To complain about the lolly pop lady

[Morph22010]

I have to drive ds to school about 10 miles away as he’s austistic and at specialist. No other viable way to get him there, we get a transport budget paid from council. I drive through a large village on way, not an alternative route. There is a school with a zebra crossing and lolly pop lady, have never really noticed much before just stopped when needed to then on my car. There’s been a new one there about 3 months and she crosses people across then if anyone is walking down road she’ll wait in road until thry get there then they cross as well. This is meaning the traffic can start to back up so there’s more of a wait in a queue than there used to be. There was a queue this morning, was in it maybe 7 mins then stopped again at crossing. Now the bit that’s annoyed me is that the parents were crossing back across the road and one had stopped and they’ve had a conversation in middle of the road, only about an extra 30 seconds but there were huge queues both ways. She seems a great lolly pop lady for getting people across the road but Aibu in thinking they should have some regard at least to the flow of traffic? My mornings are quite stressful anyway due to ds so I’m probably letting this stress me out more unduly

She's taking the piss. Isn't it funny how power goes to people's heads.

Can’t believe they’re a thing, councils must be too cheap to install actual crossings. Good heavens. Stop for a chat yes, not when people are waiting for you to to finish chatting and move.

@BloodAndFire if you had bothered to read the post you would have known the kids were in school and the parents were stood in the road gabbing to the lollipop lady

Reporting a lollypop lady! I've heard it all now.

@Laiste that is exactly what I meant 😉

She’s on a zebra crossing

That's clearly not what that poster said, why make things up? She was referring to the OP who talked about 2 adults stood in the road having a chat. No children. No zebra crossing. The only shameless thing is your attacking another poster because you can't be bothered to read posts properly.

Surprisingly no!! Although the man opposite when she was doing the talking in the road looked like he was getting quite irate and about to. It’s a village and the route I do is cross country so it’s not like driving in the city where it’s constant sitting in traffic, if I dont get a hold up at the crossing I can do the 10 miles in 20 mins

The crossing patrol person isn't doing their job correctly and I would send a fairly casual email to the school, or ring the office. A quick Google came up with guidance from an LA for school crossing patrols and includes this, which is pretty standard:
"The SCP must remain in the centre of the carriageway with their sign clearly displayed until
everyone has cleared the crossing. Whilst in the road the patrol should continue to check around
for more pedestrians and approaching vehicles where relevant. They must not hold up traffic while
waiting for children to arrive at the crossing point. When returning to the pavement, the sign must
still be held upright. Drivers who have been waiting should be thanked for their patience."

YABU. Massively so.

Why do so many people think Op is being unreasonable? Nobody is begrudging the lady a chat - if she's on the pavement, not in the middle of the road. Nobody's saying she shouldn't let parents and children cross the road - but she shouldn't stand in the middle of the road waiting for them to walk along the pavement to her crossing. She should return to the pavement and wait for them to arrive before stopping traffic.
I know from previously working in schools that the guidance for crossing patrols is really clear, and this one isn't doing her job properly. Op isn't unreasonable at all. This place is bloody crazy sometimes.

Agree.

Really? How selfish that would be. You in your comfortable car, the lollipop lady doing a public service in all weathers. I can't believe people like you really exist.

Honestly I think if you’re driving around a school at drop off and pick up time you just need to allow loads of extra time. Students getting to school is the priority and crossing roads is part of that.
Im so glad we walk to school as I couldn’t deal with driving and the drama that comes with it every morning!

Power? Power is sitting in a big SUV honking your horn.

Has the OP said what car she drives?

Or are you the lolipop lady? 😂

Which nobody, including the Op, actually did in this situation. 🙄

Again, guidance from a Local Authority for road crossing patrols. It's very clear the lady isn't doing it as she should.
"The SCP must remain in the centre of the carriageway with their sign clearly displayed until
everyone has cleared the crossing. Whilst in the road the patrol should continue to check around
for more pedestrians and approaching vehicles where relevant. They must not hold up traffic while
waiting for children to arrive at the crossing point. When returning to the pavement, the sign must
still be held upright. Drivers who have been waiting should be thanked for their patience."

YANBU regarding the flow of traffic, but lollipop ladies do an amazing job. Cars actively refuse to stop or attempt to drive by ours while she’s on the road. She doesn’t hold up traffic, there’s rarely a queue of more than 2-3 cars when she’s crossing children and she does an amazing job at getting all the kids across a busy main road.

Conversely, we used to have a lollipop man, who was great too, that no motorist tried driving past/at/giving abuse to.

7 minutes doesn’t sound great, traffic/pedestrian management should be more efficient than that @Morph22010

Completely agree with this too. She's hardly watching out for the safety and wellbeing of these children (some will no doubt be walking themselves to school) is she's having a natter in the middle of the road for up to a minute.

I can imagine it's easy to over focus on the pedestrians in that job.

Walking out into the road over and over with your sign up - you probably subconsciously start thinking ''Here comes another couple of kids. I'll just stay standing here in the road 10 seconds more and wait for them to arrive at the crossing ...''.

But that adds up if you keep doing it and then a lot of traffic builds up.

@Blackfleece - no I made that up. But that's how I imagine the situation.

Welcome to the 21st century where everyone thinks the world revolves round them and wants to complain when they discover it doesn’t.

I’d love to be able to walk I used to when ds was in mainstream but unfortunately it didn’t work out and the 10 mile journey to his special school down country lanes isn’t walkable at all