People who drive their children to school and "School Streets"

[Needmorelego]

Good Morning All.
I am after some honest answers about "School Streets" and driving to school.
The scheme closes roads outside schools at drop off/pick up times so people can't drive down the road and/or park there. This is supposed to encourage less cars outside schools.
Now - honest answers - if you drive your children and your school has one of these schemes have you actually stopped driving or have you just taken to parking somewhere else (like the next road over).
Thanks.
(not a journalist - it's just this scheme is being introduced where I live and it's going to be a pain in the arse for residents for various reasons)

it’s Not part of a scheme but you can’t park outside my children’s school because of the kind of road it’s on. I don’t drive to school but IME those who do do it because they have to, so they just park outside the area where you can’t park in the case of my children’s school, on side roads and in a local public car park. It’s not a case of leaving more time so they can walk - these are people for whom a walking school run just doesn’t work because eg they wouldn’t be able to get to work on time.

Not the scheme, but there is something similar near to us. It has just shifted the traffic and parking issues to the roads surrounding the school, rather than the road the school is on. We bought a few roads away from the school and for the last 12 years it has been quiet, until recently. Now we are blocked in twice a day, cars in the road have been damaged, abusive parents have screamed at residents and all our houses have been massively devalued. It's fair enough if you buy close to a school that you expect these issues and the house is valued as such, but we and our neighbours didn't, it has been thrust upon us, despite objections. So no, in my opinion, it doesn't change parent behaviour, it just shifts it down the road so to speak.

People just park a street over in my experience as most parents don’t drive from laziness but actual need (in my experience) but it does still make the street where the school is much safer which is the point as then you don’t have big numbers of children trying to cross roads while cars are parking.

@Tinybrother @ImInACage so would you say it doesn't work because people are just parking elsewhere?

They've done this outside my house as I live opposite a school. It's much much better for residents. Please can you explain why you think it's a bad thing for residents and I'll see if I can answer questions. It's much safer for the children too.

I would have to park on the nearest allowable street. Agree I don’t drive to school because I cba to walk, it’s because it’s too far (it’s our nearest school). I live rurally tho and I’d say 80% of parents drive to school here. I’d never heard of the scheme so maybe it’s more suited to urban areas 🤷‍♀️

Surely it doesn’t matter either way because the point is to make the street outside the school safer, and reduce air pollution. anyone opposing that needs to have a good look at themselves.

If the aim is to reduce driving to school, then it wouldn’t work in the case of my children’s school. But I live in a village and there is a proportion of the pupils that don’t live within easy walking distance, and parents have to work. I don’t know about safety - my children’s school is on quite a dangerous road anyway (which is why you can’t park on it to start with), I can only speak about what I know.

I actually think the point really is to make it safer outside the school so yes it does work and a secondary purpose is to reduce people driving which is not always going to work as people need to go straight off to work/take another child to nursery/have a health reason

Not in UK but school parking is international! What I've seen working is using peer pressure from the children who have a "walking bus". Has been the most successful.

At the end of the day I imagine a lot of parents have no choice between having multiple drop offs and rushing to work, be it at home or office.

I don’t have anything against the principle of an exclusion zone for parking during school drop off/pick up, just to be clear. But I also don’t think parents are driving out of laziness.

Exactly OP. I don't think anything will change until employers are more flexible to allow for school drop offs and pick ups. It's a wider societal issue, not just a local parent behaviour issue.

I'm not sure why you thinking parking elsewhere means the scheme doesn't work. As the purpose of the scheme isn't to stop people driving their children to school, it's to reduce the traffic outside the school to help make make the area safer.

I actually believe that new schools should be built with this in mind, with drop off/pick up zones, similar to those in Australia and the states. A local school is currently applying for permission to build one on some empty land they have, but the council are being extremely objective to it, despite the fact that it will relieve parking pressures in nearby roads.

Tinybrother · Today 09:28

If the aim is to reduce driving to school, then it wouldn’t work in the case of my children’s school. But I live in a village and there is a proportion of the pupils that don’t live within easy walking distance, and parents have to work.

I understand and don't mind people having to drive, if they are too far to walk, or if they're off to work immediately. We live in a little town and when our daughter was at first school, there were definitely parents who lived very close, but drove and didn't go to work.

We used to pass one on the way, putting her girls in the car and as we walked through the car park, she'd be arriving at the same time. The car was parked outside her home on the way back. The distance was less than 200m!

Hey have introduced one of these in the village my mum lives in all that’s happened is the cars have overtaken a very small housing estate next to the school causing hassle for these homeowners due to inconsiderate parking and the overwhelming amount of cars that arrive every drop off and pick up.

The problem at our school was that the area immediately outside the gates was getting dangerous at drop-off and pick-up times. All the drivers were jockeying to stop as close to the gates as possible, while kids and parents and pushchairs were all walking around them to go into the school. My DCs and I nearly got backed into by cars reversing a couple of times.

Since the introduction of the school street, it has got a lot better, it feels safer.

Our school is looking at this.

As I understand it, the main purpose is not to discourage parents from driving to school, though that might be a side benefit. It’s to make the street safer for children at entry and exit time.

On our school’s road the main traffic is actually van drivers using it as a cut through. They’re the ones zooming through and getting arsey with the lollipop lady. Parents mostly avoid it at drop off/pick up as they know it’s congested with kids crossing, lollipop lady etc, and there isn’t much parking available on that street itself anyway due to zigzags.

So in our case, most parents who drive already park on the surrounding streets. The main impact of the school street scheme would be on other non school related drivers, and the few parents who illegally park on the yellow zigzags.

Clearly you knew a lot about what that woman needed to do with her day. It’s good of you not to judge specific cases you approve of. It’s rare IME for people to go to the effort of getting children into a car and finding a parking space when walking would take the same amount of time.

The immediate school front may be safer, but for those children who have to walk through the streets that the cars have shifted to, it has become far more dangerous.

Surely the parking would then be spread around several streets, rather than concentrating in one (dangerous) point?

I live very close to DS2's school. In Y5/6 I would expect to be able to let DS2 start walking on his own, to gain independence, but he would have to cross the road outside the school, where parents park their massive SUVs and vans all over the junction and bus stop on either side, forcing all the kids and parents to cross from between parked cars, with no visibility.

Literally 50m away, round the corner from my house, there is a long empty road where they could park. I would LOVE for everyone to park there and stop endangering our kids! Every time I point this out to a parent struggling to park, they'll be like "Oh thanks, I never knew!", and then the next day be back to parking on the junction again. Lazy, thick and selfish 😡

My kids school has this and we live very close. Yes, those that have to drive now park in the surrounding streets, but our school has quite a big window for drop off (20 mins) so parking doesn't seem to be too much of an issue.
It has hugely improved the area beside the school, noticeably more safe and pleasant for all of the children, and now there are no cars pulled up with engines idling which was always an issue despite efforts from the school to reduce it.
There are still a few parents who are running late and just let the kids out of the car on the main road while in slow/stopped traffic which obviously is dangerous but tbh there were always a few who did that...
tldr: works really well for our school and I am a big fan

The U.K. is too small for this though.

Tinybrother · Today 09:35

Clearly you knew a lot about what that woman needed to do with her day.

There were others and they told us that they drove from very nearby.

like I say, it’s rare for people to go to the effort of getting children into the car and finding a parking space when walking would be quicker. You clearly live in an unusual area for it to be so common.