Parents' parking around schools is getting more dangerous

I've lived in a rural village with a primary school for more than 25 years. This year the driving is fucking awful. Aggressive, too fast, refusing to reverse 2m back to a passing place. Huge, ridiculous cars for a parent and two tiny children- everyone in great big naff huge Suvs. Parking across people's driveways. The school pick up is at 3.15 but parents have started getting there at 2.30 so they can bag the best parking spaces. If you live in the village and need to drive through the onslaught, you get filthy looks, parents letting small children leap out of their cars onto the road.

I've never seen it so bad - entitled and aggressive. The village is totally fed up with it and we all breathe a sigh of relief when the holidays come.

Yep. Kids are at school from 4-16. At least 50% of them are going to need seeing to the school gates, assuming the number of unusually mature 8 and 9 year olds is at least matched by kids older than about 10 who need more support.

The reality is that a lot of these DCs parents will have to start work at a set time or as quickly as possible, that won't give them a lot of wiggle room. One of the best ways to alleviate this is as much flexibility as possible for working parents. But there are always posters spluttering at the audacity of parents wanting to be able to flex more around school. Mine walk, fwiw, and my employer is intensely relaxed about staff fitting work round school runs where needed. But it's something that affects a lot of people.

“He” has always been used to represent a person of unknown sex. “If anyone didn’t know about it, it was his own fault" is perfectly correct grammar.

Why would you need a shower after walking 30 minutes in the UK for most of the year? At 8am it’s not hot except for on perhaps three mornings a summer.

The primary school my eldest went to would send out letters to parents weekly to remind them about dangerous and/or selfish parking (blocking drives, double parking etc). They eventually started getting traffic cops down who then fined the shit out of these people. And you’re right OP: hitting them in the pocket with fines definitely helped solve the problem. Far more than pleading with them to think of the safety of others, mostly children.

Something that shocked me as well was the short distances some people were driving. Literally 200 yards door to door. Or less in some cases. And getting there 45 minutes before the bell to “secure a space.” Nuttier than squirrel shit.

We had constant letters home from our children's primary school about very inconsiderate and often downright dangerous parking. It never made a button of difference. There were two car parks nearby, a church and a library, the owners of which had actively given permission for parents to park there and do a two minute walk, but so many just couldn't be arsed. I was forced to experience firsthand the parking scrum outside the school in the afternoons when my youngest developed both a physical and a mental health issue and needed to be picked up close to the school (after years of us doing the 15 minute walk from home) and it was truly ridiculous. People parked across driveways, blocking the corner, sitting so far up the footpath that those on foot had to walk onto the road. There were a couple of accidents, albeit minor, but the possibility of something more serious was very real. It was the most stressful part of my day for the few months I had to endure it, so I can only imagine how the residents of the street must feel.

Why would a boss be a he?

If someone is capable of working and parenting, they’re capable of getting their children to school without putting others in danger or being an inconvenience, while also getting to work on time.

Secondary school kids are fine. Primary schools ought to organise walking buses from certain points away from school. A few in my area do this and works really well. Also "a thirty minute hike requiring a shower"? Disabilities aside, it's a pretty dire state of affairs if an adult can't do 30 mins without needing a shower. Maybe it would be good for them to build in some exercise.

This makes me really grateful that my children’s school has a carpark for parents. Plenty of parking to go around. I know most schools have been there years and have been built in towns where children walk to school but the world is different now and I really think that if School can do it they should acquire some parking near the School. And when building schools from here on in, they should build a carpark as a part of it. And before anybody gets on at me, I know, I know funding etc but it’s really not ideal that parents are being unsafe on roads.

Really? You think I should drop off a six year old unaccompanied?

Are you going to tell someone’s boss he has to accept them being an additional 15 minutes late so they can walk? Are you going to tell him to install a shower for people who’ve done a 30 minute hike before work?

You can drop the children off further away and they walk whilst you go to work.

The issue is, in the modern world we don’t have time to waste. The school opens at 8 and I have to be at work at 8.30. Then I leave at 2.30 for pickup. If I park further away I won’t get to work or pickup in time.

People nowadays have these tight schedules because they work. It’s a lack of time issue, which then leads to a parking issue because people don’t have time to walk.

One of the worst offenders we have for sitting in the car with her engine running for an hour so she can get the best parking space lives next to me.

I can walk to the school faster than she can drive.

If there isn’t parking near the school, parents need to park further away and walk. I bet if they parked half a mile away, there would be no parking difficulties.

Our sons old primary school had this problem, the other roads were permit holders only, but there was a huge car park a ten minute walk away that was free for the first 30 minutes, so plenty time. Yet a significant number of people would block the road, triple parking wasn’t uncommon. In the time our son was there three people (one a child) were hit by parents mounting the pavement in their cars and driving directly into pedestrians. The child had a head injury and a broken leg, the parent who ran them over didn’t change their driving or parking habits.

The road was then turned into a school street, as the ajoining roads were permit holders only the traffic wardens were always there before and after school, so the parents were essentially guaranteed a fine if they parked there. Suddenly they were able to not only park in a car park, but their feet also did this wonderful thing called walking.

Public transport? Park a ten or fifteen minutes walk away? If it's in the middle of a city there are options. I work at a similar school with kids who live ten mins away being picked up in huge SUVs. It's carnage at the end of the day..constant blocked routes etc. At the very least smaller cars would help.

Its not just schools.

What would make a difference would be if The Police issues Points as well as fines.

Generally I suggest that parking offences need to be made 'pointable' because people who act in the way described here are not fit to be allowed to drive

get the council on it - our one sends out a car with a camera and mobile parking officers to dd1 school at random intervals.

at dd2 school, the council allows local residents to submit photos of illegal parking and they will ticket off the back of that photographic evidence. School tells parents that they are at risk of this and it’s improved parking habits no end!

Nightmare where we live. It's a 700 pupil school. Not all will live in walking distance. There is a free car park that has about 30 spaces a five minute walk away. But that gets full pretty quickly. There's no consideration when building schools where potentially 200 cars are going to park.

The drop off systems with staggered times offered in America (or at least on American tv shows ) seem like a good idea.

School parking has been a nightmare for a long time. For secondary schools in particular I do think a better, much cheaper school bus system would be useful. An annual bus pass for DS school costs nearly £700, I can see why many parents decide to drive them to school rather than pay that especially if they have multiple children.

walking has been pushed for years and is obviously the ideal but many people choose not to do that or are unable.

There was research done at one point that showed that kids walking to school actually performed better than those who were driven. I realise some live too far away but there's no excuse not to park a few streets away. It's mostly just pure laziness.

My daughters school is literally a 5 minute walk. My neighbour drives her children in her range rover. Utter madness. And she drives home after so its not like shes dropping them off on the way to work. The keep clear zig zag lines are offen covered with lazy parents dropping off kids. Its very frustrating.

A new build estate was built next to our local primary and they had the foresight to make an area specifically designed for drop offs. It works really well here and I think solutions need to come from both sides. For example, designated drop off points etc I have seen some US examples where parents don’t even leave their cars, they queue safely. I simply don’t understand why people want to park closer and have more stress. If I had to drive, I’d rather park a few streets away and walk.

They never hit any kids.

Until they do.

My school is turning the road into a "school road". It really is needed as it's so bloody dangerous. I've actually had someone shouting at me to move out the way so they can park with all 4 wheels on the pavement! Lots of the parents are moaning about the change, even ones that live on the street and won't be affected 🤷‍♀️. Very few of our parents don't live within walking distance of the school - we're in London.