To think that school run drivers are selfish cunts?

[GladAllOver]

Just that. They park anywhere and everywhere, regardless of other drivers or local residents.

Oh yes they are the worst.. live reasonably close to a school and have been caught out without thinking having to drive through the area at pick up time. People pull out in front of you... do random three point turns without notice.... no indication... random pulling over sudden urgh the list goes on. Hate them!!!

In my observations over the years I reckon 30% are.

I walk and avoid the bad driver and twatty parking parents like the plague. I also do a very cathartic @yplac on Twitter and tell the school about any incidents.

I'm a school run driver and yanbu. My kids are at a village school in the heart of a tiny narrow village with hardly any parking. I park in the (empty) village car park 5 minutes walk from the school. The school asks parents to park there. They don't. Everyone squeezes through the village parking on yellow lines, grass verges, anywhere. The junction by the school is treacherous to cross because of this. There's ample parking if people would just walk for a few minutes. People drive past me and I get to the school before they've even found a space. It's pure laziness.

You need kiss and drop. It's a lay-by where those who have to drive pull in, child jumps out of the car and goes into the school. Parent stays in the car and pulls off once child is out of the vehicle (our school has a staff rota to supervise children getting from drop zone into school). If your child isn't old enough for this, you park in the car park a 5 minute walk away. Kiss and drop starts at 8.30 for 9am school start.

We also have rangers who can (and do!) patrol and hand out big fines to anyone speeding, parking illegally or inconsiderately in our school zones.

Exactly the same in reverse for pick ups too.

Outside of the UK obviously

We have some right knobs on our school run. Yes, I drive as we're out of catchment, but I get there in good time to park considerately, not blocking driveways or anything and I'll park further out and walk in to avoid the real crazy crowd.

Then you have the 2 seconds to the bell brigade who rock up last minute and will pull entire cars up onto pavements, double park so badly the local bus and bin lorry routes can't complete their runs, park blocking the exit to the local nursery carpark completely across it, and just have an attitude of "more important than you" to everyone else. Usually stupidly oversized 4x4s in our school with private number plates.

People are cunts over parking generally.

We got allocated a school over 5 miles away. Bus journey is 1.5 hours, two buses, and 40 mins walking. No option but to drive.

I get there early. I park in a side road of a housing estate that was built after the school. I don’t park in front of any houses, i park at the side of one as there is a widening of the access road which means i tuck in and don’t restrict access. I even leave plenty of room for the house owners to access their garden gate.

Perfectly legal parking. When the weather is nice i sometimes walk home, it’s just over an hour but a lovely walk on a national trail. So i leave the car from 9am-2.pm occasionally.

I still got a series of cuntish notes left on my car from the houseowner. Apparently he needs large vehicle access to his garden gate every day for deliveries. The way i park the only type of vehicle i would obstruct is a very large HGV which needed to pull up exactly alongside the (narrow, normal sized) gate, and complete a u- turn in the dead end.

Arsehole.

But yes, parking on zigzags, parking across road junctions, u turning in front of others.

Our school has 2 entrances/exits and both of them are on residential roads. We’re always getting messages in the newsletters to say the residents are complaining of people blocking their drives. I drive as I have to do 3 pick ups, but I park a little further out so I have to walk a few mins but I’m not blocking anyone in. It’s also much easier for me to leave this way. Everyday, there’s the parents who get there 30 mins early to get that prime spot outside the gate. It’s silly really as while I’m usually home about 10 mins later, they’re still waiting to get out of their spot because they’ve been blocked or someone has double parked. All to save a couple mins walk!

Yep, they're appalling. Utterly selfish and stupid. Not all of them but very, very many. I used to fear for my own safety walking to and from primary school twice a day, let alone fearing for my kids.

My sons now walk alone to secondary which is in a slightly better situation, partly because of the sheer volume of kids walking and crossing the road in front of school (safety in numbers). Although they still say they sometimes stand for ages at crossing points while parents whizz past at high speed with their little darlings and don't stop to enable other people's little darlings to cross the road. Immensely fucking selfish.

Have to say, White Van Man has nothing on School Run Mum.

Always worse on rainy days as parents try to get their kids as close to the gate as possible. Obviously haven't heard of raincoats and umbrellas!

35 acres and despite requests the council won't allow them to put in a car park

It's a nightmare at my kids' schools. I once approached a bloke who had parked on double yellows on a corner by dds school, obstructing the road. He had a 'severely disabled child on board' sticker and a blue badge, so to try to be helpful I asked if he knew that he was allowed to park in the staff car park so that he and the kid didn't have to struggle . His response? 'Oh its ok I'm getting the other one, I just leave that in there so I don't get nicked'.

It is regularly impossible to get even a small car down the road next to the school because of double parking (Lord alone knows what would happen if someone in one of the houses needed an ambulance or fire engine), yet there are always spaces a few minutes walk away. If you arrive in time to get into the visitors car park people will park in front of you and block you in. People are so selfish.

Everyone who drives their dc to school thinks they have a valid reason, that they don’t drive or park badly and don’t contribute to the danger, congestion, air pollution and accidents.

No-one in an urban area needs to drive their dc to school (some disabilities/injuries excepting). It’s got so bad in some areas that whole streets around schools are closed off during ‘school run’ times and others have community police officers posted outside schools.

You create the problem and there are many alternatives:

• walk or cycle with your dc
• dc walks or cycles with friends
• organised walking buses (or start one yourselves)
• organised cycle trains (or start one yourselves)
• bus, underground or tram
• car pooling (also possible in more rural village areas if no school bus)
• school bus/mini bus (if there’s not one start one! Other parents have successfully done this)

Even driving part way and walking the rest is a start.

I do because I have to race to work straight afterwards and would take me too long to walk it

One thing they pisses me off about school run is the very narrow exit from school playground st henbsck all the way around to the front, then the pavement has a safety metal fence there for around 15m which all parents filter through at s speed not dissimilar to that of a snail - all fine .... until the parents who have nothing to do but chat stand RIGHT in the way literally every day - some of us need beta blockers to calm us down after and school run the bloody stressful minute time scales we have to work to ... in other words
it's not only drivers who cause problems

Thankfully I walk DS to school but there was one memorable day when our road was single file only due to all the parents parked half on the pavement, the bus was trying to get through, there was a coach parked up to take one kids on a day trip plus the farmer was coming up the road in the opposite direction with two tractors plus trailers to go into the field next to the school. It was absolutely gridlocked for about 20 minutes. I can only imagine the tooth grinding being done as everyone was stuck.

alternatives:

• walk or cycle with your dc

Options are Down the motorway or 7 miles of country roads with no cycle lanes, pavements, and a 50mph speed limit. With a 7 year old. Ok.

• dc walks or cycles with friends

See above.

• organised walking buses (or start one yourselves)

1.5 hour walk, down muddy paths and isolated shortcuts. Plus no one else lives in our area. I’ve asked.

• organised cycle trains (or start one yourselves)

See above.

• bus, underground or tram

No underground, no tram. 20 min walk to bus stop to get bus into nearby town. 20 min walk across town to other bus stop. 15 min bus ride and bus drops us 15 mins walk away from school. I’d spend 6 hours a day on the school run.

• car pooling (also possible in more rural village areas if no school bus)

Not if you’re the only kid from that area going to that school.

• school bus/mini bus (if there’s not one start one! Other parents have successfully done this)

Again, not an option for one child

Sometimes, there really isn’t an option to not drive. I have sat with the council at appeals and we have looked at the journey and all they can offer is a taxi or i drive. They agree walking/cycling/bus is not an option, and also have looked for other children in the area to joirney share.

Like i said, i already try to cut down on car use by walking home myself. But i get cuntish notices about my perfectly legal and considerate parking near school.

No-one in an urban area needs to drive their dc to school (some disabilities/injuries excepting). It’s got so bad in some areas that whole streets around schools are closed off during ‘school run’ times and others have community police officers posted outside schools

Thing is though it's not really the few out of area people who are the problem.

It's the locals who are the ones who are always late and ergo drive and stop on zig zags or park like idiots.

It's locals who drive when they could walk. And camp out on the school road way befire school even starts.

It's all locals who all seem to have arrangements with "friends" who allow them to park over their drives etc

All the people I know who come from outside of the area do what I do. Park in a local pub (who has given permission) or the local park and walk down.

Artofhappiness I drive my dc to school because
A) I live 5 miles away from them
B) DD is at school 5 miles away from where she lives
C) DS is at a school a further 2 miles away
D) both of them are autistic and up until very recently my secondary aged mud couldn't cope on public transport- he's now getting more able to use it which thankfully means I don't have to drive him so much
E) I have to be at work between 8 and 8.30 and their dad gets on a train at 7.15.
I have put my morning school run into a journey planner which showed mw that if I tried to do it on public transport it would take me approximately 3 hours.
But then I park ages away from the school and walk the rest cos I would rather not inconvenience people or have my car pranged in the general melee.

*kid not mud
Tl;dr it's not always possible to avoid driving kids to school
It is entirely possible not to act like a dick whilst doing so

I agree with a previous poster. Why do teenagers (barring those with special needs) have to be dropped right to the door of the school? Surely they can get out of the car at some convenient point and walk the rest of the way?

YANBU! The school run mum/dad/whatever is this single worst driver on the road.

Outrank ever their kind for me, White van, Audi, Boy racer etc.

Entitled, inconsiderate and very annoying.

**I don't get people who buy houses near schools then whinge about cars on the school run.

I bought my house because its amazing the responsible parents I have no issues with. I have issues with parking illegally and dangerously.
I have complained to the school when cars block the road the last occasion blocked the bin lorry from getting in. They got so fed up with waiting that they left so our bins didn't get collected. All so that they didn't have to walk for a few minutes sorry but that is selfish behaviour to the residents and not to mention illegal to block a road!

*every other kind

Not everyone is inconsiderate - I walk when I can but probably need the car half the time due to work and other commitments. I always leave 5 minutes earlier so that I get a parking space and am careful with all the children around but I guess we are pretty lucky that where the school is there are a lot of parking spots and two entrances so the parking is spread out. However you will always get the idiots that park on the double yellows, staff car park and in the disabled bays, our schools pretty hot on this and local police and parking wardens are often round.

I live by the local secondary and the amount of times people are parked across my drive when I'm coming back drives me mad! Plus the fact there is a massive car park in the school so there isn't really an excuse just the fact that it's easier than waiting to go in/out the car park because of traffic. Normally a beep and they move but I literally had to get out my car the other day and knock on someone's window as she was so busy on her phone!! 🤦‍♀️

I rarely took my DC to secondary school by car (live in a village so there are school buses) but on the odd times I did I would drop them off some 300 yards away in a non-residential side road and they would walk the rest of the way.
Closer to the school the parking was bedlam - it still is.
Quite a few kids who live in the town (as opposed to the villages which are served by buses) do actually walk but in a school of over 1,200 pupils it doesn't need that many twattish parents to screw up both traffic and parking.

Agree with most of the comments about selfish inconsiderate twats.

The last time my drive was blocked the driver said "well, its only for 10 minutes". That's not the point. (and the car was there for nearly half an hour because she had to get out the pram and install the baby first, then of course the faff in reverse when she came back. I wonder how long it would have taken her to walk all the way from home with the baby already in the pram?)

I live about 300 yards from a fairly large primary. Its on an estate that was built in the late 1960s, so not car friendly. The main road through the estate is only wide enough for 2 cars, and has bends and chicanes designed to slow down the traffic. There are yellow markings outside the school entrance which are (mostly) adhered to, but this means all the surrounding streets are full of parked cars especially in the afternoon. When cars are parked on the main road, there is no room for buses and emergency vehicles to get past, and the congestion is made worse because vehicles trying to overtake the parked cars can't see if there is oncoming traffic round the bend. The line of parked cars on the main road is often over 200 yards long.

The school was enlarged 2 or 3 years ago. The LA ignored all the residents' protests about traffic problems, suggesting a "walking bus" could be set up that involved having a parking area (ON PRIVATE PROPERTY) about 500 yards away. This never happened. They did enlarge the car park, but it's for staff only (and still not big enough). They have absolutely no intention of providing a parents car park or dropping-off point: the spare land behind the school (currently green belt) has been earmarked for more housing. Buses are not frequent enough nor are they routed through most of the catchment area. So parents use their cars. In most cases the journey is less than a mile.

When I was that age I walked everywhere. Its good exercise.