To ask school to choose? (parking)

[Carpark1]

Aibu to ask my DD’s school to choose to alert that they must reverse park. There are no guidelines in the car park and I just feel like it’s mayhem. If we all reversed parked then it may be s bit more streamlined and time saving? Do you think they would find me weird for suggesting it ?😂😬

Isn't a bit like painting a wall or ironing a shirt or cooking spag bol or asking for a coffee in Russian?

It may be like those things in terms of difficulty, but none of those things you mention are required in order to safely drive! If someone is driving on public roads they should be spacially aware enough (and safety conscious enough) to reverse park. If someone can't do it, they need refresher lessons.

Reversing into a space is proven to be safer, so it should be common sense to do it imo.

@redspider1 thanks for your “help” as I have stated upthread we live rurally and the school is rural so walking is NOT an option 🙄 also the staff have their own car park. The car park I am referring to is the parent car park, specifically for parents as it’s a rural school and nobody walks to it.

have you thought about walking @carpark1

Ok you can't walk but you are very lucky to have a car park. At the school where I work, parents have to double park and cause all sorts of nuisance for residents. No amount of reminders and request from the Head to respect residents and others road users gets through. Parents want to park where they want and will do what they want. all you can maybe get school to do is issue reminders every term.

@myrtleWilson 😂😂😂🤔

Isn't a bit like painting a wall or ironing a shirt or cooking spag bol or asking for a coffee in Russian

It may be like those things in terms of difficulty, but none of those things you mention are required in order to safely drive! If someone is driving on public roads they should be spacially aware enough (and safety conscious enough) to reverse park. If someone can't do it, they need refresher lessons.

What I meant is that if you can't do it you should bloody well stop making excuses and learn. Otherwise it's a bit like someone helplessly claiming that they "just can't iron shirts"!

I don't see why not, OP.

Our local secondary school requires everyone to reverse park into the parking spaces. There are loads of signs around telling you and it's rare for anyone not to reverse park otherwise the car stands out a mile from the rest and shouts 'I'm a crap driver'.

If you can’t reverse a car safely you shouldn’t be driving at all. If you need a sn buggy park in a disabled space or further away.

If you need a sn buggy park in a disabled space or further away.

What a disgusting attitude to have toward parents who have disabled children. Fucking hell. How could you be so callous?

Sadly most people who need to use SN buggies won’t be entitled to blue badges due to the daft ness of the system - but that’s a whole different debate for another thread!

Having similar discussion with dd's (rural) school, they have laid out the car park to constrain reverse parking and recently put up signs asking parents to drive in forwards not reverse.
I couldn't get manager to even accept that reverse parking was safer.

a) you drive past the slot before reversing so are able to see that it is clear before you start and will have sight of anyone with the potential to move into the slot - subsequently your mirrors give you complete visibility of the area you are reversing into.
b) as said before at pickup parking is spread over a longer time than departure and when there are fewer kids around - compared to departure when there is a big cluster of kids
c) reversing out of a slot is completely blind for the initial movement - exactly when kids/parents are likely to step across the back of the car and given the preponderance of high vehicles these days your view is truncated both left and right in your mirrors until half the vehicle is out.
d) yes it is likely that kids will move across the slot you are reversing into but the likelihood is much less than that of kids milling around behind you as you reverse out
e) reversing in is much simpler and faster than reversing out - minimising the time when kids can get in the way

I just have to hope nobody gets hurt because of this.

@Frankiestein402 thanks for those points they may come in handy 👍😉

Well I think it's a good idea. But unless your school enforces it, there'll be no point.

I think most schools aren't interested in monitoring traffic but our school is.

Every morning, the deputy head walks around the car park, making sure no-one is stopping where they shouldn't or driving dangerously.

Consequently, we have a very safe environment for our children.

"If you need a sn buggy park in a disabled space or further away."

Even if your child has a blue badge which they may not, disabled bays do not all come with adequate space behind them to enable access to the boot of a car that is big enough to get an sn buggy in.
People shouldn't have to park further away because they have a disabled child. They are not second class citizens.

I agree that reverse parking is generally safer (those diagonal parking spaces excepted), but I think the main problem would be getting the school to enforce it.

Plenty of people don’t like reverse parking and most of them will carry on parking as they are unless any reverse parking policy is enforced.

Reverse parking into a car park space isn’t something I was taught when I was learning to drive, although I was taught reversing round a corner and parallel parking manoeuvres.
But I worked for a company a while back that insisted all employees reverse parked when using the company car park and since then I usually reverse park. It’s so much easier and safer when leaving the parking space, and not that much more hassle when parking, once you’ve got the hang of it. I’d expect most people would be able to do reverse parking properly if they took the time to practice it.

And re. disabled spaces, the disabled parking space at our school has a high wall at the back of the space, so it’s not a very practical space for boot access if someone reverses into the space.

No you don't have to park for test

I drive a van so ALWAYS reverse park. Even though this means getting things out the back can be tricky it’s so much safer than reversing out when visibility is severely limited due to lack of back window. Everyone should be able to reverse but it surprises me how often I have to back up (often round corners) to let others past on my narrow local roads.

No you don't have to park for test

Of course you do, don't be ridiculous it's one of the possible manoeuvres. The fact that you didn't happen to be asked it doesn't mean it's not a necessary skill. I didn't happen to stop at any red lights during my test (they were all green) does that mean I don't have to do it once I have my license? Such rubbish some people spout!

The primary my brother's kids did something similar OP

All cars had to be in the school car part and facing the gate to leave, the gates were then closed while children let out to get in the cars, and out of the pedestrian gate.

Once pedestrians had left, the gate was opened for the cars to leave.

If you couldn't get there in time, or couldn't park then you didn't get to park in the playground.

It worked really well because all parents in cars have to wait so no one is setting off while there are still children on foot in the playground.

I passed my test 3 years ago and didn't have to reverse park in the test

Do you really need to use a car to take children to school? Do many of the other parents? Much better solution, certainly for those less than a mile away.

If you're so bad at reversing you can't reverse park you definitely shouldn't be reversing into a buys car park filled with kids
I'm inclined to agree. Can't reverse enough to confidently not hit the cars, but capable enough at reversing to manage to avoid hitting moving cars and children at the end of the day?

I didn’t get taught how to reverse park when I learnt to drive either (10 years ago) so I can’t do it! I’m really shit at bay parking and drive for the top of a multi story car park or miles away from the supermarket so that I can get a space with a space next to it as I generally need to straighten up

I don’t get the ‘i didn’t learn to reverse park so I can’t do it’ argument. I didn’t learn it for my test either but I did have to reverse around a corner, which is the same principle.

Tbh I can’t believe the amount of parents in dds school that have huge cars and just can’t reverse in them, or park with them.