Can You Imagine the Traffic Jam?

The other day I was walking Riley and we passed a school, not hard to do as it seems there are schools everywhere in this city. I noticed that all of the scooters were parked in front of the school, ready for the kids to ride them home when school is out. You see, scooters are the preferred mode of transport for any self-respecting London kid. They may be just as popular outside of London, but I have no idea as I never venture into the country. Kids ride their scooters everywhere here! Most of them have the 3-wheel variety, which I suppose makes the scooter a bit safer as it's slightly harder to tip over. And no one wears a helmet. I guess coming from the law suit happy United States I find it hard to believe helmets aren't more prevalent, as I picture one tumble on the sidewalk, a brain injury later, and bam! Lawsuit against the council for big bucks. But that's just me. I also don't think scooters are as popular in the States. I know the Razor trend hit hard a few years back, but I never saw kids commute on them, or ride them as much and as often as I do here.

Sometimes kids don't park their scooters at school so the parents or nannies have to cart them back and forth, and I see grown-ups either riding the scooters or dragging them along the sidewalk in the morning, only to repeat the whole ordeal when the kids get picked up in the afternoon. Hence, the scooter parking lot makes sense. I love the idea that all the kids just leave them outside the school and collect them once the day is over.

What I hadn't noticed until I took this picture is how the scooters are separated by color, and presumably sex. I don't want to assume too much as a boy could easily ride a pink one. But I'm guessing most of the pink scooters, seen in the foreground, belong to the girls. There is a much larger group of blue scooters further down the parking lot.

Maybe girls ride blue ones AND pink ones, so that's why there are more blue than pink. That makes sense. And some of them are decorated with stickers, probably to make it easier to identify one scooter from the others. Can you imagine the school yard brawls that could take place if one kid takes the wrong scooter? Drama.

I think I may start treating these like Boris Bikes (the bikes stationed around the city that are available to rent). Tomorrow I might borrow a scooter, run to the store, grab some lunch and put it back before school gets out. The kids won't know. I could take a different one everyday - so many to choose from!

As I was lurking about the school, getting ready to take these pictures (while trying not to appear suspicious taking pictures outside a primary school)(and maybe I shouldn't use the word "lurking" to describe my actions, that in itself sounds sketchy) I saw a couple leaving the school with their young (maybe 3 year old) daughter in tow. The mother said "I think she did well. What do you think? Did she do well?" And the father responded that yes, he too thought she did well. Obviously the girl had just interviewed for a slot at the school and the mother was nervously seeking reassurances that her daughter came across well and would be offered a place at the school. The little girl was walking about 5 feet ahead of her parents and didn't seem to have any cares in the world, probably unaware how important the last hour or so of her life had been. Little did she know that if she picked the wrong toys, or played with them too aggressively, or gave a less than ideal answer to the question of what her favorite animal is, her whole future would be RUINED! No Uni for her. She can kiss Oxford or Cambridge good bye. Hopefully in 20 years her mother won't be reminding the girl of that time she really screwed up her interview at that school in Knightsbridge, and how she has only herself to blame for her dead end, minimum wage job and bleak future prospects. Poor girl. Let's hope one day soon she too will be leaving her pink or blue scooter at the school gate parking lot.