people who double park/on pavements/double yellow outside are just LAZY & THICK

[carocaro]

If you are late, park safely and walk faster or leave the house earlier, it's the same pick up time everyday, set an alarm if you are not capable of being on time. If you are late, call the school or if only a few mins late get it into your thick head that your child will come to no harm! If young, the teacher takes them back into school, if older you already have plan worked out that if you are late you wait in the playground of go back into school.

I really don't see why people have to be so thick with the parking? I say all this as I fuming that a women double parked then tried to reverse into a sea of children on the pavement to do a three point turn just now outside our school.

Why do people act this way? I am genuinely asking as I really don't get it.

I have to park my car on the road and not on the drive, else some lazy bastard will block me in for up to half an hour whilst they pick up their smalls from school.

I live three doors away frm school and have a dropped kerb, ffs.

Our school is on a very busy road where you constantly have to give way to oncoming traffic due to residential parking on either side.

Iin the morning the number of parents who arrive BEFORE the school gates open and just sit in their cars on the double yellows or right on the corner of a road is remarkable. It causes such problems for the other drivers trying to get their kids to other schools in the area or even parents at the same school who are trying to find a space on a neighbouring street. The sheer laziness of some people astounds me.

1/2 a mile doesn't sound too far to me. My kids did that to playgroup (i.e. from age 2.5 years). Scooters, trikes, etc, were pressed into use for the return journey when they were tired.

gallifrey are you serious? 1/2 a mile too far? My 1.6 year old will walk for an hour, 1/2 a mile would be no problem. And there's always the option of a buggy for littlies that struggle with walking.

We have decided to take photos of the cars that are parked particularly badly and send them to the neighbourhood police team .

A diamond one this week - next to the zig zag lines, on the pavement, on the dropped kerb of the pedestrian crossing. A parent challenged the driver when they came back to the car and got a mouthful of abuse. Sigh.

Nobody stops them, there is no penalty...why wouldn't they. Until there are penalties, cheaters cheat.

mrsmalteasers, my DB (who is currently living at with my parents) got hassle from a parent for doing that.

They bitched at him for having the audacity to park outside is own house.

Some people are just unbelievable.

Not unreasonable in the slightest. I would shoot the lot of them. Without even a show trial.

My daughter has been hit twice by such drivers, once whilst holding my hand. I now bang the car with my fist in a way that sounds like a nasty injury (if that makes sense). Then I bang on their side window and have words. I am the most conflict-avoiding individual going, but no-one is going to reverse towards my children with impunity.

Oh, and we now get the community police officers to patrol occasionally at pick up time. And local residents whose drives are parked over are encouraged to give registation details to the police.

flybynight if that EVER happens again, you need to call 999 immediately. Even if your daughter at first sight seems ok. I'm absolutely shocked that that happened to your poor DD.

I'd say selfish as opposed to thick. I've seen this behaviour from lots of clever arrogant people.

It makes my blood boil, the stupid lazy bastards. Some people just think rules don't apply to them-arrogance I think.

I work in a library and I've had people push their way to the front of the queue to return their books saying 'I'm parked on a double yellow, so I can't wait'

Course I have deliver great customer service, so I can't tell them to fuck off, but one day.

I've started taking pictures of delivery vans that do this and sending emails to the companies. I've gotten good responses from them saying that they'll talk to their drivers about it. One case the driver was reprimanded because I had a picture of him parked on double yellows when just 15 feet up the road the lines ended. I think I need to become a traffic warden!

i know it's no excuse but you can educate people to cycle or walk all you like but the problem will only get worse until we decide to spend alot more money on new schools in areas with more land for parking.

our primaries are being built on to for a larger intake yet the parking situation isn't even addressed. funny how so many new housing developments get planning so easily yet new schools to cope with a larger population is such a low priority.

Like others have said, get in touch with the community beat officer or whatever they are called these days. We have the same problem (although not as bad as some other posters clearly experience!) and it's always the same cars. The police and traffic police do random drop-by's now, which helps on the day. Better than nothing and better than confronting people as it's a small school with some scary parents and we all need to get along IMO.

YY Captain Kirk I too have an overwhelming urge to be a Traffic Warden.
Obviously it'll be when my DD finishes Junior School and can get herself off to Secondary ( and won't get hasselled by children when I ticket their parents).

I would insistvolunteer to have Infant/Junior schools on my patch.
I walk along the narrow residential road near her school and mentally clock up how many I'd 'have'.

And I've noticed some of them park about 3' away from the double yellows at a crossroads-so they aren't actually on the line, but still cause a major obstruction

" our primaries are being built on to for a larger intake yet the parking situation isn't even addressed "

It is addresseb but the situation is very complex and - for those of us involved in design of schools / school extensions - very frustrating.

National planning policies force us to provide only minimal parking for all new developments - includng new schools and increased capacity in existing schools - to encourage "green" travel i.e. walking, cycling, public transport. It is almost unknown for planning authorities to grant exemptions from this idyllic dogma.

National education policies actively encourage parents to shop around the OFSTED tables and send children to the 'best' schools not necessarily the 'local' school.

Eventual conversion of most schools into academies will not help local council's attempts to square the circle.

i contacted our local council about parking outside my dd's school.theres a church opposite and people pull their cars onto the pavement .myself and dd nearly got hit when a car mounted the pavement with no regard to the children/parents walking on it.i was told that the school needed to contact the council if theres an issue but there would be wardens checking on a regular basis the parking near the school.yes there is a warden but he's there on the same day each week and always in the afternoon so no-one parks there then.there are 3 car parks within 5 minutes walk of the school [one of which i use].

gallifrey half a mile probably seems too far if you've got a car. but really it's not. we walk three quarters of a mile each way every day - to pre-school. the 2 year old and the baby ride in the pushchair, the 4 year old walks or hitches a lift on the footplate People think we're weird though.

I don't know the actual distance, but I'm disabled and struggle with walking so it would be a bloody long way for me!!! Maybe not for someone that's fit ;)

Good for you all that do walk, in all fairness most people could walk that far but it all takes time and if you have to rush off to work after dropping the children off it would take too long.

fair enough gallifrey. i have a disability too, but can do the walk. it does take a bit longer than driving, but I don't have the choice to drive! i agree that most people could do it, and it's good exercise too

Fair enough gallifrey. you did say "too far for little children" though - which is what people responded to. If you had said too far for people with disabilities, we would have been more sympathetic!

YANBU. See if your school can organise with the local police for them to stand outside and ticket for a day or two (inevitably only works for a few weeks before the wankers are at it again). One school my kids attended "named and shamed" habitual culprits (as in, "the following school parents put our children in danger this week due to their illegal parking") in the weekly newsletter which I thought was fantastic but the school got a lot of grief about it - I wonder who could have complained......

I'm near a secondary school and nearly had an accident the other day when a mum did what appeared to be an emergency stop 2 feet before a layby so her DCs could get in. Did she pull in to te layby? No. We had to sit behind her while 3 teens piled in and she proceeded to have a long chat to them before she pulled away again. We couldn't overtake e ause of all the mummies parked on the other side of the road to collect their kids. The sheer 'fuck you-ness' of the situation annoyed me more than the crap driving.