Parents' parking around schools is getting more dangerous

When I lived near a primary school, my neighbours and I wrote many times to the council about our concerns for road safety in the street because of school traffic. We weren't complaining about congestion or parking. We emphasised it was about safety. No one ever replied or showed up to have a look. I later worked at a school in the same local authority but in a very affluent village. The school was located in a street full of multi million pound houses. We had traffic wardens there every other week. Money talks apparently.

O/T but do any School Streets cover roads that aren't strictly residential? Opposite our Primary School are several shops... I don't think they would be happy about customers unable to access their car park for example.

Hackney East London has school streets. No vehicles can go into a school street during the morning and afternoon school times without getting a fine. It is brilliant. School pick up and drop offs are convivial, not stressful.
and definitely not dangerous.

I regularly saw slanging matches between parents and residents when I was teaching. The roads around the school (both primary and secondary on same site) were horrendous. Plus, everyone nowadays drives huge cars so there’s even less space.

In many years of teaching, several of which were as an advisory teacher, visiting several different schools, I never came across a single school that didn’t have issues with parents parking. It’s only become worse over time and is now reaching the critical stage.

When my own children were at primary school it was bad and many houses have been built since then. The road has now been made one way. It’s a street of mixed age houses, but most are Victorian or Edwardian. A five minute walk away is a large car park for the village hall.

Before it was one way, I witnessed two cars approaching one another. No room to pass because of parked cars and both refused to reverse, so they just got out of their cars and shrieked at each other, thus blocking the road completely and setting a fine example for the children emerging from school.

Careful now, it's already been notes that the poster dared to say all bosses are men as an example. You don't want to be accused of being fat phobic 🙄

We had a short term rental near a school while we waited to complete on our house. Never again!! We were in a cul de sac two streets back from the school and it was a nightmare every morning. The parents didn't give a stuff if they were blocking your drive or even the entrance to the cul de sac as "it's only a few minutes" (it never was). We will be moving again soon, if I find my dream home and it's near a school I will just keep looking as I just never want the hassle again

The parents of school children can be astonishing. They put everyone at risk with parking dangerously and thoughtlessly. Many live really locally, and could walk. 🤷‍♀️🙄

I see it every morning with my job, all these cars suddenly appear at school drop off time, then drive up the curb of the narrow road, that the children and families are walking along. Not all of them though some are considerate.

Our old neighbours used to drive the kids to school when the Dad was off work. We walked and would get there before them before they’d found somewhere to park. That was just laziness on the parents part.

Should not be fines though that may be the quickest option. Should be a few driving bans. I bet some have eyesight that has worsened but this is undeclared and some are over the drink driving limit in the morning or have taken drugs.

Social services are too stretched to deal with this form of child neglect and lack of care for other children.

Utter utter selfishness

No idea why usually resonable people seem to act like idiots at school run time

In my experience as soon as someone sits behind the wheel of a car they lose 50 points from their IQ and gain a personality disorder.

It's not a new thing, in the 1950s Disney made a cartoon about the subject:

Parking right on the corners on double yellows 30m from the school regularly round here. No regard for pedestrians who have to dodge high up doors on 4x4s being flung open as they try to squeeze past.

Parents used to be able to use the car park of a church nearby on the understanding that if the car park was needed for a function they would need to park elsewhere ( and plenty of notice was given for this with signage around a week before. ) This was stopped after the hearse and mourners at a funeral were not able to get near the church- the cones that had been put out to save the place were moved. Unbelievable!

This is hilarious. I regularly walk 30 mins from the train station to work and have never once needed a shower when I get there

This is hilarious. I regularly walk 30 mins from the train station to work and have never once needed a shower when I get there

Or a cycling bus:

If a walk makes you work up a sweat then you could probably do with walking more often.

Why do secondary students need to be dropped off? Bus or walk?

Report it to your council, they send out the parking enforcement officials. Report it to the council.

If the school is in the middle of town then almost no one needs to drive. These are secondary pupils so should be perfectly capable of getting themselves to/from school. They can walk/cycle up to three miles, beyond which the local authority is required to provide a school bus. That leaves clear streets for pupils with disabilities to be dropped off without the lazy ones getting in their way.

In London quite a few schools don’t allow you access to the school road at pick up/drop off times.

If you are dropping off your children and going on to work, it’s not unreasonable to use the car. What is unreasonable is to sit in the car with the engine running for half an hour. If you have that time, in primary school at least, you don’t have to rush to or from work.

I collect the dc a few times a week after work and sometimes I’m early (traffic is unpredictable). But I wouldn’t sit with the engine on & if I am early I will often just pop to the shops.

We had an accident outside my school in the 80s. A boy got hit and dragged along the road by the car in full view of all the children and parents outside the school. He luckily escaped with 'just' a broken leg but many who saw were affected for a long while after. It's a school street now. It's not a busy road in the slightest, but lots of children and parked cars everywhere is never going to end well.

We had a bad accident outside our school at pick up time. A parent made a mistake when driving their new car that led to children and parents being injured. It was horrific and now there is school streets in place on that road. That was the first accident but one is too many.

A shower after a "30 minute hike"? 😂😂

What?? Who would build a school on the side of a hill that needs a "hike" to get to it 😂

And if you need a shower after walking... sorry.. hiking, 15 minutes there and 15 minutes back, then you need to see a doctor for excessive sweating or some other weird cause