To ignore the school parking diktat?

[Ginmakesitallok]

I drive to drop off andpick kids up from school - too far to walk and on my way to work. Its busy, but i usually get a space in the street beside school.

Theres a note in a recent school newsletter to say that parents shouldn't drive into this street, that there's no parking for parents there and that the yellow lines are for kids safety.

Now - it's a public road, no restricted parking, only yellow lines are at junctions where I'd never park. Surely the school can't think that it can stop parents parking where they want if they are parking legally??

I think some parents on here highlight why people are growing up to be entitled and inconsiderate people.
It comes from the parents.

To those of you suggest parents park "a bit further away because a slightly longer walk won't kill you"

Isn't that just moving the problem to someone else's doorstep? If it's only residential, if parents don't park on roads A, B and C they'll have to park on roads D, E and F. And then the residents of those roads get pissed off. So given that most of these drivers are women who are encouraged to work either so they can afford to live or retain their independence from a man, what is a workable solution?

My parking does not inconvenience anyone

How do you know? Every time you take up a parking space you are potentially depriving a local resident, or a visitor to them, of the space. Inevitably your car will be adding to the congestion in that road, particularly as you manoeuvre in and out of parking spaces.

Would it really harm you or your children to park slightly further away and spend a few minutes walking?

MilkTwoSugars, the point is that if all parents park a little further away, it increases substantially the range of options, which means that the full burden doesn't fall on just one road. Having one car parked outside your house for 15 minutes a day is considerably better than having a succession of them fighting their way in and out and potentially making it difficult for you to get to your own house.

As we live next to the school we walk to school we have cars mounting the pavement coming towards us and cars blocking driveways. They shout at us for not moving on the pavement quick enough. These people should get off their lazy arses and walk from further out instead of making residents lives difficult and or dangerous.

Draw a square of one centimeter by one centimeter.

Now draw a line around the square. Measure the line.

Now draw another line around the square. Measure that line.

Astoundingly, the further out you go, the longer the line is. ~math sorcery~

REAL WORLD APPLICATION TIME: the further you are from the school, the more road there will be!

Like someone said, if you're moving out from the one jampacked street to say, four other streets that border the school, you end up going from 100% in one street, to 20-25% in each of four streets. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that that is the more desirable outcome, even if it does mean that poor, put-upon Prudence and Penelope are forced to (gasp, clutch pearls) walk a little further from the car to the class.

The OP is not saying she can park where she wants.

The school and surrounding residents have come up with an idea and are trying to enforce it - how are they qualified to decide what is safe with regards to roads and traffic?

How does their 'rule' impact other roads, will it cause other issues?

Parking further away does not mean everyone parks on one street! Use your noggin and stop with the precious snowflake behaviour!!

Honestly wtaf?!?

Bluntly - a very small minority of drivers will have a genuine necessity to be as close as possible for drop off eg blue badge, school transport etc.

The rest should employ their brain cells to work for the greater good and improve their child's chance of getting through the school day without incident. How can that basic level of common sense be missing?

It's obviously to stop all parents doing the same. Goodness how many cars in and out of the same area at the same time. Probably very chaotic and a hazard if everyone parked there.

I think you are entitled to park exactly where you want providing its legal.

If the parking restrictions (or lack of) on the street need reviewing due to school traffic causing dangerous situations or too much stress on a confined space then it's up to the residents to approach the council to consider yellow lines or parking permits.

Until then, you are perfectly entitled to park there and to school can get to fuck. I don't blame them for writing to parents to remind them to park legally and with courtesy to residents but they don't get to lay down the law about what you do outside the school gates.

faith thats great if we live in America where roads are just ever increasing squares.

I know lets just build a wall around all schools. (joking)

OK - I missed basic maths! I was thinking of DS's school, the road layout around there doesn't follow that logic.

I live in a street with a primary school. It's a bit of a pain when all the spaces suddenly disappear at 3pm, but I can live with that. What's more serious is that the people who come late and can't get spaces then park on the double yellow lines opposite, making the road downright dangerous for kids and locals. Even if you're parking legally, if too many people are attempting to park, you end up with people parking dangerously. Probably every day it's someone thinking, 'argh, no spaces, I'll just nip onto this yellow line, it's only for a few minutes', but every day that means some people are parking dangerously. The only way to stop it happening is if fewer people park there, and that includes you, even if you personally always arrive early enough to park legally.

pickled all parents can't do the same, because then they would be parking illegally and that IS enforceable.

The school can't tell you not to park legally, that is just madness.

Well, obviously the real world is not as neat and tidy as the square on your paper would be. But it is a nice visual representation of a concept that clearly, many people on this thread either can't get or don't want to get - that if you park a little further out, there'll likely be more room to do it in, but if you insist on parking up the school's bum like a twat despite being asked not to, you will be packed in like sardines in a tin.

MagicChicken
So until residents and then the council go through the, probably, long process of making enforceable changes, the actual people causing the problem have no responsibility to make things better and safe? So they can continue to stick their fingers in their ears, and repeat "it's not my fault" until told like a child to do the right thing?

Parking makes it hell round here. People park their cars right up to the dropped kerb, which doesn't sound a problem, but when you've also got people parking opposite, it makes getting out of my drive extremely difficult to turn out of - and I've got a tiny car. I've also had numerous incidents of people parking across my drive, and refusing to move, 'because they're only going to be 10 minutes'.

I expect the school has received numerous complaints, and is putting its foot down. Don't blame them, I'd never live near a school again.

"you are perfectly entitled to park there and to school can get to fuck"

Is this what you would be thinking if it is your child who gets run over or would you blame the school for not keeping them safe?

Something can be perfectly legal and still be a jerk move.

Park a bit further away and walk there.

It's about a school thinking they can tell parents not to drive up a particular street.

I don't think they are 'telling' you op, I'm sure they realise there's not much they can do about it if people refuse. But put yourself in the head teachers position, no doubt having to deal with constant complaints from neighbours of the school about how this can inconvenience them (and I'm certain it must be causing them problems otherwise why would they complain?)
The school is merely trying to get parents to think about alternative and safer parking spots. It's up to you whether you comply.

Why in gods name are all the children near schools running around in the road?!!! Seriously.

Our council are running a trial completely banning cars from the streets round schools at the start and end of the school day - access is controlled by traffic wardens and if you are already parked by the school you can't move your car. Its well sign posted so there are no acceptable excuses Parents are forced to park away from the school and walk the last few minutes. It's working well!

It's about a school thinking they can tell parents not to drive up a particular street.

FFS. The school don't 'think they can tell' anyone to do anything. They've clearly had complaints from residents. They know that parents are going to ignore the note and do whatever they want, but at least they can now tell the residents that they have tried. The HT doubtless doesn't really care where you park, but I imagine that s/he has better things to do with his/her time than field complaints from incensed residents.

I was a member of SLT in a school with a similar parking problem. We ended up on duty in hi-vis every afternoon because parents' parking, whilst legal, clogged the streets so much that it became dangerous for kids to cross the road. I can assure you that we had much better things to do than act as traffic wardens but there was no support available from anywhere else so we had to do it ourselves.

Even if parking on this road doesn't cause a hazard, be warned - in our case, the residents got so fed up that they successfully petitioned the council to put parking restrictions on their road. Amongst other evidence, they submitted multiple copies of the school newsletter containing requests that parents not park on their street, in order to prove that the school were unable to police the situation and parents were ignoring polite reminders. It worked and they got a controlled parking zone.

Milk - we have a constant scramble for the 50m of road around the school, which happens to be a cul de sac, so everyone has to turn around.

Just around the corner, there is a long strip with houses on only one side - the other is school field. Down the road, past that junction, there is off road parking for about 6 cars, which only one or two parents ever use.

It's not a big school - only 170 pupils, but it's still mad and dangerous. In the 10 years I've been doing the school walk, I've seen several accidents and someone, who had the nerve to be parked on the zigzags, almost reverse into a child trying to cross the road. When DS2 was in a SN buggy, I've had times when I've not been able to get past cars parked on the pavement, as close to the school gates as they can get.
And yes, like a PP, those kids have sometimes been driven no more than 300m, one of them living at the end of the bloody school field!

We're in a village, but rarely have more than a handful of kids from other villages. The longest possible walk within the village is less than a mile. Ironically, the parents living up that way (and it's a steep uphill from the school) are the ones who seem to be most likely to walk it! About 3/4 of the kids in the school live less than 10 minutes walk away.

A lot of school run parents park like entitled dicks.

It's like some pathetic race to see who can get to school earliest and as close as possible.

Maybe the residents are sick of getting blocked in.

Maybe residents grass/land has been damaged by people mounting kerbs etc.

Maybe there have been near misses with kids wandering around between cars.

Maybe there is congestion at already busy times.

Most people will live in walking distance of their school, and could walk, yet out of sheer laziness will drive and clog up the roads twice a day.

I live on a main road that has a school on it. The number of cars blocking the roads at start and finishing times is unreal. Someone actually drove up onto the pavement the other day, and drove all the way up on the pavement then dropped back down onto the road and parked. Obviously to beat other cars to park near the top of the road right outside school.

Maybe it can't be enforced as law, but it would be considerate for residents who live there.