To think that lollipop ladies (and men!) at pedestrian crossings are a waste of money?

[AKMD]

Can someone explain to me the point of having lollipop ladies standing at pedestrian crossings to wait for children to come up with their parents, press the button, wait for the green man, and then walk out into the middle and hold up their sign to 'stop traffic'? Traffic has already stopped for the red light. Why are they there?! At some crossings on main roads in my area there are 2 at each crossing, one for each side. Seems a complete waste of money to me.

Also seems a bit pointless to have them on zebra crossings. Traffic has to stop for pedestrians anyway, the children are either young enough that their parents are with them or old enough to safely use a crossing on their own. All that seems to happen is that the lollipop lady stands in the middle, holding up cars for the mum 100m down the road, dawdling along while talking on her mobile and dragging DC. Why not let the crossing be used as intended in compliance with the law?

YABU many drivers are total arseholes and all people including children should be encouraged to walk wherever possible.

darleneconnor, we have speed bumps leading to the school but still I nearly got run over - luckily I would have been hit at 10 mph rather than 30 or 40 mph.

IME of schools in this area at least, where a young child turns up at school without an accompanying adult, the school will contact the parent/guardian to make sure it doesn't happen again

Why?? Unless there is no playground supervision when they arrive, I can't think why any school would do that?

And how old is 'young?'

I don't mind stopping in my car for lolipop people crossing children over. I do object to being made to stop for unacompanied adults crossing the road.

Last week I stopped for one who crossed a gaggle of children accross the road, then he stayed there and was looking to my left. I also looked to my left to see a couple of kids leaving a shop. He held traffic up, with no one crossing, while they checked their change, chatted then strolled to the kerb and ambled accross.

No wonder so many of them are run over.

?

Because they anger people, JBellingham?

Oh no JBellingham, that must have held you up by, gosh, at least a minute .

I bloody love our lollipop lady. She sang ds2 a song yesterday, using her lollipop as a guitar, for his birthday. She knows every single child's name, and those of their pre-school sibs. So if any of them bolt from their parents when everyone's coming out (it happens) she'll stop them. She watches out for the children just starting to walk on their own to school and tells off any parents who don't cross safely with children around. She teaches the pre-schoolers about crossing safely. Worth every penny of her no doubt crappy salary.

We have no teachers in our playground first thing in the morning only parents, so basically the school wouldnt have a clue if anyone younger than Y5 was arriving on their own.

Well blow me down. I always thought lollipop people were volunteers. I don't think they should be paid for standing at a crossing. Admittedly, if there isn't a crossing there in the first place then I'm all for them.

If lollipop workers weren't paid, we probably wouldn't have any.

People don't want to work for a couple of hours in a nice dry, warm charity shop. I don't see many people desperate to stand in the middle of the road, stopping oncoming cars, whatever the weather.

After all, just seven days ago, a lollipop worker was killed. thesun.mobi/thescottishsun/news/3351040/Lollipop-lady-dies-in-bus-horror.html?mob=1

YABU

I've lost count of the number of times I've had to pull my preschoolers out of the way of cars that have come out of nowhere at a zebra crossing and not stopped. I've also had cars stop going one way and 5 or six cars go straight through in the opposite direction despite it being the law that they must stop.

Then there's the cars that jump the red lights.

The lollipop man for our local school retired recently and the council announced there wouldn't be a new one because of funding cuts. Lots of parents, not just ones with children at that school, petitioned for a new lollipop person and the school arranged for a staff member to supervise the crossing instead until a new person was employed. We now have a new lollipop man and a good thing too since the crossing is a small island on a very busy road and I'd hate the idea of older primary school children crossing alone!

YABU, they are a vital service for all the reasons mentioned

The lollipop lady at the DCs school is incredible. She knows the name of virtually every child in the school, she is there in all weathers, rain, snow, fog, ice.... always has a cheery word to say... if your child runs ahead of you, she won't cross them over the road without you /an adult, she keeps an eye on every one's child... when my elder DC started meeting me in a different place, she used to remind him to meet me there for the first few times...

an absolute gem !

The pedestrian phase on a pelican crossing should be long enough for elderly and toddlers to be able to cross the road. Some of the timings are stupidly short.

Some people are in the cars are not the best at stopping at zebra crossings.

Our school has nothing..... its a village school on a main road. that links 2 big cities so is very busy. parents/pta/school have all campaigned in vain to get a crossing or lollypop person to no avail.

The council have been extra lovely and given us a flashing sign to warn drivers when they are going too fast....however by the time drivers get to the sign its only a couple of metres to the school so no time to slow down. and its partly obscured by trees.

Up the road there is another school, it has a lower speed limit outside the school, they have a pelican crossing AND a lollypop lady. She presses the button, waits for it to go red, walks into the middle and returns to the side before the lights turn green (which confuses some drivers who set off as soon as she's left the road without noticing the lights are still red)...as soon as she steps foot on the path (lights still red) she presses the button again. Literally, 2 cars can get through at a time. Fair enough if there were people waiting to cross....but children can be 25m down the path and she will press the button....its infuriating.

"Ok, points taken. I think that lollipop ladies are a great idea but I think that having them on pedestrian crossings (especially traffic lights) is silly"

Well, you haven't taken any points then. Drivers regularly run red lights and drive through Zebra crossings even when there are people on them. I see this every day. That's why you need lollipop ladies (and men). They're an extra visual warning for drivers who aren't paying attention.

Crossings can still be dangerous places.

My primary school headteacher was killed on a crossing.

My friend's mum was killed on the same crossing a few years later.

When I was in middle school (age 8-12) the lollipop lady was knocked down by a bus and was badly injured but thankfully not killed.

Having seen what some of the roads around us are like at school drop off and pick up, I do think it's safer to have a lollipop person there as an extra precaution, and I wouldn't call it a waste of money, I think they do actually save lives by being there.

Just because there's a crossing, doesn't mean cuntish drivers won't be cunts. I can think of two different zebras I used to live near (in two seperate areas) where I nearly got hit by cars several times. I have also nearly been hit by a car at traffic lights once and nearly hit by a cyclist at a different set of traffic lights.

7 year old thread

In some cases, a zebra crossing has been replaced, but the lollipop man remains because their contract protects their employment or because of public pressure.

There was one just half a mile before my work who was a real pest. He would go stand out in the middle of the road when there was a person about twenty yards away (not a mother and child, but say a twenty something woman), stop all the traffic, she'd wander past because she wasn't using the crossing, he'd head back to the kerb, but then someone who did want to cross would arrive, so without allowing cars through, he'd wander back to the middle, stop, let them cross... repeat ad infinitum.

I actually sat and timed the back of the queue to be let past once - eight minutes! The rest of the road was free flowing. (I don't disagree with being there for safety at all, but holding up traffic like that was insane, and probably caused a nasty build of of start start engine chugg right near the school).