Ain't no schools on the M25...

Ah, the end of the summer holidays are upon us once more. Depending on your lifestyle this can mean a number of things. To families with kids it might mean less stress, drop the kid(s) at school and don't worry about them till it's time to pick them up at the end of the day. To a small, but significant group of people it means something esle. It means' that the rush hour hell begins once more....

I consider myself lucky, I'm in a position to drive to work, in doing this I save money on a weekly basis when compared to the costs of public transport (yes, yes, I'm well aware that there are several other costs in running a car but this ins't to debate them). One of the critical things that I save when driving to work is time. Now that you can't put a price on. Despite living within a couple of minutes walk of a tube station it takes on average 1hr 15mins to get to work by public trasnport. To get home takes nearer 2hrs (yes Transport for London explain THAT!). To drive in takes 45mins and to drive home nearer 1hr. That however is during the school term. I've just had the joy of summer commuting, the joy being that each leg of my journey becomes 15mins quicker when the kids are at school. The part that leaves me confused in all this is that most of my journey involves driving on dual carriageways. There are no schools to be seen. In fact the only schools I drive to I drive past when they're closed, hours before they open and hours after they close. So where the heck are all the other car drivers going????

Admittedly I've spent some thought on this, more because it's starting to bug me than because I want to try and solve this. The difference is so significant that I actually leave for work anything up to 45 minutes earlier when kids are going to school. I could understand it if the North Circular were lined with schools, however the summer holiday is the most significant period when this happens. Half terms, Easter and Christmas holidays are all happy days for your humble commuter.

So let's try and put some perspective on this. There must be (very roughly) twice as many vehicles on the road during term time. On the roads that I travel upon most, if not all, of the users take the form of commuters, van drivers (God bless 'em all) and truck drivers. None of whom could possibly be on the way to drop kids off (see the comment about there not being any on my way) and none of them could possibly be on the way to drop kids off. It's too darn early, and THERE AREN'T ANY SCHOOLS ON MY COMMUTE.....