Parents' parking around schools is getting more dangerous

I wish there was better public transport in our area. I decided not to pay the £1100 for two bus passes this year since the bus is always late and now they can't get a seat so have to stand, whilst trying to also manage violins, bags and sports bags, sometimes a casserole from food tech too! So I drive them there and back now but I don't park inconsiderately. There's a library a 5 minute walk away with a large car park so I park there. But I do see cars parked right outside the school on the zig zag!!

Presumably the time taken to put on hiking boots and prepare a flask of soup is the problem.

2 miles is 10 minutes on a bicycle. No longer than it would take by car once traffic and looking for a space are taken into consideration.

The dangerous and inconsiderate parking is a symptom of having too many cars, it would not happen if there were fewer of them. There are other problems - have you noticed just how much worse peak traffic has got since schools went back? There was plenty of bad parking at the secondary school I went to - a school with a tiny catchment of roughly a mile radius in a 1990s-built suburb with safe active travel routes. Most secondary-aged kids should not need driving to school, particularly not when they live less than a mile away.

I wouldn't expect people to walk 2 miles to school everyday, but parking 5/10 mins away is definitely doable for most. It just seems to me that a lot of drivers can't grasp this is a possibility, as though walking any distance when you've driven is counteractive.

Yes because even two miles takes a decent amount of time to walk, especially with a small child and the reality is that now most people are dropping and then getting to work. They simply do not have the additional time. There would have to be a seismic change at many levels of public infrastructure to make fewer cars in the school run possible. I think we're talking about two different things though..one is dangerous and inconsiderate parking which no-one is going to hold their hand up to, and second, the use of cars at all which plenty of us will defend.

The average journey to a primary school in 2014 was 1.6 miles. Only 8% of primary school pupils live more than five miles from school yet 46% are driven - so there are a considerable number of kids being driven less than two miles to school.

I dunno, people in cars appear to be oblivious to lots of things. They moan about traffic but it's the other cars which is the problem.

It's quicker to cycle than it is to try and find a parking space. Precisely because the streets are so congested.

@Loodles transport under the disability/SEN criteria doesn’t require an EHCP. You should apply. If you are refused you should challenge the LA.

14km and 95% of that is rural roads with no cycle lane…

It’s wrong that people park dangerously and/or illegally.

But I think this has got worse and will continue to do so all the while local authorities place children away from their nearest school, often out of catchment, and compounded by academies and faith schools instilling their own admissions criteria.

We could really do with proper school bus services around here. At the moment I’m still driving DC1 (year 11 with SEN) to and from school because the local authority couldn’t place him in a school any nearer home, and despite us trying repeatedly he can’t manage to get there under his own steam, but doesn’t qualify for transport assistance where he doesn’t have an EHCP.

Thankfully DC2 got into a school a bit closer - although still not the closest! - and will hopefully be able to make his own way to and from, but again he also has SEN and may or may not get an EHCP - going through EHCNA now - but in the meantime he’s also being dropped off and picked up. But he also knows how to find the car on Find My because I park a little walk away so I’m parked legally and safely.

Really do wish we had school buses though!

Even if you don’t have the option to walk the whole route in most cases baring disabilities and illnesses parking sensibly 5 minutes walk away will be an option. Most people don’t need to be right next to the zig zag markings!

How far are you away from the school?

@DdraigGoch and again I’m assuming you know that not everyone lives within an acceptable cycling distance to their school either!! Seriously!?

Been the same for years. My eldest is 18 and I can remember parents parking everywhere, blocking roads, parking across drives, parking on the zig zags.
What was annoying was there were a lot of side roads where you could park safely, less than 5 minutes walk away but so many parents wouldn't use them.
We usually walked but when I did drive I didn't park like an asshole. It's not hard to park properly and safely.

I don't think they're oblivious to the irony but in the end life is busy, time is very tight and cycling through tightly congested streets as an adult let alone a child is simply not an option for many. None of this however, excuses bad or dangerous parking and driving.

I live on a hill in North Wales so am familiar with the challenges it poses. Thing is though that when cycling to see a friend up the valley I'd sooner take the route that involves a 1-in-3 hill (which is as steep as steep can be) than take a gentler route up a 1-in-15 hill because the former is dead quiet while the latter is a busy A road.

It's amazing how many people will excuse driving their kids to school on the basis that there's too much traffic for it to be safe, without acknowledging that they are part of the problem.

To be fair that's easier said than done depending on where you live. My friends in pan-flat Cambridgeshire with miles and miles of cycle paths don't own a car. I live in a congested town but with crap public transport and steep hills. No way I or my kids would cycle. It's Chicken and egg though isn't it. Fewer cars and I might cycle but there won't be fewer cars unless people do. There's no excuse for dangerous and inconsiderate parking but I do think there are multiple factors about how modern life is now with two working parents and the school allocations that do make it harder not to drive.

Well cycle then.

@Nickynicks i assume you mean if they can…not everyone lives within walking distance of their school!

If the school will let them...............

👏👏👏

When I've seen this I have hit the car hard in a place that make a loud noise (bonnet, door etc). They stop immediately because they think they've hit someone or something. I then have an uber polite conversation that they nearly hit me or my child and next time it could be fatal. They usually still look shocked after the bang and consider what the consequences could have been.