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!

Our primary is relatively civilised; small, local catchment with most within a 10 minute walk, wrap around care eases the load, a free council car park about 150m away. Even so there's a trail along the road 40mins before the end of the day, but it's not normally too bad unless some prat blocks the chicanes.

The secondary is carnage, city-wide catchment, also next to a primary of similar catchment. The law does not apply and there are cars everywhere, double yellows, pavements, junctions... the only consideration is being as close as possible to the school. Senior management are well practiced at directing traffic and instructing bewildered "drivers" on how to manouver their vehicle. It makes for amazing people-watching! I park in a quiet area with plenty of space and let my precious darling use his legs on days that he's not having "bus training" and approach when the worst of the crayzee has passed!
I think that one's beyond help by anything other than fixed penalty notices.

We had some rewards initiative over a week for walking/ cycling/ scooting. The way the points were weighted meant we spent longer dealing with the garage/ helmets/ bike sheds than it takes us to walk.
One year roller skates were on the list and I ended up towing/ steering in DS with his flailing Bambi-legs 😂

Our 4 minute walk was far more efficient!

Your school sounds ripe for a School Street. Getting the mayhem even 100 yards from the school is safer and better - and more diluted. Approach your council? Here they are definitely revenue-neutral/positive, so each one that goes in means a little more money for other road safety improvements. And the difference in stress and danger is amazing.

My DS(8) in year 4 cycles himself a mile to school and back each day.

I saw this outside a school in Scotland. I was impressed by it. I think more of these kind of signs need to put up.

Ours needs to be a school streets. I live 0. 2 miles from the school. So walk. However my ndn. Drives down. Parks on the double yellows on a corner. Drives home in their pjs. They leave at same time. By time they get through the amount of people get parked i generally get there before them likewise by time they try turn around and home. Im home before them too.

If say average a day over 30 cars parked illegally or dangerously.

School streets/zones are really the only effective solution, with exemptions/permits for children/parents with walking difficulties. I have seen people drive from one street away. 'Can't' and 'can't be bothered' need to be distinguished when it comes to dropping off on the way to work etc. I did it by walk/bike for 12 years from nursery at 8 months in various configurations of school/home/work/children. If driving is more convenient then unfortunately many people will.
It's not a small thing, it's a matter of life and death; road accidents, air quality, climate change... it's about time more people made some sacrifices for the sake of all.

This school isn't in Sussex by any chance is it?

One local primary school has a pub nearby which has said parents can park in it's car park for pick-up/drop-off.
My son's school is close to the local community centre, sports hall, tennis courts and scout hut. Both the centre and the hut house preschools. The car park is totally rammed at school run times. Parents searching or waiting for a space, or simply stopping to one side causing cars to be blocked in. It's mayhem,especially in days where the weather is a bit inclement. The residential roads around are also packed with cars dropping at school.
There must be an alternative, but I've no idea on what!

Our primary has a deal with a nearby pub and the local working mens club. Parents can use their car parks at school drop off and pick up times as they aren’t usually open at those times anyway. Parents who drive just have to ask the school for a free permit for these places. Most seem to walk but the drivers do use these places

I found the longer drop off time made it worse.

It used to be that school opened at 8:50, and you couldn’t leave your children unattended in the playground. The early arrivers parked in the school road (a no through road so an awkward one) and everyone else had to find somewhere else. A little chaotic when they all left at once but before that the road outside school was quite calm.

During covid they introduced a 20 min period for dropping off at the school gate and you weren’t allowed in the playground. They kept this after covid too (though allowed in the playground). This just meant that everyone tried to park in the school road as it was more likely there would be a space, and were driving in and out and trying to turn round all the while everyone else was trying to walk in. It is so so dangerous. There were lots of safe places to park a 5 min walk away, and it probably saves time as you don’t get stuck in the school traffic.

I agree with a pp that one solution is allowing children under year 6 to walk to school (and that works in a school in a quieter area we moved to). But of course the existing traffic is a problem, including multiple times I saw cars drive through the red pedestrian crossing light.

My kids were always quite motivated by park and stride (I don’t think it was a big award) but we parked 5 mins away already.

Drop off area within the grounds can work well with a bit of organisation. Most people use their cars to get to work after dropping off. I'd concentrate on making that safer rather than telling them not to.

Our primary has a gate straight into a local public car park that is free of charge. Still lots of parking on double yellows, all in a village where most people could walk to school. Though I concede that the 10 min walk back home can make the difference between being on time or late to work.

When my kids were in local primary it used to make my blood boil too see how some a*holes would speed along the roads & park illegally/dangerously! We used to walk - 5 min (I know we were lucky - I was SAHM etc at the time) BUT there were lots of places to park in nearby roads really near the school/parking bays etc so I could never understand the idiots parking on zig zags 30 minutes before school started/finished or on the single yellow lines etc. with their engines running of course. I used to happily knock on their windows & ask them to turn their engines off (parents were queuing alongside these cars on a narrow pavement waiting for gate to playground to be opened etc & the exhaust pipes of these giant SUVs were about face height with the younger children or those in prams). It was always the same handful of parents- the ones dragging their little kids through the playground (late) & yelling at them to 'get into school you little sh** etc' while the kids were munching a bag of crisps etc (school had a mixed catchment area & some pretty rough families). or i'd knock & point out they were blocking the crossing points or parked on zig zags etc & I couldn't get my pushchair across the road to the school gate. I didn't care. I sometimes used to stop & make a big point of taking photos of their cars badly parked (I never did anything with the photos) just to shame them. People like this will rarely change imo. Same parents who will immediately swear at you or drop litter or park on doubles etc. Usually have the roughest kids (round here anyway) I was glad when my kids started catching the bus to the secondary school in the next village tbh. I think getting the local council on board is the answer & having traffic attendants giving out fines plus maybe volunteers in hi-vis jackets standing outside plus cones to dissuade bad parking & big signs saying 'turn off your engines' too

Our school uses a pub car park for pick up and drop of. We do a collection at Christmas and at the end of the year as a thank you. The summertime collection was about £500 total!

Our primary school has two car parks nearby and parents have to apply for a pass for free parking there at school run times (pay and display otherwise). The Head will sometimes come and stand right by a particular spot that parents like to chance (zig zags) and send them on their way with a stern word. Seems effective so far. Where our primary is though, you can't park right outside anyway unless in the staff car park, which gets coned off at the beginning and end of the day.

At DS1s secondary there's a drop off zone, which is all fine and safe for the DC, but causes massive backlog on the road outside with cars waiting to turn right. We live close enough to walk but I did drop him last week with his case as he was going on residential and I deliberately went a longer way round so I was coming from the opposite direction and could turn left. It was crazy to see the queues on the other side (and yes, I did let one in).

I think the only thing that works really is vigilance from the school to discourage the habit.

The tricky thing about 'park and strides' is you're just transferring the issue to the residents 4 streets away.

My daughter's school is located where very few people can walk. They have a rolling drop off. For pre-school to Y2 there are teachers helping the children undo car seats and get out when the parent car pulls up. From y3 onwards the kids can get themselves out. There are staggered start times. Pick up works in a similar way with teachers walking the kids out into the playground and releasing them when they see their parent's car.

If I hadn't been able to park quite close to my children's schools I'd have been late for work every day. I was a single parent and we lived four miles from the schools and they were at separate schools so I had two drop offs to do before driving to the other side of the city to my job. It always seems like these schemes don't take working parents into account.

My old secondary had a drive in/out loop system which was coordinated by a couple of teachers to help get kids out quickly and into the school. There was never any stopping and chatting, literally drop and go. Seemed to work really well but I guess not all schools have the space to allow for this, it was quite a large loop for the cars to queue in so it wasnt all out on the road.

A drop off zone is fine, but doesn’t work for pick up. If you arrive half an hour early (or more) at a primary school and sit with your engine running, I’d argue that you could probably leave the car at home and walk.

A stop drop and go lane. One way, cars drive in, children hop/in out quickly and everyone keeps moving. It's awesome. Has eased parking considerably.

Oh yes and you can drop off up to 25 mins before school starts, which spreads it out.

Ours had a good system. Long drive down and 2/3 staff positioned with radio walkie talkies. You give the name of the child you are collecting and this gets passed to the teacher down the line and the child was brought out to the car at the collection point. Was quite a small school so it worked as parents were know to teachers.
Kept the line moving and didn't involve all this ridiculous and unsociable parking I now face with my youngest boys!

@Bluevelvetsofa We had staggered pick up times for different classes/year groups so you never really waited long. With the addition of after school clubs, it spaced out how many children were being picked up at once.

It works fine for pick up as well. There is a queue of cars waiting down one street - but it only starts about 5 mins before the bell and once the kids come out moves quickly. Parents have the kids name on the dash board and the teachers Marshall them into positions for pick up with a loudhailer. No parents exit vehicles and it moves fast. It's a slick operation. Very safe. Parents and neighbours are all very happy since it was put in.