I live in a road with a school

[Truffle55]

Apologies in advance for the rant and slightly long message…

I live in a road with a primary school at the end. I’ve lived here for 25 years and I totally understand that parents need to get their kids to school - I too, need to do the same.

But…

Recently the behaviour of the parents dropping off and picking up their DC has been, frankly awful.

I have come home from picking my DC up from school to find someone parked on my drive! And now, someone thinks it’s “ok” to park across the T-junction into the road. This means I have to drive around them and into cars coming out of the road (from dropping off/picking up DC) to get onto my driveway (assuming no one is “borrowing” it).

I do understand people need to take their kids to school, I have to do it too! But really? Why are they so inconsiderate? When I pick my DC up from school I park away from the school… and we have an agreed process if I’m not there due to not being able to park SAFELY (I do get that DC is at secondary school and its easier to do this).

However, the parking by my house is getting out of control - the person who parks across the junction lets the children get into the car - roadside…. This is just dangerous!?

I’m at the point now that I just push through the cars because I feel “I live there, and I have right of way” - but that makes me uncomfortable.

And, let’s not talk about the addition is of an ice cream van!

Anyway, I’m considering contacting the school or even the police to see if they can do anything - sadly, I really feel, it is an accident waiting to happen 😕

Mum lives on a road with a school (with a new one being finished to open in September. This is just a small, suburban street.

Definitely, in the 50 odd years she has lived there, the number of cars have increased almost exponentially, and even in the last 2 years that I’ve been going there, parking at school pick up and drop off times is akin to Mad Max.

Parking over drives, on her drive, on pavements, on grass verges causing damage, driving at the Lollipop Lady, parking on the zig zag lines, kids being removed from cars on the roadside, or running between cars as Mum has wizzed off & not bothered see them across the road (local authority has just dropped the speed limit to 20); arguments with locals, arguments with each other, arguments with building lorry drivers involved in the new school build, “But this is always my spot! You can’t park here!”
🙄.

I always walk with crutches/a stick due to disability, and some mornings I am forced onto the road thanks to selfish bastards parking fully on the pavement to drop their kids off.

On the odd occasion I have to push mum in her wheelchair to the local hospital (with my stick and her sitting like the Queen of bloody Sheba, but that’s whole other story), there’s no chance of getting passed a vehicle on the path! And if it’s not on a drop kerb then I can’t even cross the verge, drop down the kerb and go round.

I have noticed, especially in the last few years post Covid, there are so many people who have no consideration for others.

Couple that with the sharp rise in SUV and Range Rover ownership (there are no ravines around here, just boring flat roads) which are wider and therefore more likely to be parked on the path, and it’s a bloody nightmare.

I’m sorry to say this, but the majority causing this bellendary are women since they usually are dropping off before whizzing to work.

Please don’t park across drives. Or paths. Think about people with limited visibility/using walking aids, can they get through? Or have they just had their day made just a little bit more shite by your selfishness?

You are not the most important person in the universe folks. And neither are your kids. No one is less or more important than anyone else when you’re doing the bloody school run.

*going there to do her care, obviously I’ve also been going there my whole life lol.

We’ve been using our Primary for about 9 years now and it has got much worse in the last couple of years. This, I think, is in line with the way society has become more selfish in general. Our school is always sending out messages asking people to park away from the school and walk the last few minutes but every day the same people are parked on the double yellows (some of which are recently introduced). They can’t be saving themselves any time getting to work as the traffic is so bad you can beat it walking most days.

Anyway, if you happen to be in any of the areas on here (mostly Midlands) you can use this site to report drivers.

https://nextbase.co.uk/national-dash-cam-safety-portal/

Parking at schools is atrocious but I don’t understand why people drive there anyway.

why are you driving your child to school @Truffle55?

Contact the council @Truffle55

We have traffic wardens doing random checks now because our street is so bad.

The wardens saw me being unable to collect my child from school using the pavement in my wheelchair and offered to give about 30 cars a ticket.

When we bought the house over 30 years ago the school didn’t even have one class per year, and everyone walked (we are out of the way, on no one’s route to work etc- it’s a school you wouldn’t use if convenience was important to you). Now it’s bedlam.

Before we moved here I used to drive my kids to school (different one) as the council sent them to one 1.97 miles away (I know that from when they said they weren't entitled to transport!).

However I did park about a quarter of a mile away as it was a quicker get away.

Of course complain to the school! And anyone else who'll listen. My children's primary school did a lot of "education" / emotional blackmail around safe parking. Admittedly only once they had a change of headteacher, but she wouldn't have been able to do anything without the evidence of complaints. They put up the creepy models of a boy and a girl which has actually improved parking.
I don't live near a school but I support my children's school on this issue, I walked my children to and from school longer than should have been necessary because the roads were so bad, cars on pavements etc, I felt my children were safer with me than alone.

Our council put concrete bollards up to stop lazy parents from parking or even driving up the pavements. Yes, they were lazy, there is a massive supermarket carpark 300m walk away who were happy to let school parents use it for such short periods of time.
Other residents put large tree stumps and logs along the grass verge as well as a random traffic warden spotted.

Of course you should report the inconsiderate or dangerous parking to the school. Every single time.
Around here the council have a car with cameras that will drive around and capture car reg details of anyone parked dangerously.

if someome complains to the school the head teacher requests it to come out for a few days. Those drivers then get fined.

I used to visit schools a lot as part of my job. I tried to time it so I'm not leaving at kicking out time. I was amazed the first time I saw a queue of cars outside a secondary school 30 minutes before kick out time. I naively thought all secondary kids took the bus, I don't remember people being routinely driven "in my day." I was thinking "gosh, that's a lot of people who have appointments today!".
In my own children's schools it seems to tie in with the children whose reliability is not trusted, of my children's peers the ones who get lifts either have a history of getting suspended, or an ADHD diagnosis (or a sibling this applies to) which makes sense. I don't think anyone actually wants to pick their kid up from secondary school, but if the bus isn't straightforward and they are likely to have difficulties then it is the lesser of two evils.

That's disgusting the school believe they can ask you to change the way you behave with your own drive.

Could it be made into a school street, so cars aren't allowed on it during drop off and pick up times - which can help encourage fewer parents to drive

I wonder if you surveyed the parents how many actually 'need' to be driven? I doubt all are rushing off to hobby/sports, especially high school kids, surely they can make their own way to school.

I think this happens at all schools, certainly at all the ones I've been involved with - as a parent, an employee and a local resident! Some people are just inconsiderate and entitled.

We too have a primary school at the end of the road and have witnessed the same behaviour that you have. I've never had someone park on my drive but I know neighbours closer to the school end have (why do people insist on parking as close to the school as possible?). When I used to drop my kids at a different school, I'd park at the bottom of the hill and walk - it was absolute bedlam closer to the school and very stressful! Our road is very narrow and many of the cars are huge 4x4s that regularly mount the pavements & grass verges causing damage DH did report one once, hope they were prosecuted! Loads of complaints have been made by various neighbours but nothing changes. I am resigned to the fact that this is part & parcel of living near a school. It's only for about half an hour twice a day, the rest of the time the road is blissfully quiet!

I don't understand what it is about school run parents and bad driving. Is it just the sheer numbers that mean you inevitably get some wankers?

Partly. And partly because of entitlement. I mean, we all think our children are the most important people in the world, and to us they are. But that doesn't give you the right to park over people's drives or on double yellows because it's raining and you don't want your kids to get wet.

One thing schools could do to help is be less strict about the age kids are allowed to walk on their own. Let parents make the decision based on the route and maturity of their child.

We don't have the rules in Scotland around this - parents ARE trusted to make their own decisions about when children can walk and schools do not insist that parents collect/drop off. And we still have massive parking problems. We also have fixed catchment areas. Where I live, everyone within catchment for our local primary can walk to school in less than 15 minutes. Yet I still see people driving kids to school, people I know and know where they live, but there's always an excuse, they're late, they have to go to work, it's too difficult to park further away etc etc etc.

I'm not defending some of the parking, some of it is clearly dangerous and inconsiderate and needs intervention.

But I'm interested in WHY it is getting worse. I don't think it is particularly bad at my children's school (I've never seen anyone parked over a drive for example), but there are still regularly posts on the local Facebook group complaining about it and (mostly older) residents asking "Why can't they just walk, like we did when we were young?".

I think so many parents are really, really stressed right now. If you see those getting into the cars, it is often parents trying to then get to work afterwards, probably already very tight on their hours. They might not have the choice to walk to school because they don't have enough flex in their schedule to walk back home to pick up their car. Cost of living might have become so high that they can't afford to drop their hours to give them more flexibility.

The roads might be so busy or schools have cut the funding for lollipop people that it is no longer safe to let their kids walk, where they might have done so themselves when they were children. Maybe the school has a lack of wraparound care meaning it condenses everyone into dropping off at the same time?

So while I don't defend anyone who parks dangerously, I do think think this is a bit of a shit time to be a parent and people are very stetched right now and probably as a result pushing boundaries a bit.

If it's a safety hazard (take photos) speak to the school and get some neighbours together to talk the local authority. We were successful in having our road designated a school street with parking / entering restrictions for non-residents at school run times.

Previously the narrow road was so jammed with parked or queuing cars that it used to be completely impossible for residents to leave or arrive at their homes between 8.30 & 9.15am or 3.15 & 4pm - but its so much easier to live here now.

Do schoolchildren aged 8+ not get buses anymore?

Or are these areas where there are no viable buses?

In my area no, it's a residential suburb with no buses. But nobody needs to get a bus to get to school, it's close enough for everyone to walk.

Not all children have parents who are rushing off to work. There's a well-attended pre-school and after-school club which runs out of a nearby sports centre and the staff WALK the children the 10 minutes to school in the morning and back at night.

Also a few years ago the school regularly ran active travel weeks or "scoot to school" weeks or whatever and gave a sticker to every child to arrived on foot or by scooter/bike for a week and hey presto, the traffic noticeably decreased. So it can be done when they want to. The parents just don't want to.

When I bought my house there was an infant school... one intake... 90 kids, all local, mostly walked. There is now a primary school - years R to 6... 3 form intake. 630 kids. Maybe 200 local, the rest arrive by car. We are 3 roads back from the school, so were not affected at all until the latest expansions.

Things change, but we did not expect this level of expansion.

Doesnt matter if you chose to live there, i live near a shop and my drive is is constantly blocked by customers. Apparently thats my fault as i chose to live there.....standard ignoramus answer really. Have a bit of consideration for others you ignoranamus is usually my answer.

Im all right jack fuck you is the attitude unfortunately

Also agree with posters about living near a school. You expect to hear bells ringing, kids playing, increased traffic 8.45-9 and 3-3.15. All reasonable. You don't expect parents parking like dicks.

Is that parking? I'd assume they'd been kidnapped after a chase.

Increased traffic here is 8.15 to 9.15 and 2.30 to 3.30. Because there is nowhere to park, so people sit waiting in their prized parking spots for over half an hour with their engines running and music blaring.