aibu? parking at school pick up time

[crymeariverwoo]

okay, I don't actually have children but do the school run quite often to help someone out. So I would say mostly 4/5 days a week, sometimes more sometimes less. Anyway, there are 2 entrances to the school, near one entrance there is a small car park (literally 25 card max), then by the other entrance there are 4 spaces on the road (there are a few local shops here so there is space for those, although anyone can use them) this is a 1 hour max stay. then there are several off roads that you can park on. I nearly always park on the off road as there is plenty of room and takes absolute max, 1 min to walk to the school gate. Now what passes me off, is the amount of people who park on the double yellow lines!! so the place where there is space for 4 cars, you will often get 6/7 cars parking there, and then on the off road it is double yellow lines close to the corner then free parking for all, so many people will not drive a few more metres but will park on the double yellow lines, which makes it seriously dangerous to try and get out because you can't actually see what's comjng and the traffic is quite busy at this time! does this happen where you are? what can be done about it? It actually infuriates me so much. I don't really know why but I get more and more annoyed every day, I just think why are there rules in place if nothing is followed through?

I'm not a parent but I do love on a road that,since some building work, has become a back entrance to the local school. Many children do walk, but there are the same few, every day, always late, always driving too fast and then parking blocking driveways etc.

I can do a fantastic impression of 'dainty woman who can't reverse large car' I can reverse it, but they don't need to know that and take about a 10 point turn to reverse off my driveway and turn around to drive forwards veerrrrrrrry slowly. One shouted at me once I was making them late for school. I didn't care.

but I do love on a road

Do you indeed, lampygirl, and do they park up to watch?

But you are dead right. What goes with Gomorrah?

We also suffer from the selfish parents who insist on driving their kids to a school that serves a medium sized housing estate (in Scotland, so catchment area school) and park wherever they fancy in our street, including across driveways and in the residents parking bays as well as on the zig zags at the school itself. It's a maximum of ten minutes walk, FFS.

And the ones who drive like it is Whacky Races, accelerating up the short street when they leave. One of them ran over my cat and didn't even bother to stop - just left him to die in the gutter.

There's currently an initiative to ban parents from the streets nearest schools: www.eastlothian.gov.uk/news/article/1556/new_traffic_restrictions_to_begin_in_haddington

Check out today's Manchester Evening News - primary school names and shames parents on twitter for dangerous driving habits.

SoldierBear Who enforces that ban? Is there somebody in a uniform at the end of the road asking for ID if you say you live there? If not, what's the use of it?

I live next to a school. The solution to these entitled bastards was to institute permit parking and run double yellow lines up and down the road. I have no words to describe what it was like before.

I live opposite a primary school and its a nightmare.
We're on a fairly quiet residential street not a busy road so the road is pretty narrow anyway.
There's the yellow zig-zag markings on the side of the school, but people choose to ignore them making the street pretty much a single file road.

Cars are parked on corners making it impossible to see and very dangerous when there's kids running about.

My drive is frequently blocked, by the same cars every time! DH once had a stand off trying to get on the drive with some idiot parked across it. As the road was already single file it was chaotic!

Funnily enough they do enforce the ban, Andrewofgg, and they use traffic wardens to do so: www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/news/transport/school-car-ban-helps-beat-parking-woes-1-3293465

The local Catholic school is terrible for this.

It is on a very narrow road with zig zags on one side and double yellow lines on the other. The road is also a main thoroughfare. The parents park on the double yellow lines causing traffic chaos.makes me

Glad to hear it SoldierBear!

I was so tempted to take a photo of a parked car on the school run this afternoon and post it on this thread. It was a massive 4x4 park with all 4 wheels on the pavement, on the corner of a junction there was no way round the car, and the junction was into a carpark with spaces they had saved themselves about 20 extra strides to the school gate.

I live by a school and have found the only way to get out at school time is to drive like a lunatic.. I'd rather not do it but do have to get to work on time.

There was a superb thread on here posted by someone who had found a school run car on their drive and blocked it in, and when she went to the school the mum concerned wouldn't admit it was hers and just left it on the drive!
I was crying laughing at one poster who asked "did she go home to her husband and say "Get the autotrader out darling, I've lost another car!""

This is someone "parked" outside my house a few years ago - had to take a photo as it was so ridiculous.

This drives me mad also.

I drive my child to school because a) we live nearly 3 miles away b) I have to drive on to work immediately after and c) route involves crossing an EXTREMELY busy A-road (think primary link road between two motorways). There is no way I would consider crossing this road myself on foot, let alone with a small child.

However, I always make the effort to arrive at a sensible time to find a safe, legal parking space. But so many parents just park in the middle of the road, on the corner of junctions, in the (very small) staff car park blocking staff in or preventing them parking, or even in the designated drop-off zone outside the school gates.

I also live very near a different school and have several times been late for work (this was pre school run years for myself) because parents have parked in front of my car blocking me in. I have known parents block my road, blocking me in, when planning to go in the chat to the teacher for 15/20mins which is even worse.

Not keen on the smug "anyone who drives their child to school is a lazy, entitled arse' vibe occasionally on this thread though, not everyone's life and situation is that straightforward.

just to clarify, I have said it is lazy arse people, but not about everyone who drives their dc to school. I also drive for similar reason to you south but I park in one of the 4 carparks

Zig-Zag lines outside the school gates have Magical Powers y'know.

There was a car frequently parked on the zig-zags with a note "Broken Down" in the windscreen. By the time the parent went in and picked up their DC, the car had miraculously repaired itself to drive off.
Every time

Parents at our school stop on the zig zags and then sit and watch their precious kids walk into the school building. If your kids are that unreliable that they can't make it from the school gate to the door then maybe you should be parking up properly and walking them in.
I often just stop on the footpath blocking their line of sight - just for fun!

Blastoff I need to read that thread!

We had big problems outside our school. We ended up making a deal with a football club about two minutes walk away who have a big carpark but only use it in the evenings and weekends that parents can use the carpark for drop off and pick up. Around the school became a no stopping zone. It took two weeks of police issuing fines, but people fine got the message. They do a random check every couple of weeks now, but it has pretty well seemed to stop.

Sorry should add that anyone with a disability parking pass can use the staff carpark right next to the school to drop off/pick up. They don't have to walk.

Guide Dogs are campaigning to stop bad parking, especially on pavements. They're building a 'Pavement Parking' map as part of a campaign.

So, if you see a car parked on the pavement, photograph it and email the picture to this email address, along with the street name and town where it happened.

[email protected]

Nothing happens to the individual who parked badly, but it will help support the campaign to prevent it.