answer for short journeys in Stafford, to me it's the only realistic answer, and the success and popularity of the disused railway line kind of proves my point - provide safe cycle paths and people WILL use them?
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
Try cycling with 20,000 A4 leaflets in 12x9x9 boxes.
 

kyoto49

Well-Known Forumite
Try cycling with 20,000 A4 leaflets in 12x9x9 boxes.

I think the conversation centred around the majority of people who could walk or cycle to work and school. I doubt anyone goes to school with 20,000 A4 leaflets, and very few other adults on their way to work either, if any. It's obvious it's not appropriate for your situation, but it is for the vast majority of Staffordians. Imagine how easy your day would be if the rest of the cars were replaced by cyclists in their own little cycle lanes seperate from the cars so you never had a traffic jam to contend with?
 

Jonah

Spouting nonsense since the day I learned to talk
It's the only answer to traffic issues locally, well that and getting the bus. The car will never be the answer because we just don't have and will never have the road capacity in Stafford (or England), and no matter how many roads are built this will continue to be the case.. For any local journey under 3 miles then cycling and walking should be the only answer for fit able bodied people. It works incredibly well in The Netherlands, it works very well in Germany. We were recently in Berlin a massively bigger place than Stafford, with lots more hills, yet every day 500,000 cyclists are out and about. All types of people, grand dads, mums taking their 5 year olds to school, cycling safely on the busiest of roads. The consequence? traffic flows smoothly and the people are healthier. Imagine anoth 1/2 million car journeys on those roads :(. Apart from laziness of the population and a lack of political will, there is nothing at all to stop Stafford and England following the success of the Dutch and Berliners. Why do you keep saying cycling an walking isn't the answer for short journeys in Stafford, to me it's the only realistic answer, and the success and popularity of the disused railway line kind of proves my point - provide safe cycle paths and people WILL use them?
You said "for any local journey" which is why I mentioned leaflets in boxes.

If you see one of my other posts I did say that this...

"Traffic issues need to be addressed but sadly I don't think any UK government will ever do anything more that react to situations rather than being proactive and implementing a progressing traffic plan. Mind you I don't think any of the weasily buggers are clever enough."

The idea of separate cycle lanes is fantastic. I just cannot see it happening because of what I said above.
 

Withnail

Well-Known Forumite
It's just plain bad luck when someone goes and builds a school next to the house you just bought...
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
It's the only answer to traffic issues locally
Incorrect. It is part of the answer and frankly only a small part as it addresses only local tragic and not through traffic.

A major part of the answer would be for SCC to adopt a reasoned and coordinated approach to roadworks within the borough. This would involve, in many cases, recognising that digging up more than one major road into town at a time is guaranteed to cause chaos. This would involve consultation with utility companies so that we avoid the farcical situation where a road can be dug up for three weeks for planned electricity repairs and then dug up a couple of weeks later for planned gas repairs. This happened most recently on the Newport Road a few years back and caused over three months of unnecessary delays.

Furthermore SCC should be fining utility companies for each day a road is dug up because of them in order to minimise disruption and insist that the materials they use on their repairs are to a high standard in order to prolong the time when the road needs to be dug up again.

This of course would involve intelligence, planning, common sense and accurate time tabling from an organisation that has proven year upon year that it is incapable of any of that and that it is perfectly happy to have us all sitting in jams knowing that an organisation we all pay for is staffed by a bunch of clowns.

In the private sector heads would roll for such mismanagement, but as it only the council nothing will be done.
 

RoadRunner

Active Member
Proactive, Rest assured that SCC are working hard to address the issues you have raised. Some are already addressed. Unfortunately it all takes time, and budgets are being cut year on year...
 
Top