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)

Oversubscribed London school here. And the people that drive have clearly moved out of the catchment after getting a place.
If they have to drive.. then they live too far away.

Also dog walkers should be banned from walking near schools. The amount of poo that must get walked in on a daily basis is scary...

@TwigTheWonderKid I don't drive. I use taxis and home delivery.
If I had a car I could get an exemption. It's quite ironic really. If I actually had a driving license and the money I would think "fine I will get myself a car" and get the exemption - which would be putting one more vehicle on the road 😂

@CactusMactus thankfully the person that regularly let their dog do the biggest 💩s you have ever seen right outside the school gate has either moved away or the dog has died.
They clearly did not like the school 😂

We don't have this here, but it would just mean I'd have to park further away and walk. We are a village school, so I suspect not the target demographic, but probably half of students live outside the village. To walk would mean walking on 60mph roads with no pavement or verge for a considerable distance. For us, it would be a good 20 minute walk at least (that's just one way, obviously I'd have to walk back), some of that across two fields on a footpath before we get to the fast road. It's just not doable when you need to work either. If I couldn't park in the village, I'd have to park at the village hall, which is also where the preschool is, and they have their own parking/school run issues, so that would probably cause chaos.

Depends entirely on what alternatives are available to parents.

My DC's primary tried every trick in the book to get parents to avoid car use, except the obvious one of providing more than 1 bloody minibus for a village school where half the children live on farms and in neighbouring villages!

I think the difficulty is that most people don't just drive their kids because they can't be arsed it's because they are often dropping them on the way to work themselves etc. so I think they would just park on the next available streets causing more headaches on more streets. It's a fact concept to encourage more walking to school because parking usually isn't the main reason people drive/don't drive their kids to school

IME these work where there is an option like a pub car park or a road the other side of the park with plenty of space or whatever. In that scenario, two things happen. People who have to drive park in the designated area as they’re happy to walk a few minutes in return for an easy place to park. People who really don’t want to walk even a tiny distance weigh up if they might as well walk the whole way if they live close by, and can no longer park right outside the school.

Oh, and a third category of people who will park wherever they want regardless of nearby option. But traffic wardens can help with that, as there aren’t that many prepared to risk multiple school streets fines.

We have four schools very close to us, it’s chaos in the mornings on surrounding streets, but not our cul de sac fortunately. I think this scheme is coming so that may change. I’m also wondering about all the sixth formers who drive to school and park on the residential street as close to the school gates as they can get. Those cars are there all day, it’s very difficult for people in those houses to manoeuvre because of inconsiderate and inexperienced parking. Will those young drivers be banned from their school street and if so what will they do?

Some of our local primary schools have these zones. The issue that I have is that the times of operation are very wide eg 2.30-4.00 for a school that finishes at 3.15 and it prevents other local residents (not those on the street itself as they have permits) from driving down this road until 4 when the school kids are all gone by 3.30, and operates in school holidays. To get DD from our home to her activities, we have to avoid this road and take a big detour. (My DD doesn’t go to this school in case it wasn’t clear)

I have always assumed that these measures are less about reducing car usage and more about increasing safety for pedestrians outside schools by reducing traffic in the near vicinity.

But in answer to your question, yes I would continue to drive my DC to school because we live 2 miles away and the buses are incredibly infrequent and unreliable.

Another thing with ours..

I live on the first street outside the new zone. We all have drives but most of us tend to park on the road now, due to the amount of times our drives have been blocked. We already have issues with the road becoming gridlocked because people will double park and there is just no where to go. Or people will swing in from the main road and the road isn't clear so everyone ends up stuck.

I don't see how the scheme, in our particular case, is in anyway sensible.

We are just about to have one put in at the school at the end of our road except they are only doing it in one street, and the school has an entrance on two streets so all that will happen is push the cars to that entrance instead

The people that drive, do so because they have to I assume, so it just pushes the issue elsewhere from what I have seen.

My kid’s school is one of three in close proximity. They block off the streets so I just used to park a couple of streets back. I dropped them to school then drove to work 15 miles away, then returned to pick them up. Most parents going to and from their home just walk but it isn’t an option for me time wise. Half the time we weren't even going directly home since they variously had dance/gym/swimming/karate classes after school.

I would just park somewhere else, I'm driving him to school because I need to.

I live near a school and a scheme like this would probably mean people would park on my road, but I still think I'd prefer it as it's SO dangerous outside the school at the moment.

Seems insane. I have to drive because it’s too far too walk them to school. Yes I would just park a few roads over and piss the residents there off instead (especially because they are not the ones who decided to buy a house right next to a school). How are they going to Implement and police this? People from the school are going to have to get permission from residents, carry a barrier to the end of each road about 30’mins before and after pick up and drop off, and have someone stand there in case residents want to go in and out (do they have to provide ID)?

I assume they think it’s bad for the residents a few streets over.

I had to drive to school for a period when I did the school run. As I had to go straight onto work afterwards and the school was about a 20/30 min walk from home so couldn't have walked there and back. So I'd have just had to park on neighbouring streets if I couldn't park/drive on the school road.

Tbh I think most people will probably do that. If they could walk or wanted to walk they would be doing that already. It's quite hard to get people to change their behaviour.

These schemes are all well and good but like parking restrictions generally all they tend to do is push the problem to other roads/areas.

@Jelouscat it's going to be cameras for our scheme - and probably a tiny sign that's difficult to notice 😂
I will be very interested to know how much money the borough are going to make out of fines......

As someone who doesn't have kids, I would find it deeply annoying if access to my own street was restricted, meaning I couldn't have deliveries etc to my home at certain times of day. And yes, I agree that the traffic will probably just move to another street nearby. Most people who drive their kids to school either a) have a good reason for not being able to walk there or b) do not have a good reason for not being able to walk there, but are the sort of people who would rather look for a way around the restrictions rather than change their driving habits. This happened where my mum lives, as when they trialled parking restrictions outside the school, parents just parked in the cul-de-sacs opposite and residents were regularly getting blocked in (or having to step into the road themselves to get past the parked cars, which was really hard for parents with pushchairs and for my mum's neighbour who pushes her severely disabled adult daughter in a wheelchair).

I can see that there are potential safety benefits - I'm all for children not being flattened on their way home from school, obviously. And it's better for kids not be coming in and out school in a fog of exhaust fumes, too. But it does seem to me that it just moves the risk of accidents/pollution to another road.

Absolutely AWFUL.

I was unable to walk my child to primary school due to other commitments.

I drove. Every day.

School Street pushed all the cars that were parking further away causing even MORE chaos than before.

The front of the school was great as completely closed to traffic accept residents but the surrounding area was chaotic and there was an increase in parking complaints to the school as it effected a much wider area.

The aim is to reduce the number of people driving = "more children walking and cycling to school"

Sustrans seem to be involved in our local area plans - they are a cycle lobby group
Sustrans School Streets - Sustrans.org.uk

About a third of those who drove children to and from school then went back home, and that was before any working from home. Even with those who have moved house and not school, I'm sure at least half of those are within a reasonable walking distance. Either just idle, or people who cannot allow sufficient time.

Issues of parking are made worse by those who have SUVs and others who are unfit to drive.

It works here, but only because there is a pub with a large car park 200m from the school that (have always!) allow people to park there. The school also have a walking bus from the car park so it’s the quickest place to drop.

It’s really only impacted the people who would arrive super early to get a space (usually blocking a drive on the street) and the sit with their engine idling for 20/30 mins, collect their child, then take 10 mins to get out because of the other idiots doing the same for a reason only known to themselves.

We don’t have one of these schemes, but there’s no parking at the school, so there’s reduced parking fees at a nearby car park for parents, a walking bus and a second car park that doesn’t charge you if you’re not there long (not sure if that’s common knowledge though!). However people park in the resident permit area next to the school, block driveways/the road, park on double yellow lines and get into rows with residents…