Auckland grandmother Wendy Miller said there is no safe route for Talia, 8, or Mia, 4 to walk to school and kindy so she drives them. Photo / Dean Purcell
Auckland grandmother Wendy Miller said there is no safe route for Talia, 8, or Mia, 4 to walk to school and kindy so she drives them. Photo / Dean Purcell
School’s nearly back, and the dreaded morning congestion returns as children head to class by car, bus, ferry, bike, and foot. Despite a push for walking and public transport, more than half go by car - whether as passengers or behind the wheel themselves, Kirsty Wynn reports.
There’s nothing 8-year-oldTalia Barber would like more than to walk to school.
But between her house and her local primary, Pukekohe Hill School, is a busy main road with the only place to cross a small pedestrian bay at a large roundabout.
“It’s just not safe and so we have never let her,” mum Ashley Barber said.
“Also her little sister’s kindy is a bit further away so at the moment the only option is to drive.”
Barber works as a nurse and her husband, Cameron, is a builder, so to solve their childcare and school transport woes the girls’ grandmother drops them to school and collects them daily.
Auckland grandmother Wendy Miller does the school run so the parents of Mia (left) and Talia can work. Photo / Dean Purcell
According to the latest available Census data, close to 40 % of Kiwi kids are driven to school. In comparison, around 20% walk - despite a push from schools and Auckland Transport to get more children on foot or bus.
A further 11 % are older high school children who take their own car to school.
More than 350 Walking School Buses operate around Auckland, but grandmother Wendy Miller said there wasn’t one to Talia’s school.
Walking School Buses are organised through Auckland Transport, with more than 4000 children walking to school with the Auckland Council-controlled organisation.
Miller said if there was a safe way to cross the busy road and a group of children and an adult to supervise she might let Talia walk.
“We have stood at the main road trying to cross to the pedestrian bay and it can be five minutes or more before there is a break in the traffic,” Miller said.
“The closest pedestrian crossing is a good five-minute walk in the opposite direction.”
She had let Talia walk with a friend once but had crossed with them at the main road.
“Even that didn’t feel safe and I spent the whole time worried about it and then thought she was too young,” she said.
“If there was a safe place to cross more children would walk.”
Last year 176 routes have been or are being reviewed – 21 routes have been terminated while 11 have been replaced with different routes or combined with others.
One Central Hawke’s Bay family bought their own bus to transport their son and others in the area to school after the local bus was cancelled.
Kirsty Wynn is an Auckland-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience in New Zealand newsrooms. She has covered everything from crime and social issues to the property market and consumer affairs.
