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Pedibus


Teamedup

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When I worked in Winchmore Hill, North London, Sainsburys wanted to build a supermarket on the site of an old psychiatric hospital. This was one of the sweetners they offered to the opposition who claimed that hundreds of Mum's in their 4x4's would drop their little poppets off at the local school and drive through their quiet leafy suburbs straight to Sainsburys. Sainsburys offered to sponsor a pedibus service - but it never got off the ground. The 4x4s won.

I think that there is one in the Charente somewhere.
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Our town set one up for a month last year to test the idea and to show parents it was possible. It was only for one school (out of the 10 or so primaries we must have here) and I never noticed it in action.

It's a pity that so many parents automatically use their cars when taking kids to school. On rainy days there's no point even trying to get in or out of our road at school times.

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[quote user="powerdesal"]Please excuse my ignorance, but what is a 'pedibus' ?????

Regards

[/quote]

lol its basically going back to the old fashioned way of walking to school!  A few adults volunteer to escort kids walking to school in a group - so all the parents don't have to walk or drive with their kids individually. Sometimes all the parents get together and do a rota and take a turn going round collecting all the kids - or they may meet at a certain place.

I thought they usually had a school bus in France?  In our commune, a school bus picks up all the kids from a point in the village and then distributes them between two schools (one class in each village school so that they can both be kept open).  Our understanding is that all three of our kids will get on this bus, even though one or two of them will initially only be taken to our village school which is a few hundred metres away!

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No you were right the first time, it is organising for kids to be picked up on an organised route and walked too and from school.

 

And no to the second bit about 'all' kids being eligible for school transport. Around here kids have to live at least two or three kms from school before there is any school transport available. And judging by all the transport problems we have had in our village over the years, it isn't something I would have wished on my kids. It was always one of the main complaints at school council meetings.

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My son is using a school bus now he is in collège because the school is the other side of town (a good 20 minute walk away) but he didn't need a bus for primary school. I live in a medium sized town (25,000 inhab) so there are loads of primary schools. Children should go to their nearest primary school and, here, it will be within walking distance.

This doesn't stop most parents driving them and parking on the yellow lines, the pedestrian crossing and the disabled space.[:@]

 

 

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[quote user="Teamedup"]

And no to the second bit about 'all' kids being eligible for school transport. Around here kids have to live at least two or three kms from school before there is any school transport available. And judging by all the transport problems we have had in our village over the years, it isn't something I would have wished on my kids. It was always one of the main complaints at school council meetings.

[/quote]

Same here, a 3km limit for buses.   And yes, there are many problems with the school transport!   Late buses, not enough buses, strikes, there's something every week.   I hate when there's a bus strike, all the 4x4 mamans turn up, and it really is chacune pour soi!

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we're ok for the ones that attend the local school as its only up the road a bit, but whoever has to go to the other village for the other class will need to use the bus, so I hope they don't have problems with the bus in our village!  We were definitely told that all children get on the bus - maybe this could be because of the forced split of classes between two village schools, in order to keep them both open?  After all, its a bit unfair to say they have to attend another village school instead of the local one and then make the parents cover the transport....
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