Should the UK consider something equivalent to the USA Diamond Lane system/car pooling?

Well, we've had "2+" lanes for a while around here ... although quite a few have been turned into bus lanes or just removed - seemingly enforcement is difficult (cameras can't tell if there's a short person in the back seat for example) - whereas automatic number plate recognition can tell the difference between a bus and a private car with ease.

Again another idea from our cousins over the pond Yellow School buses. 

Again we all ready have them - just not yellow (usually). I suspect they're only laid on for those living beyond what the local authority considers walking distance from the school ... unfortunately a lot of parents seem to have a much shorter idea of what a reasonable walking distance is (which seem to be measured in inches for some). Possibly partly driven by fears of road safety for child pedestrians ... which of course is compounded by the vehicular chaos around schools.

Push bikes on the public roads is unsafe.

Well, not necessarily. A lot depends on the attitude of other road users. Look at the Netherlands for example - while they do have cycle lanes, they're only on busier roads - and the attitude seems to be that they're there to provide convenience for motor vehicle drivers rather than the safety of cyclists - as with the cyclists removed motor vehicles may then drive faster. On other roads there's no segregation (indeed often no segregation of pedestrians either) - and if there's a collision between a motor vehicle and a cyclist or pedestrian, it's deemed to be the driver's fault (unless proven otherwise).

   - Andy.

In the UK one of the things that pushes away from minbus use is the requirement since '97 for a special licence to drive one. Chatting to friends in education, many schools now have no-one among the younger staff who could drive the thing even if they had one - so once the thing reaches beyond economic repair given that only a few folk approaching retirement can drive it,  it is scrapped off, and then they don't have one at all. Then for things like away game football matches, where  fee paying schools might hire a bus with driver, the school  says get your own youngsters there, and then a team of parents drive cars with one or two kids in each! I'm sure when the rules changed, someone expected folk like teachers to get the extra licence, but it seems that has  not happened all that much.

Lots of cars is of course perfectly legal but scarcely an improvement either in safety, or germane to this debate, fuel use.

If there is enough demand for a full size bus, then one will be operated, but for small nos of youngsters from a given direction and short distances there probably isn't a compelling case.

Mike.

In the UK one of the things that pushes away from minbus use is the requirement since '97 for a special licence to drive one. Chatting to friends in education, many schools now have no-one among the younger staff who could drive the thing even if they had one - so once the thing reaches beyond economic repair given that only a few folk approaching retirement can drive it,  it is scrapped off, and then they don't have one at all. Then for things like away game football matches, where  fee paying schools might hire a bus with driver, the school  says get your own youngsters there, and then a team of parents drive cars with one or two kids in each! I'm sure when the rules changed, someone expected folk like teachers to get the extra licence, but it seems that has  not happened all that much.

Lots of cars is of course perfectly legal but scarcely an improvement either in safety, or germane to this debate, fuel use.

If there is enough demand for a full size bus, then one will be operated, but for small nos of youngsters from a given direction and short distances there probably isn't a compelling case.

Mike.