On Tuesday I usually walk in with the large child whilst his small brother and my wife turn off at the end of the road for nursery; today we're late so the boy stands on my pedal whilst I trot along. To save time, we cross a quiet road so that we can continue along the busier road whilst waiting for a break in traffic, which arrives when we're half-way towards the nearest pedestrian crossing, 100m away even though there's a park on the other side of the road and a nursery a little way down. When we reach the crossing (a four-way traffic-lighted junction with two lollipop-wranglers) I'm asked why the crossing-attendant who used to always stand at the corner we're waiting at is now on the other side; I suggest it might be because more people are crossing from the corner he's at at this time of the morning, or that maybe one of the other roads is busier. On the other side, we pass a poster for Pedal on Parliament and one of the chalked notices on the path through the park, still there after more than a week and a few rainshowers. He's still learning to read, but knows what these say by now and knows that I wrote these ones.
Wednesday is much the same, except that we're a little earlier and so are both walking. The smaller child gets dropped off at nursery a quarter of a mile from the house by my wife on her way to her work three miles away - she doesn't cycle and it would take her thrice as long to take buses. It is my long-term aim to be ready in sufficient time to be able to take both children - the big one was always walked to nursery and I don't want the little one to get too used to being driven short distances.
On Thursday we both cycle in in the morning. The PoP notices are still visible and we pass two more by taking a slightly longer route through the park. The boy dismounts and struggles to carry his bike over the last wee bit of park-path as there are several visible chunks of broken glass around the path ("Was it an oaf who put that glass there?"), so I ask him to ride through it, following exactly where my wheels go. He knows if I had my brush with me I'd sweep it to the side and that if there's a big scattering of glass (or a broken tree, or a big pile of rubbish) that you should tell the council. His is the first bike on the racks in the playground, though a few more might arrive later as I've not seen any other attendees of the breakfast club cycling in.
Picking him up on Thursday afternoon, after persuading him into his coat, I ask if he wants to go straight back or go round the bike paths, as a wee bit of practise for the big bike ride on Saturday. He goes for the latter, so we pass a few more chalked notices but spot that another poster has been removed, from the chicane on the shared use path outside a different school. The string which had tied it was still there. He needs a wee push up a slope (he'll get some gears for his birthday in a month's time) but cycles all the way, with a few stops to scuttle into interesting-looking holes in the undergrowth beside the bike path, checking his shoes after each venture as it's also popular with dog-walkers. We pass four more chalked PoP notices and two scatterings of glass, one of which is severe enough to warrant stopping to hoof some to the side.
On Friday we walk in - there's no breakfast club so we have a bit more time. There are a few bikes and scooters but there's still space in the racks - we usually walk on Fridays so that he can scuttle alongside any of his colleagues we meet. I finish work earlier than expected and get to the school before my wife, so I get to pick him up from after-school club again. He's had mostly green faces this week so gets another pedal-ride for the last wee bit up the hill.
The shortest routes in all involve six road-crossings, the last two of which are lollipopped - the fifth is a junction of two busy roads whilst the sixth is the road by the park next to the school but which acts as a rat-run for motor vehicle drivers wishing to avoid one set of traffic lights - the 20mph markings are not always effective. We usually take the route which gives us the longest time walking through the park, but this involves crossing a busyish road half-way between crossings, so it's probably not the official route we'll recommend when the children reach walk-in-by-themselves age. The first road we walk down should be quiet and residential but it's often used by drivers desperate to avoid the traffic lights or having to wait whilst a bus lumbers uphill along what is technically the main road but which has cars parked both sides along a twisty bit and requires drivers to slow, whereas the quieter street is wider and straighter and possibly fractionally-shorter, possibly inviting passage from GPS-users.
posted by wingpig at 3:06 AM
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