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)

Fines - they start by raking in money (drivers REALLY don’t read signs!!) but if the scheme works then it slows to a trickle.
If it doesn’t slow to a trickle then change is needed as the scheme isn’t working.

money is ring fenced for transport improvements (inc freedom pass in London, and transport to school)

If I have to drive I park away from school and walk in

We have this at our school, I still drive as we live nearly 2 miles away. So I just park in a different place and then we walk.

I think the residents within the school street zone are happy, they have a pass to show the volunteers at the road closures and they let them in and out as they please. But the residents at the edges of the road closures are not happy as they've gained a load of cars that used to be parking closer to the school.

But for the kids walking down school street it's far more pleasant, safer and less car fumes etc. I think it's been beneficial on balance!

I drive my son when I can - it's 10 minutes in the car and 45 by public transport. But I always drop him a 5 minute walk away, so that wouldn't change.

It will definitely shift traffic to the surrounding streets

I just dont know how that would work though? In the village I live, like most in the commuter belt, nearly everyone works in central london, a 40 minute commute. You couldn’t have swathes of people leaving their office mid afternoon for school
run. Society can’t change to operate on a system where between 3-4 people leave work to get their children.

Our school has a good system to avoid congestion:staggered drop off. The drop offs and pick ups span a 40 minute period, so there is never more than one class worths of parents at the school gate.

We park on the road in our street because our drives constantly get blocked. We couldn't leave our homes or come back during school times, I used to be late for work quite often because someone will "only be 5 minutes". The school wrote to residents and asked us to use our drives but until they can do something about our drives being blocked, it's not an option.

Arrogant fucking parents at the Church of England secondary in our small northern town. They park in people's drives. They park across the entrance to side streets. They park on yellow lines. They arrive an hour early and start blocking the roads around the school. They wouldn't let an ambulance out from a side street, collecting their child was more important. The school takes no responsibility. Part of the problem is sixth formers parking their cars all day every school day, they don't care where.

It just shifts the problem to the streets either side. So “School Lane” is nice and clear, but “Left of School Lane” and “Right of School Lane” now have the problem. I drive to school because we live 4 miles away across a city centre, so we don’t have a choice to walk. Plus I have to be at work in the city centre 15 minutes after school drop off. I park on one of the adjacent streets - I always park legally and never block a drive….. but I do feel really sorry for the residents of the road.

All the residents of School Lane are thrilled but they have just shunted the problem to their neighbours on the next road along!

If it doesn’t slow to a trickle then change is needed as the scheme isn’t working.

I thought the OP issue was that scheme could be judge a success reducing traffic outside immediate school but adversely affect other residents - like her daughter who needs a taxi to another school.

Ironically OP not driving and having a car she can get exempt easily may mean she could be much worse affected than local drivers.

Hopefully someone at council has thought though none drivers needs - they are often more reliant on taxis and delivery services but as so many people drive and thus it's outside many people's experiences it may not yet have been considered fully so worth raising with them.

We have parents who park up in the spots closest to the school gate from 8am and stay there until the gate opens. Parents dropping kids to breakfast club on their way to work park in nearby streets as they have no hope of getting close enough to school for a speedy drop off.

The same thing happens in the afternoon. Mornings and afternoons they just stand around chatting to each other until school opens/closes. Obviously cheaper than breakfast/after school club. Makes life very difficult for parents who are trying to get to work on time.

Whilst a good idea in theory I think it just shifts the problem elsewhere.

I live within walking distance of two primary schools. Three, really, but one I rarely drive past, so I can't comment on the mayhem outside of that one. The other two are both on streets with double yellows everywhere, and additional parking restrictions i.e. signs saying "absolutely no stopping on pain of death Mon - Fri 8:30am - 4pm", something like that. The council could make a mint if they sent traffic enforcement officers during the school run. Or end up with the officers lynched, one or the other 😬 It's a quiet residential area and I know for an absolute fact that lots of people who live in the streets around me go to the trouble of loading their kids into the car to drive to school, and then drive home. It must take longer to get in and out of the car than the actual driving. Many of the people I see walking their kids to school are also the people who I see getting in taxis, or catching buses - they probably don't have cars.

As for people not bothering to drive a short journey because of the hassle of trying to find somewhere to park? It's not a problem round here. They just pull up in front of the gates and stop, blocking the road for as long as they "need" to. They park on the pavement, on the grass verges, on other people's driveways; they double park in the entrances to side streets, windows down, chatting with parents in other cars and then give the people who live in those streets a load of abuse when asked to move. I don't know what the solution is but it's a nightmare.

I live in an area with LTN and also school street (and play streets). If I am being honest my neighbour who drove her kids to school every day because it was "too far" or "difficult" on public transport actually worked out when the drive turned into an hour each way instead of 20 mins that public transport was easier.
It's amazing what people discover when they have incentive.
I absolutely get in rural areas It's totally different but in places like London well serviced for transport, there's definitely other options but cars are just easier and quicker. And people honestly need to be forced into exploring alternatives. Again, ofc those who have mobility issues etc should be exempt. But there's plenty that could do things differently if pushed

@RhubarbGingerJam yes that's basically it. If I had a car I could get a residents permit and the whole scheme wouldn't have as much affect on me at all personally.
It's all very interesting reading about people's experiences and where it has worked and where it hasn't.

The street scheme idea was floated about at our school mainly by stay at home parents who have no idea that the parents who drive do so as they drop off on the way to work. Thankfully it didn’t take off and traffic calming measures were put in place instead as it would have been extremely disruptive.

I do wish schools had a drop off place like I see in some tv programmes. Drive up - drop off - drive away. Would surely reduce congestion.

I’d have to give up working to do this, an extra 20 mins on top of getting in the car & the drive is not an option for most people. If our school road became closed off, everyone would park in the next closest spot which would surely come with the same issues.

At my children's school the survey data from before and after getting a school street showed that quite a high percentage of people stopped driving. More people walking and loads more kids in bikes/scooters. I can see that parking on the 2 closest roads that are open is quite bad, but it was already worse before the school street on one of them.

I am fortunate that I live by my child's primary. I will need to drive my child to secondary as it's out of town and not possible to walk/bike to (6 miles away) so this would be a disaster for us.

You are right - stares at legs very hard, nope still don't work.

You really couldn't drop your 11 year old off a couple of roads away? Why would it be a disaster?

I used to drive past our local comp and parents would queue up blocking the road so they could literally drop a child at the school gate on zigzag lines.

A few schools locally are looking into trying to do something like the school in our street has.

They’ve made an agreement with the pub 200m away they they can use the car park. The school run a walking bus from the car park to the school so the car park isn’t full of parked cars. It’s just a safe drop off point.

The pub gets a nice thank you mention in the school newsletter and I think the PTA and some staff nights out tend to start in there as a thanks.

One of the other schools is trying to negotiate with the council as there is a locked council car park 100m or so from them that doesn’t open until 9am ish when a chap comes and opens the barrier. It’s well used by parents at pick up and would be so sensible if it could be used in the morning as well.

If one had to drive to school in the first place then surely it's because they live too far to walk? Then they'd park in the nearest available street.

^This^

With the layout of the roads around our school it would be easy to close the road outside the school and divert the traffic off at one mini roundabout, round the street at the back of the school and back onto the road at the next mini roundabout. However, the road past the school has speed bumps and there is a lollipop person at the front gate to ensure that the children can cross safely despite the traffic and numbers of diabolically parked cars. If that’s moved one or two streets away then it’s the children walking to school through these streets that will be disadvantaged.

Sorry NRTFT, but for me it's about road/pedestrian safety directly outside the school. Our kids school is in a cul de sac and I don't know how many near misses I've witnessed because of dangerous driving. Unfortunately the council won't agree to a school street because the road is not in a CPZ!!!