Another child has been run over

[Cocopogo]

That’s two outside DC school in past few months. Probably both by other parents as both at pick up time. The school regularly sends out messages to parents not to drive down the road the school is on and to park elsewhere and walk but clearly some parents don’t give a shit. I’m very angry about this and also worried my DC could be next. Would you contact the school to ask what more they are doing to keep our kids safe? What more can they do? Get more staff outside at end of day? Stagger pick up?

How old are the kids (ie primary or comp)? If primary then surely the parents are picking them up so would more staff do more than the parents?

Otherwise double yellow lines and ask council to ticket everyone at school pick up / drop off times so that people get the idea not to park there

Yes I would. There's a school here where selfish parents drive down the ridiculously narrow road near the school and abandon their cars in ridiculous places which has caused many near misses. The council got involved and made the car park a 5 min walk (if that) free in the mornings around school drop off time and afternoons, yet still a lot can't be arsed (there are provisions for those with mobility problems closer). They have been strict now and sent someone to patrol or whatever you'd call it to stop cars doing it. Pathetic it came to that though.

Is the child ok?

The road outside our school is absolute chaos at pick up time and I can’t work out if it’s better or worse with the staggered times due to Covid. Just cars everywhere.

I think everyone has the right to drive to school so I don’t agree with people (not you!!) who moan that parents shouldn’t but I do think maybe only parents of the youngest children should park right at the school and the ones who are old enough to walk a few hundred metres alone to their parents car should do.

My own son has started doing this recently now he is older and I can’t tell you how much easier it makes my life as well as creating less congestion outside of the school.

I think some schools have drop off lane type situations which could work well with the correct layout.

Can you approach the council about making the road a ‘school zone’?

Our local council have done them - 20 mins before drop off and pick up time, plastic barriers are put out along both ends of the road, and only residents of the road are allowed in our out
Everyone else has to walk...

There is a teacher traffic warden at each end but after the first week, there was no attempt to drive to the gates so it doesn’t need much policing now

Schools parking is a nightmare. Schools know this but are very limited in what they can do sadly.

I hope the children are both recovering well

Where I live they have brought in School Streets where the road outside some schools is closed at the beginning and end of the day. It is enforced with cameras. This is a London Borough and has been funded by an initiative. I don't know if it is only in London and obviously isn't possible on all roads. It is helpful on the narrow one-way street where everyone stops in the middle of the road to drop off.

You could ask the school if they'd consider fundraising for a Lollipop Lady/Man, or suggest they ask for volunteer traffic marshalls.

That's shit op. I'm surprised there hasn't been any accidents outside our school yet (a couple of very near misses though!!) they replaced the crossing patrol woman with a zebra crossing due to funding cuts, but when it's busy people park over the zig zag lines and other people tank it to get through the single lane traffic due to people parking in the no parking spots. It really is an accident waiting to happen

It’s called the School streets scheme and seems to be a national campaign

schoolstreets.org.uk/how/

Well we now have an exclusion zone outside out primary so you can't park outside the school or the two nearest corners. Sure it's part of a safer streets thing.

If it's primary, what responsibility are you putting on the parents of the kids? If it's secondary, you need to make sure they're road safe. That doesn't mean drivers shouldn't be careful but it is the best you can do

I think everyone has the right to drive to school

Why?

@UserX because not everyone lives within walking distance or maybe they do drop off on the way to work (I did pre Covid)

Are those acceptable reasons for you? I love three miles away from my children’s school.

[quote Isittimenow]@UserX because not everyone lives within walking distance or maybe they do drop off on the way to work (I did pre Covid)

Are those acceptable reasons for you? I love three miles away from my children’s school.[/quote]
But why does that mean anyone has to drop off at the school gate?

You park a few roads away and walk together, or from 8ish years onwards you drop off a few roads away and let them walk the last bit

There is absolutely no excuse for the lazy lazy arseholes who think everyone needs a door to door service

@UserX . We live 8 miles from school. No public transport. That a good enough reason?

Was it another parent? My kids old primary was on a through road which I regularly used, I avoided pick up times if possible but often had no choice. Not everyone has primary aged kids so restricting a road for all road users isn't on, however there's a 20mph limit and speed humps installed

@BendingSpoons

Where I live they have brought in School Streets where the road outside some schools is closed at the beginning and end of the day. It is enforced with cameras. This is a London Borough and has been funded by an initiative. I don't know if it is only in London and obviously isn't possible on all roads. It is helpful on the narrow one-way street where everyone stops in the middle of the road to drop off.

Sounds like what we have. Inner estate school in the W Midlands

Ugh 😑 A little girl was killed here a couple of years ago, in her last year of primary. The driver had her children safely in the car when she hit her. There still isn’t an exclusion zone though.

No car zones discriminate against parents with disabilities ( not everyone can prove it with a blue badge) children with disabilities or additional needs. Parents who will not make it to work on time. It’s really not the answer.

We have a “school street” at our school, but sadly people are ignoring it. They’ve started a “5 minute walking bubble” too, encouraging people to park a 5 min walk away.

Some parents turn into complete morons on the school run.

Park on pavements, block buses, disabled spaces are a free for all and speed limits don't apply..... all to save 5 minutes or a short walk

Last term my children's school had to put out a message asking parents not to congregate on the narrow pavement outside the gates as it was forcing people to walk in the road.

I honestly think schools should have the power to issue parking tickets for bad parking, with the money going to the school. (And bad driving, but that's harder to police)

@GappyValley if you read my post I’ve said I think it would help if only the parents of the youngest children parked right outside the school? If you’re arguing that even they shouldn’t then perhaps you’re right but I’m certainly not saying that anyone who has to drive to school for whatever reason should drop their child off at the gate.

Every child who is old enough to go to school is old enough to walk 5-10 minutes from a car park to the school. I live opposite a school (and my previous house was next door but one from the school). At both places there was (is) a car park 5 mins walk away but parents prefer to create chaos in the road, block people’s access and driveways rather than take the 5 minute walk.

With Covid staggered pick ups it has got even worse. I cannot leave my home or return for a full hour at drop off abs pick up times. Especially for the afternoon pick up parents arrive earlier and earlier (because they know as it gets closer to the time it will become impossible to park) and the later pick ups also arrive early - just as the early pickups are leaving. There is only room for one way traffic due to parked cars and there are regular standoffs with cars leaving and cars arriving and no one able to get out of the way.

The ones that do manage to park run their engines in the winter because they are cold (having arrived 20 mins early in order to park) and in the summer because they are hot, making the air quality outside the school (officially tested) the worst in the whole small town.

I have come to the conclusion that the only solution is to make a 1/4 mile car exclusion zone outside schools except for residents and registered disabled. It’s good for kids to walk a quarter mile, and wouldn’t do the parents any harm either.

When I ask parents, nicely, at least on the first ask, to turn off their engines I get a mouthful of abuse. It’s in their kids’ interest to breathe clean air but when I tell them that I just get more abuse, I used to have a sign outside my garden gate saying. “children breathing; please turn off your engine” but it was stolen.

No accidents, far as I know. But that doesn’t make it okay.

I think a big part of the problem - at local schools at least - is the parents who need To have the best spaces right outside school so will get there rediculously early, meaning the local roads are packed for so much longer than they need to be. Staggered finish has made this worse as the junior parents get there early enough to get the spaces even though infants come out worse.

Ds finishes 15 minutes before any other pupils (due to his disabilities) - some days I can’t park because so many are already sat there!

I think if people where more willing to park a bit further away when they physically can then things would be so much better rather than the illegally parking madness that happens now

[quote Isittimenow]@GappyValley if you read my post I’ve said I think it would help if only the parents of the youngest children parked right outside the school? If you’re arguing that even they shouldn’t then perhaps you’re right but I’m certainly not saying that anyone who has to drive to school for whatever reason should drop their child off at the gate.[/quote]
No one needs to park right outside the school gate though

We have safe school zones outside all the schools in my area, so all children from 4 upwards are walking at least part of the way, and no one is suffering

I’m sure arrangements are made for genuine mobility issues but 99% of the time, it’s bone idle laziness and nothing more