School parking, what works?

[Roguebludger]

Are there any schools out there that have really good solutions for school parking issues? Are there any initiatives that have successfully reduced the amount of parents that drive or helped improve considerate parking? I would love to help my children's school improve on what is a dangerous time of day and examples of good practice are much appreciated!

Similar to described above, a one-way horse shoe shaped lay-by for quick drop off pick up only. This only really works for older kids though who are happy to get from the car through the gate independently.

Breakfast club would help so that the kids can be dropped off during a larger window of time. My DDs can go to nursery from 8-6 but school will be 9-3, I will have to leave work, do the pick up then back to work, it would be lovely to walk but it’s a 40-50 minute round trip.

Primary school is more awkward but secondary school transport here is ridiculous. There are school buses but they are expensive £2.50 per child return a day. I have 3 children so I drop them off a few streets away and they walk for 7 mins to the gate then another 2/3 mins to their tutor rooms. I pick them up slightly closer but I get there 35 mins early so I can park responsibly and I don't park down the round their school is in.

They keep expanding both the secondary and primary schools here (3 form entry for primary and 7/8/9/10 form entry for secondary) so people do end up having to travel further as the catchment areas are larger.

Perhaps more schools need to be built with smaller catchment areas and less pupils and then it will be easier to walk.

I watch a lot of American tv shows and there school all seem to have both school buses and large areas where parents can drop off. Seems like a drop off point would be good, if possible, keeps traffic moving and stops people being arrogant twats and blocking driveways.

DSs school has what I call a drive thru, you drive into the school where there's a large roundabout and at the front of the que there are teachers helping the kids out the car, and then they all walk round to their class rooms. It works really well and tbh, I don't really understand the few parents that don't use it either, it's very convenient especially if you have multiple children or use a pushchair (like me, 2yo and 4mo), or even if you're rushed for time/running late. There is a lot of kids that walk too. Pick up time is a bit trickier, but the local pub round the corner allows parents to use their car park so if you're ever struggling for street parking there's always that. The main road that the school is on that people tend to park on doesn't have any houses etc so no issues there but it is a narrow country lane and some people that can't drive properly do struggle if they need to reverse back up, quite amusing to watch tbf 🤣 there is obviously the odd 1 or 2 that park like dickheads but you get that anywhere.

I absolutely hate school runs. I’m disabled and can’t get anywhere near the school unless I get there an hour or so early to pick up. It’s a daily stress. And then all the parents parked right by the school, on yellow lines, and across driveways, get out the car in their gym gear….

My DS primary school is ridiculous, we live in a very nice village where the majority of attendees are in walking distance. We walk in every day and there are regularly parents driving their 4x4's along the pavement because the street near it is blocked with cars parked (usually blocking driveways) Parents park outside the school on the yellow lines making it very dangerous to cross the road. I know a few who drive in and they do not work and so have no need to drive every day. We have had cameras and a few fines from them, we have the police outside regularly but nothing deters the laziness. When it is raining it is horrific, heaven forbid the little darlings get wet. We have the walk to school scheme where they get a badge but there is no way to police it really and to be honest as the kids get older they don't care about a badge. The road outside school is the one thing that stops me letting DS walk to school by himself. I have seen so many near misses and crashes from parents parking illegally, driving too fast and driving up on the pavement to squeeze through!

Ours is great.

School streets zone so no access for cars down the street where the gate is at school run time.

Arrangements with morrisons nearby to leave the car there and park and stride and a pelican crossing for the busy road.

Walking/ cycling/park and stride encouraged through the Living Streets travel tracker where children earn a badge if they walk (or park and stride) at least once a week. www.livingstreets.org.uk/products-and-services/projects/wow-travel-tracker

Shelter to leave bikes and scooters at school.

At my DCs school, and others in our area, parents are encouraged to drop children at the gate from P2 (Y1) onwards, and not hang around with them. This means cars don't need to stop for as along which helps a little.

Nothing, nothing works.
We had a Park and walk system from a nice, big, safe, easily accessible car park with a 2 minute walk up a straight, tarmacked pedestrian only path right into school and STILL people crowded the roads around the main entrance.
I remember asking someone why they tried to park on the road and apparently it was because the path came out “at the wrong end of school” - it was 100 yards across the playground to the other end of the school and by the time you pissed around with traffic and trying to park you could have walked there from the carpark 3 bloody times!!!

See that may be more fair/better but:

For example there were a fairly number of Foster kids that used to travel a distance to the DCs primary (because it was good for inclusion) so came by car. Do you give these kids a free pass? Suddenly your drawing attention/resentment to these kids if you give them a free pass when the other kids know they should be walking to get a prize.

I know a few kids with disabilities usually hidden at school would end up doing harm to themselves by walking rather than draw attention to themselves by getting a prize when other kids knew they were taking the car.

I firmly believe a measure or a society is how it treats its most vulnerable members. Schemes like this just fundamentally shit for the most vulnerable. Better does not mean good or acceptable

Drop off lanes. We lived in North America for a bit and all the schools near us had these with a member of staff policing them to make sure parents didn't stay too long. You pulled in, dropped off, got out. 5 cars at a time. It worked fine.
Obvs would be no good for our older school buildings but any new build ones should incorporate this surely?

How does t

Our school is right next to a car park. People drive because they need to get some where quickly eg work, afterschool club or nursery to pick up little one or because it’s horrific weather (thunder and lightning). These aren’t things you can change.

Every day for a week residents (who all have drives) parked on the narrow lane, meaning no parents could park or drop off. This stopped it for a while. Whenever they start up again the residents park on the lane again.

Another school has a red zone where non-resident parking is forbidden and volunteer parents take photos of cars breaking the law and they get fined. That works.

Same here. The stretch of road outside our school gets closed to vehicles at school start and end times. It’s manned by school staff.
I really like it, it’s put a stop to the cars parking on the zig zags and yellow lines and they’re no longer able to mount the pavement right outside school. It’s made it much safer in my opinion

Obvs would be no good for our older school buildings but any new build ones should incorporate this surely?

The kids first primary school was brand new and had issues from day 1 (including a child being run over) because they thought it would be cool to do some Scandinavian thing where there are no pavements and no roads, just a massive "shared space" along the whole street with the odd random tree and bench scattered about.

It's absolute fucking carnage. How exactly are you meant to teach a 5 year old road safety when there are no pavements and cars can come at you any time from any direction?

We moved away and my kids started walking themselves to school from P4 (age 7/8) as did most kids. Relatives who still attend that school need to be picked up / dropped off all the way through because it's SO dangerous.

It's like they plan these new schools for a Utopia where we don't have cars or genders or disabilities or learning difficulties and then - shock horror - learn the hard way that some people NEED to use basic necessities like a car, and a female bathroom, and an actual classroom....

My kids are very much grown up but they went to a senior school that was awkward to get to, right on the city border, the other side of the road was a different authority and at the time those kids couldn't go as the school was popular and oversubscribed from people in the city. The deal was when they started at the school we signed a home school agreement (don't know if they still exist) one of the things we agreed to was a set distance from the school where you could drop off, I think it was something like 250 metres. Anyway it really spread things out and stopped it being an issue.

I don't know what they would have done if you had complied, we were obviously a very obedient group of parents as it was extremely rare to see anyone parking closer.

Our primary had at ks2 you could in the morning drive in and drop off. All worked until they extended it to ks1. Mayhem - the idea was you drop child next to gate with a teacher directing child straight in, do not get out of car and leave immediately turning left only no right turn. Nope the parents who got out of car, as bags in boot, then stood and waved watching their child wander down playground…..catching up with another parent. It caused the road to be totally blocked so that the locals really complained.

No amount of emails sent did any of the parents read! Back to just KS2 and all working again! We also have a council car park that’s free for 3-3:45 that’s about 5 min walk.

Though the same parents though ignore all the option and still park where ever they please - your never going to change their behaviour sadly.

We have walking prizes. If a class has the highest number of children who walk scoot or cycle they win the prize that week.

That's awful and so unfair on those children who can't walk or whose parents work and need to drop off on the way to work.

My secondary school allows kids to arrive from 7.45 and they can wait in the library or restaurant. This really helps spread out the traffic. This obviously wouldn't work at a primary where the kids needs supervision.

Schools can only do so much. Parents have to want to change.

because of Ds disabilities I have to drive him to school. I wish I could kick him out the house to walk but that’s not an option!

the parking even at the secondary school is madness though. I had to take DS back after an appointment a few weeks back at 1.30, one school on the site finishes at 2.45 and the other at 3.20. When I took him back there where already half a dozen parents sat (engines running of course!) waiting for pick up!

Mine did a combo of scooter sheds and imaginative ways to decorate your scooter so you knew it was yours. Very successful. A drop off zone so parents drive in, car door opens, child out and straight through the gate into the playground and then at popular request, single yellow lined the streets after they couldn't always get a traffic warden.

It is surely easy money and another local school literally did this, got a traffic warden to ticket every single day at drop off and pick up and it soon stopped the parents parking on zig zags and on the corners of road ends.

I think being able to drop your child off into a school hall rather than let loose in a playground makes a difference. Having to be responsible for your child in the playground means parents will park up. Not sure on the ratio of staff to children needed but this would work really well above reception when they don't fall under early years anymore. They could all be reading in there or listening to a story being read or played on the projector.

DC primary school actually has a fair sized car park for parents to use. It's a village school but village has few young families so most people drive in from surrounding areas.
Tbh car park really doesn't help that much - it's gravel (no marked bays) and idiot parents park so far apart that there's wasted space that could accommodate at least another 6-8 cars every day. Why they can't park sensibly close to the neighbouring cars is beyond me.

Tbh, it's a parent issue, I really don't get why the school have to spend so much time dealing with it. It's simple if all the parents are considerate.

At my dc's primary, they give a permit to the parents to near by town parking, like less than 5 mins walk from school and it's always emplty. Yet the school parking is still the big issue. I live on the same street as the school, and yes, I get parents parking on my driveway blocking my car very regularly. I don't mind it, but had a letter through the door from school the other day asking us to report the illegal parking, so it must be a big issue.
One set of parents go through, and another comes along. So, unless there will be a big consequences, I don't think it will be solved.

So, I think it's not wrong for school to use something quite extreme like reward system that award the children walking like pp said, or things like shame the owner of the car who parked inconsiderately, like I remember reading on MN in the past.

Fixed penalty notices work.