fungus wrote:IIRC John Prescot stated years ago that school traffic accounted for about 30% of rush hour traffic. I must admit that around here it seems more like 70%, as the roads are remarkebly quiet in the school holidays.
Yep Bristol City Council suggested a few years ago it accounted for 20%. Thing is, in school holidays, families are well..err on holiday - so city routes will be quiet because they are sunning themselves in Majorca. They also suggested a minority of parents make a specific trip to school - it's often enroute to their place of work.
The other way of looking at the 20% is...if drivers used public transport, cycle, walked or worked from home just 1 day in 2 weeks (10%) then the congestion would be similar to summer holiday levels all the time - it often only take a small reduction in traffic for roads to flow (roundabouts, junctions etc).