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 😕

You need to talk to the school. I live next to a school and any issues I talk to them - they've been great at sorting things out. People have blocked my driveway too and the school now has members of staff in hi vis outside preventing this from happening. If the school isn't helpful I'd contact your local council. There are lots of things they can do from having traffic wardens patrol and issue fines to painting zig zag 'no stopping' lines on the road and more. But speak to the school first. Chances are they're aware of problems already, but often its local residents complaining that forces them to come up with new solutions.

It's getting worse. It's always been bad near us but recently I've had to start detouring rather than walking along the pavement to the main entrance because someone has taken to driving up and onto the pavement even when kids are walking along it. After the second close call I now walk a longer way round. I reported it to the council who simply responded saying that they knew it was an issue but that they are stretched. I should add people regularly do this on the opposite pavement but the patch right by the entrance which is always thick with school children and parents was always fine before the pandemic....presumably because people understood if they parked there it is both stupid and dangerous but people no longer care. Other joys I see daily aside from the pavement parking include parking on the zig zags and abandoning car or sitting in it and refusing to move and others driving down the small road next to school even though it is already full and blocked but no they just back up onto the main road. It's a single track lane with a turning circle so once its blocked there is literally no point trying to get in as ultimately everyone in there needs to reverse onto the main road....yet daily people persist

Cycling is slow and impractical with even one older child, very difficult with more than one of any age and also less reliable wrt weather, road conditions etc. I did it for years when I only had the one, and it was hard. Cycle paths often aren't maintained, I don't know how many punctures i got, but it was loads, and those were awkward conversations to have with an employer. Most workplaces don't have showers and honestly I never felt quite ok going into an office environment after a 30 minute cycle. The last straw for me was when me and DS on the tagalong went over on black ice at a roundabout one awful dark winter morning. He broke his arm. I'd already kind of had enough but that was the final straw that got me taking driving lessons.

That's terrible, such a shame its not safer

35 years ago we had this.
It never bothered me but I walked if possible.
It's a 30 minute problem twice a day.
A friend blocked me in once assuming I was in as my dc was at the school.
Tbf you knew the school was there when you bought the house.

@user1477391263 it's fairly common where we are. If you can find an undersubscribed school in quite an affluential area it's as close as you can get to a private school experience without actually paying the fees.

I know, but it's just how it is in the UK. Poor quality narrow roads, dark mornings and afternoons, long spells of inclement weather and just enough ice to impact two wheels but not enough for us to have an organised way of dealing with it. Combined with how much the childcare you need to pay while travelling to work costs and how low wages are that you feel even a half hour loss of worked time, in the context of no reliable public transport outside of London, your life as a working parent day to day is practically and financially much more difficult if you don't use a car.

We need a school bus system like the US. Or some other system - I'm sure Uber could come up with something that makes more sense.

It's crazy that so many people are wasting so much time every day unnecessarily. It's bad for the environment, it causes traffic problems for people who do actually need to go somewhere they have to drive to, it costs everyone involved money, and creates stress for all kinds of people.

And people in social housing who have no choice where they are allocated to?

The one by me is farcical because of the exemptions.

• Any vehicle with a permit
• Blue badges that live in the street
• Council vehicles
• Emergency services
• Postal services
• Delivery services
• Public transport
• Taxis
• Tradesmen
• Funerals
• School staff or anyone visiting the school in a professional capacity.

I mean I didn't think they were all going to park illegally blocking a junction, making it impossible to pull out, drag children across the road between cars and generally block the whole road

When there's a carpark there for them
Stupidly I imagined people would use the carpark and walk the 25m down the pavement to the school gate

@HunterHearstHelmsley but that's the thing - people cannot be expected to stop their lives just because some people can't park sensibly.
However.....I don't have a perfect solution.
Maybe proper catchments where all pupils live in either walking distance or if further a school bus is provided.
"Walking bus" schemes.
Primary schools allowing the older children to walk to school by themselves (many only allow it in Yrs 5 and 6).

The only thing tat will stop them is weekly, if not daily, parking warden visits, or cameras that can be used to issue fines.

They won't care until it costs them.

Our council sends enforcement officers who sit in the car and don't actually seem to deter anyone. There is a parent of a large Mercedes who parks on double yellows on a blind bend.

I have mentioned this to the officers who don't appear to give a monkeys. They're too far away to see unless they actually patrol up and down the street.

I drive (rarely to school) and wouldn't dream of parking so badly. It's definitely the same parents I see day after day doing the same. Most parents park a little further and walk. But it's a large school. Must make the residents mad.

Yeah, I don't disagree. There's many reasons the school streets won't work for this particular school but the list of exemptions is daft. Particularly when it doesn't clarify that Tradesmen etc have to be visiting houses on the street. The only exemption that does say about visiting houses on the streets is blue badge holders, which feels off to me.

Edited to add.. the times of our scheme are 8.15 - 9.15 and 2.45 - 4. Crucially, you can leave the streets during this time. You just can't enter.

However.....I don't have a perfect solution.
Maybe proper catchments where all pupils live in either walking distance or if further a school bus is provided.
"Walking bus" schemes.
Primary schools allowing the older children to walk to school by themselves (many only allow it in Yrs 5 and 6)

we have all of this in Scotland and still have dickish parking.

I live near a school entrance and have done for quite a few years. Although it got busy pre covid, as you'd expect, it's getting absolutely ridiculous now.

Cars get more or less abandoned. Corners of T junctions? Across drive ways? You name it, they do it.

Then there is the acceleration to fill the tiniest of gaps that a) get them nowhere near actually going anywhere and b) ensure that oncoming traffic can no longer move.

God alone knows how there has only been one accident involving a child or a lorry driver turning green and rampaging shouting "PRIME SMASH".

The catchment area is relatively small and there are footpaths which make walking often far quicker than driving. Of course there are an increasing number of self important idiots who are absolutely too important to walk. And work from home...

Seems parents in the school run are aloud to do as they please know a person who lives five min walk from her kids school n insists in driving there lol parents on the school run are the worst sort of road users imaginable

accident involving a child or a lorry driver turning green and rampaging shouting "PRIME SMASH".

What.

I don't think it can be compared to many years ago. There are more kids in school so more people and car traffic. Also, there are likely more mothers working which means they have to jet off after drop off. Our local Facebook had a man complaining that people couldn't walk the kids to school and then drive to work - couldn't comprehend that work started not long after the school drop off meaning most have a frenzied drop off situation.

Since Covid, a lot of people can work from home but may still be unable to walk kids to school and be back in time so they drive.

It's all very well and good recommending cycling but if you have three kids it will take forever and at least one of them is likely too small to have their own bike. As a family of cyclists, it simply isn't safe to have a small child in a seat on the roads nor is it safe or legal to cycle on the pavements.

I can certainly see why modern life means people are more likely to drive for pick ups. I can't see why they need to park and drive like animals. I also can't see why a lot can't walk if they can sit outside school for a minimum of 30 mins prior to pick up. I hate cars idling and every day the school has people who do not live far sitting outside. When I've had the privilege of picking DD up, I arrive at the end of the school day, park safely and am able to nip in and drive off. If I could walk I would but work means I have to drive.

Our local Facebook had a man complaining that people couldn't walk the kids to school and then drive to work

I hope he walked to work.

A few weeks ago a parent with her kids in the car completely blocked the road and refused to move over to allow a resident to get to her drive. When she eventually backed up, she opened her car window and gobbed up the residents car.

I saw one classic drop off the other day. Dad parked on a mini roundabout and literally chucked his primary school children out of the car and pointed in the direction of the school which was up a one-way street.

Contact the school. Someone from my DCs school was blocking someone's drive and the head put it in the weekly news letter, that was a couple of months ago and I assume it's stopped because we haven't heard anything since. Parking is horrible around schools 😞

It might not be far to you, but it is to me.
Mot that I have a spare hour and a half to walk anyway!