To think that school run drivers are selfish cunts?

The other thing that surprised me recebtky is realising my nearest school has an intake of no further than 0.2 miles from the school. (At 0.3 miles we stand no chance) yet rhe roads around it are absolutely gridcocked and dangerous parking for school times. Surely at 0.2 miles most can walk it?

Jez. An hour in the morning for drop off! Im the type that throws them through the gate and runs for the hills if I'm not running to work.

The parking situation worries me as next year the school my dd is likely to get isnt walkable and parking is a nightmare. Dreading it

I'm a school run driver. I like to think I drive courteously, I don't cut people up or park illegally. I have witnessed poor driving around school though so I know what you mean.

Some people, parents or not, are oblivious drivers!

I’m so pleased that the school have relented and allowed DS1 to catch the bus while still in Reception, because waddling up and down the massive damn hill with a 3y/o in a buggy while heavily pregnant AND nearly getting splatted by school run traffic day after day was putting me in the shittiest mood.

Is it not for like 15 mins twice a day?
Drop off at DDs primary is between 830-855 not including breakfast club people
, will be arriving and leaving for 10-15 minutes before and after that time so it’s nearly an hour of disruption in the morning. Evenings probably less so but even then it’s more like 30 mins then 15.

Is it not for like 15 mins twice a day?

Definitely longer round my way. People start delivering children a good 30 minutes before they need to be in, then you get the crowd who gossip outside the school for another half hour before eventually going their separate ways. Afternoons are worse, parents parking up anything from 1 hour before the schools turn out.

And the general chaos means that it can take ages to clear once things get gridlocked.

Another thing to be aware of is that law enforcement are often anything but sympathetic to drivers who take the piss with their parking (although probably more tolerant of school areas).

I've had three separate colleagues tell me of situations where they had to call the police due to having been blocked in and the policeman has basically agreed to look the other way whilst they scraped past a long line of illegally parked cars (which were then ticketed)!

YANBU but some of these replies are a bit ignorant. To counteract some of the arguments...

4 year olds can’t be expected to use public transport on their own.
We had the kids and drop option at my old primary school but with safeguarding etc it wouldn’t be allowed now unless there was adequate staffing.
A large majority of parents work and do the school run before / after work. They might not have flexible employers.
My dad picked me up sometimes from secondary school even though we lived within walking distance. I was often bullied on the walk/cycle home and wanted to avoid it.

That being said, there’s no excuse for dangerous / illegal / inconsiderate parking and driving.

I may have also encouraged the delivery guys to take their time unloading.

I would have provided a full English breakfast when they'd finished, kept them there as long a possible!

I often have to drive a truck for my work and at certain times I have to reroute around the schools as parents park on corners etc, making it impossible for me to get around. I've had to reverse up entire city centre streets, making all the cars behind me do the same due to being obstructed by a sole badly parked car which I couldn't get around!

Is it not for like 15 mins twice a day?

You'd think

However between the "I'm gonna leave really and camp out in my spot" people.
The "I'm.gonna leave my car hear all day cos god forbid I don't get this space at pick.up and my kids have to walk a few feet" people.

The i have to drive round and round and round til there's a space

And the "crap I'm really mate I'll park any where " prop it take a up a surprising chunk of time

A silly cow late to pick up her kid once demanded I move forward half way into a junction so she could squeeze her car behind mine. I said if she’d arrived on time she could’ve found a parking space and not make me potentially cause an accident.

She said “so you’re not going to move then?”, “ I said “well, no, I don’t want to cause an accident where people can’t see kids crossing”. She said “REALLY!”, then drove in front of me, parking on the junction, leaving her car blocking all traffic.

Is it not for like 15 mins twice a day?

cross It has to be done by the police here. They would never let parents or teachers do it in my town because arrests have been made before. Now the police oversee it and everyone behaves including the parents.

Arrogant parents is truly a global issue.

I can't believe the amount of people who drop their kids off at secondary school. My 2 prefer to walk in a monsoon than have me drop them off outside the school. I can drop them at the EMPTY car park at the end of the road though.

I live in the 'burbs with excellent underground and bus routes but it is chaotic.

I agree about the secondary school dc making their own way and the Private Schools parents seem to cotton wool wrap their dc.

OP I think you are, in the main, right. It happens at private schools with long drives and parking, too, when non-working parents insist on driving on to verges when there's parking two minutes walk away.

I sympathise with a parent with another baby dropping a young child off at an infant school in a rural area where there's no alternative but to drive. I also sympathise with the parent dropping off a child with another working partner at primary level when they have minutes to get to a crucial job And with all of those parents (rural or urban) who don't have a bus route that works and don't want their children cycling.

I do like the kiss and drop which I think was suggested by a US or Canadian poster. Surely schools could organise this and be proactive where it would help? However it would take staff or volunteers

From your username you sound like you're local to me. I wonder what primary school you're talking of if you are? My old primary school was so dangerous at drop off & pick up times. Luckily my sons isn't too bad as long as I get there super early

Yes it's appalling here, huge cars too despite being in a city with no need for 4x4's! School is twice the size of when we moved here 10 years ago

We live very near a school. When we moved here, the school had 200 pupils. It now has 400. So the argument that "you should have known" doesn't really hold water.

I'd say there's a hardcore of 40% of school run drivers who are totally selfish and inconsiderate. Their only aim is to get as close to those school gates as humanly possible, and fuck everyone else. They don't care if we can't get the car off the driveway, or are blocking everyone else in. There is a large car park 3 minutes' walk away but their precious little pickle couldn't POSSIBLY walk that far.

Local residents complain. School sends out a "please be considerate" letter. People who were being considerate in the first place carry on doing so. People who park like twats don't care and ignore the letter.

Really pissed them off the other day - we are having work done on the house and it just so happened that the huge delivery articulated lorry arrived at 8.59am just as the twat parkers were blocking the end of the street (which is a turning space, not for patking in). They all returned to their cars to find that they were blocked in by the delivery lorry. I may have also encouraged the delivery guys to take their time unloading.

At our school people park on the zigzags daily. Not many people live out of area and most are within a 15 minute walk. There is also a car park but that's a whole 5 minutes walk away.

I know some people have to drive their children to school but many others don't and are just lazy. It wouldn't be an issue if people parked properly.