To think is perfectly okay to park on double yellows if you’re picking a child up from nursery?

[OrigamiPenguinArmy]

It’s perfectly fine to park on double yellows if you’re picking up or dropping off at nursery right? Even though the road is really narrow and you’re forcing cars to drive up on the pavement by parking your Chelsea tractor there, and there’s a free car park a two minute walk away?

I know, click bait title, but I’m so sodding sick of it. The nursery is on the corner of my very narrow road and the main road, there’s a big free car park on the other side of the main road, but apparently that’s too far to walk. Sometimes my road is literally grid locked by a combination of parents on the double yellows and delivery vans, but they still do it. God forbid I might want to get my car out of my drive without doing a complicated manoeuvre.

I’ve tried complaining to the council, they say they’ll send someone round but they never do. I’ve tried complaining to the nursery, last time I did that they were apologising to while a member of staff was being picked up and getting into a car parked on the double yellows so they don’t give a fuck.

And yes, I know this is a rant but I’m fed up of it all today.

YANBU. Of course it's fine. Double yellow lines only mean you're not.allowed to park, but not a "no loading" restriction.

If the authorities didn't want you to pick up your child from the nursery they'd have put those little stripes on the kerb. Obviously drivers aren't expected to exercise any sort of judgement or respect for fellow road-users.

*@UtterlyUnimaginativeUsername
*
Do they have their hazard lights on? Because you can park wherever you like once you do that.

So true!

Sympathies OP. I remember it was like that when I took DS to nursery - his was on a corner too! For some reason the nursery also got all deliveries at exactly the main drop off time which didn’t help.

Now we have school drop off - we usually go in by scooter. Even though the road that leads to the infants gate is meant to be closed to non residents during drop off and pick up times, some parents still do drive right up to the gate and park on a yellow boxed area. Often dangerously. With the added bonus of sometimes just chucking the kids out of the car and not even getting out to check they’d gone in.

Wouldn't it be tragic if you had to buy really sharp nails for a lockdown project and tripped as you walked along the road home. It's dark early, oops you missed a few...

There is an alarming percentage of children at the school across the road from me who either melt in the rain, or whose legs are so faulty they can't walk the 300m from the carpark at the Co-Op.

Obviously people need to find a safe and legal place to park and there's no excuse not to do that, but surely the co-op wouldn't actually be ok with becoming some sort of unofficial school car park?

Oh god, this is like our DS’s school. There’s really nowhere to park but entitled arseholes dump their cars everywhere to the point a kid got run over a few weeks ago. Where we used to live it was just as bad to the point people were parking in other people’s driveways. To the point that an old chap took umbrage and deliberately backed his car into some entitled dick’s car and then told his insurance company he didn’t expect it to be there as they only have one car 🤣

I would add that my husband walks our son to school and back because the situation is so bad and wouldn’t drive him even if he had a car and it’s only a 10-15 min walk anyway.

my child school is on a corner of busy road its got zig zags lines and that says keep clear , headteacher stands outside the gate catches the parents and tells them off for doing it . they also shut the car park temporary for maintenance, local people complained parents was parking outside driveways and blocking them in .

yellow double and zig zag lines and pavements are there for a reason, not for parents convince to of to load kids that are running late .
my child headteacher is strongly against those that do park on zig zags and has report them if they do it more the once , and the council has issued tickets because of that only few now will park on zig zags .

I've known the Traffic division get involved in this sort of situation or the community policing team with good effect but I found that when the Station officer at the local fire station got involved because the selfish parking would impede an emergency vehicle the problem was very quickly solved -she did intimate that her firefighters would just run them off the road and that the fire service would charge the drivers for the damage caused to the fire tender right enough

I’m not for a second suggesting parking on double yellow lines or anything similar is ok. Clearly not - it’s dangerous.

I do want to just point out though that for many working parents there is no alternative than using your car.

NHS nurse here - always late out of work, always racing to pick the kids up. Absolutely no way have I ever had the time to park at home and walk to schools / nursery.

Again, I’m not condoning poor parking. But I do think that some of it is related to many working parents having zero wriggle room for time.

My council has put up fencing along the front of the double lines at school between the footpath and road. People STILL let their kids out there.
Because they are wankers.

Its also perfectly acceptable to stop at the zebra crossing to let your little secondary school age darlings out, so they can walk across the crossing and straight in the school gates. All the while teachers are watching this happen and not doing a damn thing about it!

and of course if you arrive early, it's perfectly OK to sit in the Chelsea tractor for half an hour parked on double yellows WITH the engine running.

councils should enter partnerships with schools, let the schools issue parking tickets and split the revenue 50:50

Would you do it on your driving test and still pass? If not don’t do it. Putting your hazards on does not allow you to park illegally.

Forgottenwhatsleepis

Our before/after school duty is about getting students on and off site safely. We have no authority to police the traffic on the road.

Sadly it's not uncommon for staff to be insulted and verbally abused if they challenge parents when on duty.
Every secondary school I've worked in has had its small share of parents who think they can drive onto site and park in the bus drop off area, despite clear signs saying not to. Some drop off in the area, which is awkward for busses and pupils. Some drive to school before the end of the day, before staff go on duty in order to sit in their cars. Then the busses come behind and block them in. Those parents think nothing of being arsey to duty staff for 'making them late' to whatever very important thing they need to be at.

At my son's school, the road is quite narrow, so there's often a gridlock situation with people who refuse or can't reverse their car enough to give way.

So there's lots of tooting of horns and shouting. The residents regularly complain to the HT and she mentions it in the weekly newsletter, but her hands are tied.

But what I don't understand is why they can't park 5 minutes away??
It takes them 20 minutes to drive off cos the street is so congested.

'The world revolves around me-itis' is rife!

And I feel so sorry for the kids whose parents have music blaring at Glastonbury levels...that can't be good for them first thing in the morning, surely??

Despite being there for over 100 years, because of where the gates are stimulated there have only recently been zigzag and cross hatched areas put in place at one of our local senior. schools. Every time I pick my daughter up in the car there is some entitled so and so parked over them, usually more than one.
She usually walks so luckily I don't have my blood pressure raised too often.

Autocorrect strikes again. Situated, not stimulated 😂

@pollymere

BTW...please remember you can park on DY if you display a blue badge with a clock.

Yes that is true, but not if there are loading stripes.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

and of course if you arrive early, it's perfectly OK to sit in the Chelsea tractor for half an hour parked on double yellows WITH the engine running.

I would like people to be fined for leaving their engines running

A local primary school in my area had this issue so put up massive signs on their fencing stating 'parking here could kill a child', nobody parks there now, very effective

@nannykatherine

Is this in Notting hill by any chance outside that nursery that’s named after a fruit and a Beatles song ???? The huge tractors with thier engines driven by drivers while the mummies gossip blocking the pavements so the local elderly can’t get past snd are ignored even tho they are saying excuse me several times ..

No, but it is a bit of a yummy mummy area, even when the cars aren’t CTs they’re usually BMWs, Mercs or Audis. My car is small, old and pretty dinged up, the number of times I’ve been tempted to clip a wing mirror or scrape a little paint off as I drive by (half on the pavement of course because the road is that narrow).

The fire station commander's comment might have some effect.

Many of these schools are oversubscribed. Simply make it a condition of the child being at the school how they are brought and collected. Certain behaviours such as parking on zig zag markings, leaving engines running, for example, and there is no place next school year for your children.