I live in a road with a school

in our area there's a way to send video recordings of illegal driving and parking to the police. And the registered keeper of the vehicle then gets a notice to prosecute posted to them. So just go out and film some of these ridiculous people and let the police get on with the nasty bit.

as for the jokers actually using your drive ("oh but I was only 5 minutes!!") I'd be parking my car across the drive and going for a long walk. Or going inside and taking a nice long hot bath!!

There's probably someone bitching about you on the neighbourhood group next to the school you drive your DC to so it all evens out.

It might not be far to you, but it is to me.
Mot that I have a spare hour and a half to walk anyway!

Contact the school. Someone from my DCs school was blocking someone's drive and the head put it in the weekly news letter, that was a couple of months ago and I assume it's stopped because we haven't heard anything since. Parking is horrible around schools 😞

I saw one classic drop off the other day. Dad parked on a mini roundabout and literally chucked his primary school children out of the car and pointed in the direction of the school which was up a one-way street.

A few weeks ago a parent with her kids in the car completely blocked the road and refused to move over to allow a resident to get to her drive. When she eventually backed up, she opened her car window and gobbed up the residents car.

Our local Facebook had a man complaining that people couldn't walk the kids to school and then drive to work

I hope he walked to work.

I don't think it can be compared to many years ago. There are more kids in school so more people and car traffic. Also, there are likely more mothers working which means they have to jet off after drop off. Our local Facebook had a man complaining that people couldn't walk the kids to school and then drive to work - couldn't comprehend that work started not long after the school drop off meaning most have a frenzied drop off situation.

Since Covid, a lot of people can work from home but may still be unable to walk kids to school and be back in time so they drive.

It's all very well and good recommending cycling but if you have three kids it will take forever and at least one of them is likely too small to have their own bike. As a family of cyclists, it simply isn't safe to have a small child in a seat on the roads nor is it safe or legal to cycle on the pavements.

I can certainly see why modern life means people are more likely to drive for pick ups. I can't see why they need to park and drive like animals. I also can't see why a lot can't walk if they can sit outside school for a minimum of 30 mins prior to pick up. I hate cars idling and every day the school has people who do not live far sitting outside. When I've had the privilege of picking DD up, I arrive at the end of the school day, park safely and am able to nip in and drive off. If I could walk I would but work means I have to drive.

accident involving a child or a lorry driver turning green and rampaging shouting "PRIME SMASH".

What.

Seems parents in the school run are aloud to do as they please know a person who lives five min walk from her kids school n insists in driving there lol parents on the school run are the worst sort of road users imaginable

I live near a school entrance and have done for quite a few years. Although it got busy pre covid, as you'd expect, it's getting absolutely ridiculous now.

Cars get more or less abandoned. Corners of T junctions? Across drive ways? You name it, they do it.

Then there is the acceleration to fill the tiniest of gaps that a) get them nowhere near actually going anywhere and b) ensure that oncoming traffic can no longer move.

God alone knows how there has only been one accident involving a child or a lorry driver turning green and rampaging shouting "PRIME SMASH".

The catchment area is relatively small and there are footpaths which make walking often far quicker than driving. Of course there are an increasing number of self important idiots who are absolutely too important to walk. And work from home...

However.....I don't have a perfect solution.
Maybe proper catchments where all pupils live in either walking distance or if further a school bus is provided.
"Walking bus" schemes.
Primary schools allowing the older children to walk to school by themselves (many only allow it in Yrs 5 and 6)

we have all of this in Scotland and still have dickish parking.

Yeah, I don't disagree. There's many reasons the school streets won't work for this particular school but the list of exemptions is daft. Particularly when it doesn't clarify that Tradesmen etc have to be visiting houses on the street. The only exemption that does say about visiting houses on the streets is blue badge holders, which feels off to me.

Edited to add.. the times of our scheme are 8.15 - 9.15 and 2.45 - 4. Crucially, you can leave the streets during this time. You just can't enter.

Our council sends enforcement officers who sit in the car and don't actually seem to deter anyone. There is a parent of a large Mercedes who parks on double yellows on a blind bend.

I have mentioned this to the officers who don't appear to give a monkeys. They're too far away to see unless they actually patrol up and down the street.

I drive (rarely to school) and wouldn't dream of parking so badly. It's definitely the same parents I see day after day doing the same. Most parents park a little further and walk. But it's a large school. Must make the residents mad.

The only thing tat will stop them is weekly, if not daily, parking warden visits, or cameras that can be used to issue fines.

They won't care until it costs them.

@HunterHearstHelmsley but that's the thing - people cannot be expected to stop their lives just because some people can't park sensibly.
However.....I don't have a perfect solution.
Maybe proper catchments where all pupils live in either walking distance or if further a school bus is provided.
"Walking bus" schemes.
Primary schools allowing the older children to walk to school by themselves (many only allow it in Yrs 5 and 6).

I mean I didn't think they were all going to park illegally blocking a junction, making it impossible to pull out, drag children across the road between cars and generally block the whole road

When there's a carpark there for them
Stupidly I imagined people would use the carpark and walk the 25m down the pavement to the school gate

The one by me is farcical because of the exemptions.

• Any vehicle with a permit
• Blue badges that live in the street
• Council vehicles
• Emergency services
• Postal services
• Delivery services
• Public transport
• Taxis
• Tradesmen
• Funerals
• School staff or anyone visiting the school in a professional capacity.

And people in social housing who have no choice where they are allocated to?

We need a school bus system like the US. Or some other system - I'm sure Uber could come up with something that makes more sense.

It's crazy that so many people are wasting so much time every day unnecessarily. It's bad for the environment, it causes traffic problems for people who do actually need to go somewhere they have to drive to, it costs everyone involved money, and creates stress for all kinds of people.

I know, but it's just how it is in the UK. Poor quality narrow roads, dark mornings and afternoons, long spells of inclement weather and just enough ice to impact two wheels but not enough for us to have an organised way of dealing with it. Combined with how much the childcare you need to pay while travelling to work costs and how low wages are that you feel even a half hour loss of worked time, in the context of no reliable public transport outside of London, your life as a working parent day to day is practically and financially much more difficult if you don't use a car.

@user1477391263 it's fairly common where we are. If you can find an undersubscribed school in quite an affluential area it's as close as you can get to a private school experience without actually paying the fees.

35 years ago we had this.
It never bothered me but I walked if possible.
It's a 30 minute problem twice a day.
A friend blocked me in once assuming I was in as my dc was at the school.
Tbf you knew the school was there when you bought the house.