Can I express my gratitude to Simon Baddely, University of Birmingham for
his facts and analysis of the UK school run congestion.


The figure of 20% added to traffic congestion on school days accords with
the 1995 stats in Social Trends - some 10M extra journeys at presumably two
per day gives 5M extra cars at peak/school hours or about 20% of licensed UK
vehicles. (?is that logical as the 1995 figures omit journeys of less than
one mile?).

A study we carried out for the RAC in 1996 on the impact of information
society technologies on congestion showed that some 33% of all main UK road
carriageways are occupied (including the "shadow" or braking distance they
need which is a multiple of length) most of the work-day by working
vehicles - goods, dustcarts, road menders, tractors, etc etc. Add the
business cars (not commuters) and the shoppers and tourists and the roads
are full and close to gridlock in many parts of the South-East at any time
of the work-day. We factored in obstructions to traffic flow such as
vehicles pausing at road signs, stopping to ask directions, parking briefly
at shops etc., engine problems, driving mistakes and accidents - and found
traffic speeds were curtailed in some networks to less than 10 miles an hour
and on some roads to 3 or 4 mph - close to gridlock. As we observe daily in
Greater London.

I surmise that the school-runs, a significant number of which, as Simon
Baddeley points out, are part of longer journeys (e.g. dropping the children
at school on the way to work) contributes to congestion largely due to the
obstruction factor (e.g. 5 million cars focused on local points in the
network stopping, unloading and turning for ,say 2 minutes each) If the
obstruction/s element is factored into the gridlock equation the
calculations more closely fit the everyday experience of roads clogged at
peak hours by cars/vans carrying school children.

Would a car-free 200 metre circle around a school (a) discourage the very
short escort journey's and (b) disperse the focus and enable free movement
(though I fully accept the gas/water analogy of gassy humans rushing to fill
the vacuum).?

Mr Noel Hodson
14 Brookside OXFORD OX3 7PJ
Tel +44(0)1865 760994 Fax 764520
Email NoelHodson@...
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