Dublin's traffic authorities' hopes of getting parents to walk children to school in order to ease the city's gridlock were rejected yesterday as impractical.
Plans by Dublin Corporation and the Dublin Transportation Office (DTO) to organise "walking buses", which involve two parents walking up to 20 national school pupils to school, was rejected by the chairman of the National Parents' Council - Primary, Mr Desmond Kelly.
The proposal lacked an understanding of the practicalities and logistics of two adults accompanying a large group of children aged between four and 12, he said. He noted there was also a question of insurance and liability.
Mr Kelly also questioned the practicality of walking children long distances to school.
The National Parents' Council Council - Primary recognised that Dublin traffic had to be eased, and other solutions to the problem included the introduction of flexi-time opening hours for schools, or the use of Imp buses to provide a public school bus service in the city, he said.
The DTO senior transport planner, Mr Robert Kelly, said representatives of the Departments of Education and Health and road safety officers from the four Dublin local authorities would meet next week to refine details of the scheme before introduction of two pilot projects in Clontarf.