To think driveway blockers are unreasonably disrespectful… (school parking rant)

I live in the next road to the school so can thankfully walk my DS, and the parking is an eye opener. It's usually the same cars I notice parking like absolute tools as well. Some people just don't give two shits. The school has sent out many notices about the parking and even had safety officers and PCSOs out. Parents behave for about a day or two and then it goes back to a free for all. My neighbour that lives about 6 houses down from me actually DRIVES her DC to school regularly. She has a 4x4 as well, honestly I quite often get to school and back before she has even managed to turn her car around. Madness.

It’s not just schools.

I used to live near a convenience store and the number of people I had parking in clearly signed and bollarded allocated parking spaces was ridiculous (they used to park in between my bollard and my neighbour’s). Whenever people challenged them the answer was always “we’ll just be 5 minutes” / “where else am I meant to park?”

Some people are just antisocial dickheads who don’t give a shit who they inconvenience as long as they get what they want.

If the school and council won’t assist with parking issues, go and talk to your neighbours. See if they are bothered by having their driveways blocked.

If most of the people in the area feel the same plan to have everyone park in the street for a while. Make school drop off much harder for the parents. Then maybe you can come to an understanding about having driveways blocked.

When my kids were at the school in question, the school did exactly that. Polite reminders, have consideration, Highway Code, use the car parks etc etc. Got better for a day or two and the first wet day it's back to normal.

I completely accept that schools have no power in policing parking.

We live at the end of a cul de sac very close to a school. Yes the school was there when we bought the house but there were 250 kids - my eldest started that year. Now there are 400+ and traffic is dreadful.

Parents are rude, entitled and selfish. They give zero fucks about residents, the only thing that matters is getting as close to the school gate as humanly possible, god forbid their child has to walk 5 minutes from the car park.

It is the parents that oark across your dropped kerb and then decide to drive down the pavement …. I have filmed this and sent to the local school as the parent narrowly missed a young child. Only then were the school interested.

had the child been knocked over evidence was there for the police.

my pet hate is parents parking in the corner of a road, blocking the view to exit the road and the pedestrian dropped kerb so that pushchairs and wheelchairs cannot use it to cross the road.

selfish. Utterly selfish. Oh and lazy.

just sums up the attitude of some people which can never be changed as they are entitled.

I lived next door to a school and worked 10 mins drive away. My hours were 9am - 3pm. It meant I could drop mine in the yard as soon as it opened, rush home and get to work just on time, then I'd leave work on time and have just enough time to get home and rush round into the yard. Perfect!

I used to get frustrated at people blocking me in on a morning. I kept getting into trouble for being late for work. I'd have been and dropped mine and be back home ready to leave, but couldn't as my drive was blocked.

Then on an afternoon if I arrived home and if my drive was blocked, I'd have to drive further away and find somewhere to park. That made me late picking my children up, then we'd have to wait until the school traffic cleared and walk back to collect the car.

Most of them said "oh I was only 10-15 minutes." They just didn't get the concept that those 10-15 minutes really inconvenienced me.

You are not unreasonable OP. I am able to walk from home and occasionally I drive if I need to get on the motorway for work quickly. I set off early and park in a space on the side of the road safely.
We have parents that pull up to the zig zags and casually hang round, massively obstructing the view of children and parents trying to cross. Some who block drives and some who block the entrance to a care home that has frequent ambulances.
The police patrol fairly regularly and ticket. Teachers stand out in high viz jackets where they can. Some people literally don't care.
We have parents who have other children with needs that they can't leave them in the car and they have special arrangements with the staff to use their car park.
It's beyond me why people do this.

YANBU and you didn't have to go to such lengths to defend your thoughts. Only CFs block drives, whether they are parents of the local school children or not.

The only people who get a pass are emergency services in emergency situations, or obviously a driver who needs medical attention.

Edited 22 times because of predictive text

The parish council have no jurisdiction on highways etc, go to the proper council and log your issues

Agreed. I filmed a woman once losing it for a similar reason who came at me hard. I sent the video to the school who did firstly did nothing. I then told them not to worry I would take it up with the police and council. Surprise that got their attention! Parent,was banned for their behaviour and never parked there again. School sent multiple notes out, put out bollards and the head started coming out in the morning. It may help to do something similar. Good luck.

We had a neighbour like that once. Not a school, but similar - lots of people parking to be close to where they needed to be. She would stand on the street quizzing folks about why they were parking, berating them and telling them that residents were pissed off with them (we weren't, really, it was mildly annoying but understandable). Most people ignored her but sometimes it would degenerate into a row. She caused problems rather than solving them and made herself really unhappy.

I agree you don't want to become like that OP.

I’ve been entertained recently by the pictures on the local Parking like a Tw4t facebook group. The number plates of the badly parked cars are visible.
Worth a try, OP?

A local school has a turning circle. No one uses it as a turning circle, they just park all round it.

Schools can request courtesy and consideration from families of pupils, but they have no jurisdiction over where people park outside school grounds. Sometimes, senior teachers will go out morning or afternoon and that can ‘encourage’ drivers to be more considerate, while it lasts.

School drop off drivers are NUTS. I am a new driver and still a bit nervous around parking manoeuvres especially when there's a lot of cars around. And the amount of honking and pressure I get daily gives me sooooo much stress.

I park a considerable walk away from the school now just so I don't have to deal with it.

So I am not at all surprised that people park over your driveway.

I've seen cars double parked in front of the school?? As in one car parallel parked by the kerb and another parked adjacent to it!! Lunacy

They know where you live.

Anything stopping you photographing and videoing?

This.

It’s not an AIBU or need to explain yourself. It’s illegal end of.

This, just park over your own drive, problem solved!

As you have a dropped curb do what LivingLaVidaBabyShower does with parking attendants.

We live within sight of 3 schools and I'm always quite disappointed I've never had anyone park across the drive!

I nearly crashed into someone turning round in my drive the other day, I don't know who was more surprised, me or her.

OP if you have the time and energy (and skills) maybe you could rig up some kind of pressure pad on the road. If someone stops on it BOOM slime and confetti bomb all over their car. Would be amazing.

I’ve made so many adjustments to my home to try to not acknowledge what’s going on outside - we’ve planted hedging to block the view, we’ve installed blinds that I shut at around school run times so I don’t see what’s going on, we have driveways gates installed and signs on said gates requesting to ‘keep clear’ and ‘no parking'.

This sounds like a massively disproportionate response to an extremely time-limited albeit regular annoyance.

Why are you getting so angry?

YANBU. But you could spend the rest of your life tied up in knots about it, it will damage your health and will make you very miserable. I always remember seeing this very elderly lady out on her drive shouting at an inconsiderate parent, she was out there every day. No intention of going out, just protecting her drive. Don't do this, please OP. You're already talking about suffering. Just don't suffer it. Breathe and allow it. Despite it going against everything you (and I) believe in.

Schools generate traffic. The current way they deal with this appears to be to spend expensive vasts amounts of time and energy telling traffic to stop being traffic. I suggest that time and energy would be better spent on supervising a simple turning drop-off/pick-up circle on school grounds. Most schools have space for this.

I’ve made so many adjustments to my home to try to not acknowledge what’s going on outside - we’ve planted hedging to block the view, we’ve installed blinds that I shut at around school run times so I don’t see what’s going on, we have driveways gates installed and signs on said gates requesting to ‘keep clear’ and ‘no parking’. So please, please don’t think I look for trouble when I approach anyone that does this - I’d really rather avoid it BUT at the same time I also don’t want people thinking it’s ok. There will be that one time I need to get out in an emergency (I do have two disabled children) and I’ll be impeded from accessing help.

Look... I completely agree that they shouldn't do it. But the above does read as though you're not actually being inconvenienced by this at all, you're just objecting to it on principle and on the basis that one day it might inconvenience you.

Your parish council sounds like a throwback. The council round here are always telling parents to walk to school. One street next to one of the schools is now completely permit only, no one else allowed to park on it at any time at all, even though everyone there has massive driveways. They've entirely bought into the narrative that journeys involving children and women are unnecessary.

What practical difficulties does it cause you OP?