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!

I disagree with any prizes for the kids. And mine walked/cycled every day. But that was my choice.

At our primary (in Scotland) it isn't too much of a problem as the majority of children are walking distance to the school and when children can walk on their own is up to the discretion of the parents. Kids that live more than 1.5-2 miles away, or if the route isn't safe(eg along a busy road with no pavement) get a local authority bus that takes them to school. Placement requests are quite rare so I would say 95% of kids are within catchment of the school. I think the main thing is that children can walk, and do in friendship groups. Walking with your parents after a certain age is social death.
It is much busier when wet though!

"kiss and drop" spaces should work but doesn't at ours because people just park in them and take their kids in. Also you need a separate queue from the main car park one or it all turns into a big gridlock. But I think there is potential if you can avoid those issues.

Parents needing the car for commuting is a genuine dilemma. Opening the school playground 10 mins earlier so there's a bigger window for "kiss and drop" might help but everything's cut to the bone.

I think making cycling and scooting easier should help. Cycling is such a pain at ours. Parents can't bring their bikes on site and there's nowhere out of the way to leave them outside. Kids have to walk theirs from school gate to bike racks, which are far from the school gate. By the time you've tied up both bikes in separate places and walked between them twice it's no quicker than walking, and therefore I can't get home quick enough to swap bike for car for my commute. I would like to see a more user friendly bike set up where cycling parents can drop off cycling kids in a more streamlined way. Sadly I think cycling will remain a pretty niche way to get to school so I don't think the economics will stack up.

Our council has a "school streets" initiative: www.richmond.gov.uk/services/roads_and_transport/transport_planning/school_streets/about_school_streets

It's enforced using cameras and fines.

It’s a massive problem, I’d love to have the time on my hands to walk the 40mins there and back to school but it’s just not feasible in modern world where parents work etc so we park and stride.

Our council did do the walking scheme thing that ran for a few months where each child got a little key fob and you tap it against a meter on the lampposts on the street to collect points once you tap two meters in a row and so on. The nearest ones to school are about 10min walk from school and then one at the school gate, but also ones further away if people were walking from further, so even parents who have to go to work or there are mobility issues can get at least one point. You also didnt know how much points each child is earning individually (although you can log in and find out yourself) so there isn’t stigma in collecting no or limited points. There are problems with this scheme though - main one being it’s schools against schools so the local school next to us had kids out walking for all PE lessons and also people saw parents getting out of cars swiping fobs or swiping when they had no kids with them so obviously open to some manipulation! Once my son heard about this he lost interest. Also gives big schools a certain advantage. I think if they had a similar scheme but you only collected points during certain hours and it was just kept within the school to earn points for your house or something it might be a good incentive.

Cones around the main streets of school do help here and parents generally comply with that.

My dcs primary school is next to a big council office/headquarters and since covid/WFH has reduced traffic so much they have built a path for parents to park at the council office and walk down the new path straight to the primary school. It used to be a nightmare at drop off and now it's a breeze. It's less than a minute walk down the path and there's always loads of spaces.

My DS's school has a supervised playground for half an hour before school start so parents can drop and run if their child isn't at breakfast club. Most parents don't even get out of the cars and the school run traffic is spread out.

Tell us more about your school - urban/rural, catchment, transport options etc.

My kids go to 3 different schools now (aargh) all of which now have School Streets. This means drivers can't drive past the schools at drop/pick times, without getting a massive fine. One road (once an insane cut-through) has also been made into a no-through-road.

All of these are camera-enforced closures, and in the early days there were tens of infringements each day, and the council will have raked it in. Now there are barely any.

Parents w disabilities/who have children w disabilities are exempt from the closure, as are residents.

It's been absolutely amazing. Has transformed the start and end of the day. At the primary school they also widened the pavement (took in the parking spaces, so there's now no parking available on one side of the road).

Some nearby parents still do drive, but fewer (because it's now a menace to get close), and those who do have to stay a bit further away, so don't create danger by the gates.

Nothing worked where my DD's went to school but in parents defence there was no drop zone (for juniors, infants you had to park and take in) a drop zone would help in the mornings for sure - I, like most people, dropped en route to work (no breakfast club) so didn't have time to park up and walk them in a distance, i instead dropped them as close as possible and watched them go through the gate. I finished work at 2.30 so had time to park at home then walk to pick up.

Secondary was worse in a way but not for me because I was given a pick up pass to go onto school premises due to DD's autism

The cars don't park at drop off. Parents cars file in, a groundsman directs the cars into 2 lines (one on the LHS one on the right hand side) - and pauses the queue of cars streaming in. About 8 or 10 cars release their central locking. Teachers open car doors and the children get out and walk to their classrooms/school reception. The cars drive off (parents never get out of the car and children never seem to dawdle). The groundsman files in another 2 lines of cars. Its really fast flowing and quick. (Its a primary school in the UK).

Local pubs have allowed parents to use their car parks.

Thank you all there's some good ideas here. The school is 2 form entry on a suburban residential road. Catchment is 1.5 miles but close to a train line with only 2 crossings so difficult if you're the other side of the tracks. It can cause a large detour. There's already scooter/ bike parking. No nearby car parks. The neighbours are very patient but I have seen parents being truly obstructive and abusive to them.
I walk so parking not an issue for me but I see parents blocking all the roads nearby. There's a brilliant breakfast club and clubs after school everyday, both are poorly attended. The zig zags and double yellows are always full and parents blocking pavements and driveways.
This week I was crossing at the crossing and a parent reversed into my pram. She didn't stop. This isn't the most dangerous thing I've seen happen either.

In my opinion the school my kids went to in the US had a good system. Lots of kids got the school buses, which went to one side of the school so nowhere near the walkers or the car drop off.

The other side had a drop off lane where there were strict rules and lots of staff making sure people followed them. Parents weren’t allowed to exit the car. Staff member opened the car door and helped child out and directed them which way to go. Then there was a specific one way system to exit the neighborhood so the streets didn’t get blocked up. Could drop off from 8.40 to 9. Or you could park in the school car park (not big) or on the nearby streets and walk your kid in but no one really did that. We were lucky we lived in the next street so we walked every day.

Pick up was more chaotic. You could park up and walk to collect your kid or wait in the drop off lane with a sign with kids name (they got good at recognizing cars in time) and they would bring them to the cars. They did ask for you to commit to a pick up plan for the first few weeks so they could direct the kids which way to go, but obviously it was flexible.

Basically the school district employed additional people to work 8.30-9 and 3.15 to 3.45 to help get the kids into and out of school. I think that is what made the difference

The only thing that seems to work at my DC's school is parking inspectors. It's amazing how many fewer Cars arrive once the word gets round.

My DD's primary drop off isn't too bad as it's a tiny school in a small village.

However another local primary causes traffic gridlock every single morning because there are several hundred kids and half of them seem to arrive by car, all aiming for the same ten-minute window and the main road outside the school becomes impassable once cars start parking along it.

In this sort of situation I think the school should take responsibility and try to ease the problem by extending the window in which kids can arrive at school from ten minutes to twenty minutes.

The only things that work imho are those systems that make it easier for driving parents to drop and go without parking, so

drive thru drop off and pick up
kids go to a waiting area before being released to classrooms/gather in a holding area waiting for their car to arrive at the pick up spot (allows siblings to group together)
This also works for parents or dc that cant easily walk,so disabled parent parking isnt needed in the same way/quantity and often space used for that can be switched over to drive thru use for the pick up amd drop off hours
At my dc school the admin and leadership faculty policed the holding zone and got dc in and out of cars, they said it really helped them keep a finger on the pulse of the school and often caught issues before they escalated

We have a dropoff zone in the morning which works very well, leaving the small amount of close parking for those with the really little ones.

In the afternoons, we are encouraged to use the local church carpark and walk 5 minutes, which many do, and in combination with the small local parking, and some older children being allowed to walk home alone that has dramatically reduced traffic issues.

And the head patrols in the morning, and we all get reminders in the newsletter for the afternoon about considerate parking - so most people are pretty well behaved these days. Cones are out for the corners so that people don't get in the habit of parking in dangerous places too.

Very large primary school (1100 students) but they have four gates and each gate has 5 minute parking zones. There is also lots of school bus options that are very popular. I’d guess up to a third of kids get on buses. Another 100 or so use after school care. Finally there is a supermarket across the street with a 300 car carpark. They don’t mind in the least that parents park there as they’ve figured out many of us pop in for a few things on the way home.

This

When my eldest two DC were at Secondary school I would drive from home (moved out of local area but they stayed at the school, pull up into the large car park of what was then a Harvester, and they would walk the rest of the way.
It was the same at pick up.

No one will choose to use breakfast club just to ease everyone else's parking though! Most people won't want DC in childcare more than they have to.

We had breakfast club too but you only use it if you have to. It takes forever to walk your child from the school gate round to the far side of the school to sign them in. If we were running late doing breakfast I'd find that by the time I was back to the car, I was only a few mins off being able to drop them off in the playground for free. Like with scooter and bike racks - bike lanes & park and stride car parks too - having them is not enough, they need to be well designed and easily accessible.

We have “school streets” for primary so the side roads with entrances on are residents only driving at drop off and pick up and now one-way at other times. These streets are much better now and much safer for children. There is more parking on the busier road opposite the school but young kids wouldn’t cross on their own there and there is a patrol.

We’re in London and most could walk but still seem to be a fair few cars. I suspect driving has got less convenient for some now as they can only find spaces a couple of streets away.

I agree it's made a massive difference - my daughter's school is much safer to access now because parents can only park a 5 minute walk away...which happens to be where the car parks are making it safer for children and residents.

The street is now quiet enough to literally walk down the middle of the road - obviously not recommended, but it really is that quiet.

We have a very small village school. There us a large car park about 100yards ong the road, with a pavement. And still parents park right next to the school on a blind bend.

The walking prize is nit a fair concept. Our school is our catchment , yet is 4.5 miles away . I work.

Previous, brand new primary school had a kiss and drop system. It worked well for those who can’t walk.

Current school has a village hall next to it. We’re able to park there and it’s great. It’s more rural with no where to park near by.

Other school had no help. You had to park on a tight residential street and it was a nightmare. Luckily I could walk most days!

It’s surprising how much stress it relives knowing you can park! I wish I could walk though, that’s much better!

This is a shit idea.

I can't walk far I use crutches. So my kids would never get the prize. And their whole class would hate them.