The mayor's favorite "civils" would abolish the popular parking system in front of schools, even at the price of making transporting children more dangerous.
Although a third of the students take themselves to school by car, the Air Working Group has joined the popular "Kiss & Ride" school parking system. The civil association would not only consider it acceptable if the widespread method were to be abolished, in their opinion, further tightening would be necessary. The organization preferred by Mayor Gergely Karácsony made numerous proposals to the capital, and in several cases their ideas were accepted.
"We may not be popular, but we are not at all supporters of this ever-growing solution! The only advantage of the »Kiss & Ride« parking lots is that the parent does not have to stand in the traffic lane while their child gets out, the Air Working Group wrote on its social media page on the occasion of the start of the school year on Friday.
"Kiss and Drive" did not conquer the world by chance, since with this method, parents transporting their children by car stop in front of the school only until their child gets out of the vehicle, and then drive on, so they do not hold up the traffic on the street.
The NGO would kick this popular parking system. According to them, it takes valuable public space for short-term parking, encourages driving, air pollution around schools will not be any less, and sets a bad example for children in terms of sustainability.
"Instead, the goal would be to implement the school streets program nationwide. During the morning and afternoon rush hours, only residents may drive into the school street, not parents bringing their children by car. Arriving on foot, by bicycle, or by public transportation, children's mental abilities also improve compared to sitting in the back seat," suggests the organization.
Under the post, several commenters said that transporting three children by bicycle is impossible, not to mention the weather. According to the Air Working Group, all these are just excuses and do not serve the interests of the children, but the comfort of the parents.
The NGO made a number of proposals to Mayor Gergely Karácsony, and the working group takes part in continuous consultations in the life of the capital, in the development of green programs. They were able to make decisive recommendations in several anti-car decisions.
According to a 2020 survey, most Hungarian children walk to school. 29 percent of the respondents take their children by public transport, 23 percent by car, while 12 percent favor the bicycle solution. The rest use scooters, skateboards, skates or even scooters on their way to school.
The proportion of children who are taken to school by car is the highest in Budapest (30 percent) and in cities with county status (31 percent). According to the survey, most children have to commute three to five kilometers, almost every third child (28 percent) lives this far from their school. Almost a third of the students have to walk less than three kilometers.
Almost a quarter of students in public education walk more than ten kilometers a day. The majority of those traveling by car make the journey to school between 5 and 30 minutes, while two percent of children are transported by their parents for more than an hour a day.
