To be dreading leaving the house shortly and running the gauntlet of the parents who pick up kids from school in the car

[Ilovemyself]

Our road is near a popular school. Each morning and afternoon it can take 15 minutes longer to leave our road due to the double and sometimes triple parked parents.

The cars are parked on a junction, sharp corner, and across people's drive way.

And one of the most annoying things ( other than the parents that leave their car parked on the road all day whilst they go out for the day) is that at lease 5 people live within a 5 minute walk but still take their kids to school by car ( and then drive straight home!)

[Ilovemyself]

Chippingin. I do walk when I cam, but when the journey is more than 5 miles each way it is easier in the car lol

[catpark]

I live on the same street as a school, it's at the bottom of the road which is a small residential street. It has a minute catchment area as it is a small school. Your talking max 5mins walk for anyone in catchment.

Quite a few parents actually speed down to the school gates oblivious to children crossing. Speed bumps were installed to help with this. People also park half on the pavement, and over the actual speed bumps (They have those white lines which mean no parking, the same as at junctions.) . They seem to leave the drives alone mostly but my neighbour did have to put a notice on a car which had parked over her drive and she couldn't get out. She was swore at by the car owner.

The school remind parents in every newsletter about it but it doesn't stop them.

It's really quiet out of school pick up/drop off.

Someone mentioned emergency services further up. If a fire engine has to get through it would have no chance due to the way the parents park as some even park across the main school gates . In emergency's they would just plough on through destroying the cars in the way.

[catpark]

Parents also use the private car park bays which as owners we pay for the upkeep off !

[wimblehorse]

I dread that this is going to be me next year. 2 closest schools are CofE and Catholic. Didn't live close enough to catchment for the 2 local community schools (both within 1/2 mile) so have a place at an expanded school 1 1/2 miles away. Surrounded by Victorian terraces & no parking. So it's a 1/2 hour walk each way (2 hours a day in the buggy for Dd) or running the parking gauntlet. And that's before I figure out how to do it & then get to work!

[Ilovemyself]

I feel for you wimblehorse.

What is worst of all is that there is a large grass area next to the road that could easily be turned into a parking area that would be more than adequate

And I know that a fire engine can force its way through if it wants, but it would still be delayed by minutes - enough to make a difference!

[Ilovemyself]

Sorry wimblehorse. I meant to say I understand that there must be some people who have no choice but use the car.

[squidworth]

When dc where at primary i had to arrive early as I have to get back for school transport for DS2 so it was a quick dash, most of the cars that where early tended to be the working mums who where in no mans land too early for pick up but not long enough to be able to go home. It's easy to judge but for some there are reasons.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Good grief, all this complaining and none of you actually know why parents have parked where they have. Consider the following;

1. Poorly child
   
2. Tired child
   
3. Other child asleep in car.
   
4. On way somewhere.
   
5. On was back from somewhere.
   
6. Late.
   
7. dangerous walking route from their house
   

I could go on. There obviously are lazy prats about, but I suspect the vast majority of parents have a reason for driving on that particular day. My point us none of you KNOW why they are driving, you're just judging and complaining.
Op I recall you have baby twins so you have no idea wgat it is like tp have school age children yet. My advice would be to wait till you've walked a mile in someones shoes who has preschool children before judging.

[Ilovemyself]

Arethereanyleft. It's funny when you hear the number of the same mothers at toddler groups saying that they can't be arsed to walk. And the fact that there is plenty of room for safe parking if they could be bothered to Tarmac it.

It would be all to easy to drop the kids off and go, but when you see parents chatting for 30 minutes or so it is talking the piss a bit.

I did say that there will always be some that need to drive, but there are those that don't need to and there are those who should be more considerate with where they decide to stop for nothing more than a chat.

[JakeBullet]

I am going to be out of order here BUT

Do you own your house? If so WHY did you buy a property by a school knowing that picking up and dropping off times are a pain?

Do you rent your home privately? Ditto as above ...why rent a property by a school.

Is it social housing? If so be grateful you have somewhere to live.

That said YANBU about the crappy and illegal parking. That DOES need sorting out.

[Ilovemyself]

I bought the house well before the school was built !

[LisaExpress]

My SIL's area has a bike share scheme. You rent bikes at low cost and use them for the school run in return for a subsidy paid to the school. If that was available would those that drive use it? We would, in summer certainly. These are trailers and big people carrier bikes by the way.

[RoooneyMara]

'Is it social housing? If so be grateful you have somewhere to live. '

Goodness

[MissBetseyTrotwood]

Ours sent traffic wardens and CSOs out at pick up time. It helped, temporarily, but they were all back parking and double parking (think, middle of the road, hazards on!) within a week or two.

[Flobbadobs]

YANBU. It's even worse here when it's raining. Everyone just hs to drop off right at the school gate to avoid getting even a little damp! Our school even has designated disabled parking so it's got nothing to do with a child that can't walk, all parents who need it have a pass!
It's just basically laziness, we're lucky in that I can get to and from school along a footpath so we don't come into contact with cars but a child will be hit by a car at some point. It's inevitable. The school sends out letters, contacts the police, they send a PCSO round but they can't be there everyday, it works for a while and then goes back to normal..
There doesn't always have to be a reason, some people are just bloody lazy.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Fair enough op. Just I could have written something similar to many of the 'if you live less than a mile, walk'responses myself pre having children. Now I know better.
That said, I agree some people are absolute stars in how they park.

[nellyjelly]

Like that round here too. It is a bloody pain. There is also a large supermarket car park, 5 mins walk away but no they have to be right outside so it seems.

[arethereanyleftatall]

Arses not stars

[JakeBullet]

I am not being snobby with my social housing comment. I live in social housing and I am bloody grateful for it. If it was by a school I would still be bloody grateful.

That said, if you bought a house BEFORE a school is built up the road then I can see why it would piss you off.

[JakeBullet]

To be fair (and to add to my arsy comment a bit further back), our school's road is a nightmare at picking up and dropping off time. there is plentiful parking at the church a mere 5 mins walk (if that) away. Amazingly at 3pm there are STILL parents driving up the school road and double parking etc.

That is what really pisses me off, it will take a serious accident before people take notice.

[iamadoozermum]

jakebullet we had a serious accident and the bad parking stopped for about a week, then they went back to normal. The ambulance struggled to get through the parked cars at the time. I don't deny that some people have to drive, but they choose how to park and can either be considerate, inconsiderate and/or illegal, not sure I can excuse the last two.

[silverten]

What I don't understand is why more schools don't have some massive bollards installed on the pavements outside. There are even bollards available in the shape of children to underline the message of not hitting the small squishy humans specially for the hard of thinking.

We could have them every few yards for as far as it took to stop parents parking on the pavements and allow children to walk out of school safely and disperse a bit instead of running the gauntlet of cars mounting the kerb all over the place.

Clearly there are always going to be a significant number of people who are too pig-ignorant not to drive on the pavements, so they need to be physically prevented from doing so. Why don't we do this?

[FryOneFatManic]

arethereanyleftatall Your list of possible reasons would be fine, except for one thing. NONE of the reasons your list in any way excuse piss-poor or even illegal parking.

I live 1 minutes walk away from DS's primary school, and we've had crap parking around the school as long as I've been here. We've had people parking on the pavement up to the hedge so pedestrians can't get by except by walking on the road. We've had driveway blocking. I've even seen a fire engine try to get down our street (recently) and struggle to squeeze through the poorly parked cars.

[snooter]

Most of the mums who park badly at our school don't go to work, drive huge cars, are nearly always late every morning & block people into their drives, arrive ages too soon in the afternoons to get as close as possible, could walk as they're not rushing anywhere more important than the local nail bar.