Parents' parking around schools is getting more dangerous

[Nickynicks]

A large primary school on the crossroads of a major A road and a busy B road. Parents used to park in the Lidl car park on the opposite corner and walked. Now they have installed APNR cameras and touchscreens in the packing area for shoppers to enter their reg details.

Now these parents are parking on the corners of the crossroads, making it difficult for drivers driving towards the crossroads. I drove past the school about 40 mins before the school closed and parents were already parking in dangerous positions like the above.

Another school which is en route for a colleague to go to work says parents are parking cars blocking entrances to side streets/cul de sacs.

The only thing to teach parents that this parking behaviour is unacceptable is to hit them in the pocket - fine them.

If there isn’t parking near the school, parents need to park further away and walk. I bet if they parked half a mile away, there would be no parking difficulties.

One of the worst offenders we have for sitting in the car with her engine running for an hour so she can get the best parking space lives next to me.

I can walk to the school faster than she can drive.

The issue is, in the modern world we don’t have time to waste. The school opens at 8 and I have to be at work at 8.30. Then I leave at 2.30 for pickup. If I park further away I won’t get to work or pickup in time.

People nowadays have these tight schedules because they work. It’s a lack of time issue, which then leads to a parking issue because people don’t have time to walk.

You can drop the children off further away and they walk whilst you go to work.

Are you going to tell someone’s boss he has to accept them being an additional 15 minutes late so they can walk? Are you going to tell him to install a shower for people who’ve done a 30 minute hike before work?

Really? You think I should drop off a six year old unaccompanied?

This makes me really grateful that my children’s school has a carpark for parents. Plenty of parking to go around. I know most schools have been there years and have been built in towns where children walk to school but the world is different now and I really think that if School can do it they should acquire some parking near the School. And when building schools from here on in, they should build a carpark as a part of it. And before anybody gets on at me, I know, I know funding etc but it’s really not ideal that parents are being unsafe on roads.

Secondary school kids are fine. Primary schools ought to organise walking buses from certain points away from school. A few in my area do this and works really well. Also "a thirty minute hike requiring a shower"? Disabilities aside, it's a pretty dire state of affairs if an adult can't do 30 mins without needing a shower. Maybe it would be good for them to build in some exercise.

Why would a boss be a he?

If someone is capable of working and parenting, they’re capable of getting their children to school without putting others in danger or being an inconvenience, while also getting to work on time.

We had constant letters home from our children's primary school about very inconsiderate and often downright dangerous parking. It never made a button of difference. There were two car parks nearby, a church and a library, the owners of which had actively given permission for parents to park there and do a two minute walk, but so many just couldn't be arsed. I was forced to experience firsthand the parking scrum outside the school in the afternoons when my youngest developed both a physical and a mental health issue and needed to be picked up close to the school (after years of us doing the 15 minute walk from home) and it was truly ridiculous. People parked across driveways, blocking the corner, sitting so far up the footpath that those on foot had to walk onto the road. There were a couple of accidents, albeit minor, but the possibility of something more serious was very real. It was the most stressful part of my day for the few months I had to endure it, so I can only imagine how the residents of the street must feel.

The primary school my eldest went to would send out letters to parents weekly to remind them about dangerous and/or selfish parking (blocking drives, double parking etc). They eventually started getting traffic cops down who then fined the shit out of these people. And you’re right OP: hitting them in the pocket with fines definitely helped solve the problem. Far more than pleading with them to think of the safety of others, mostly children.

Something that shocked me as well was the short distances some people were driving. Literally 200 yards door to door. Or less in some cases. And getting there 45 minutes before the bell to “secure a space.” Nuttier than squirrel shit.

Why would you need a shower after walking 30 minutes in the UK for most of the year? At 8am it’s not hot except for on perhaps three mornings a summer.

“He” has always been used to represent a person of unknown sex. “If anyone didn’t know about it, it was his own fault" is perfectly correct grammar.

Yep. Kids are at school from 4-16. At least 50% of them are going to need seeing to the school gates, assuming the number of unusually mature 8 and 9 year olds is at least matched by kids older than about 10 who need more support.

The reality is that a lot of these DCs parents will have to start work at a set time or as quickly as possible, that won't give them a lot of wiggle room. One of the best ways to alleviate this is as much flexibility as possible for working parents. But there are always posters spluttering at the audacity of parents wanting to be able to flex more around school. Mine walk, fwiw, and my employer is intensely relaxed about staff fitting work round school runs where needed. But it's something that affects a lot of people.

I've lived in a rural village with a primary school for more than 25 years. This year the driving is fucking awful. Aggressive, too fast, refusing to reverse 2m back to a passing place. Huge, ridiculous cars for a parent and two tiny children- everyone in great big naff huge Suvs. Parking across people's driveways. The school pick up is at 3.15 but parents have started getting there at 2.30 so they can bag the best parking spaces. If you live in the village and need to drive through the onslaught, you get filthy looks, parents letting small children leap out of their cars onto the road.

I've never seen it so bad - entitled and aggressive. The village is totally fed up with it and we all breathe a sigh of relief when the holidays come.

Perfectly correct grammar for about 80 years ago. Did feminism pass you by?

It is bad, walking should be the default option to and from school. That said, if walking isn't an option what are parents supposed to do. The council should have given this some thought.

Surely at high school age children are getting themselves to and from school.

Half a mile each way for a healthy adult wouldn’t be a 30 minute walk, certainly not a 30 minute hike.

If time is so tight you can’t park 5/10 minutes away and walk in then maybe you need to look at how you’re doing your mornings. In a lot of cases you would spend longer faffing trying to find the elusive parking space at the school door anyway!

unless parent or child is disabled when plans need to be put in place then in the vast majority of cases parking a bit further out shouldn’t be an issue, it would make it much safer for those who can walk to be able to as well.

Cycling is very quick for those who 'dont have time to waste'

A great illustrator of the fact that while having children does make you less selfish as regards your own children, it makes you more selfish towards other people's children.

Here in London we have school streets restricting access to all but immediate residents for up to an hour before and after school. Sounds like this needs to be rolled out elsewhere.

It's a really sad state of affairs.

Kids at our local school have even made signs/posters asking people not to park and not to let their engines run/idle when waiting.

And, guess what, there is still a hard core of ignorant selfish parents who park in 'no parking' areas with engines idling.

Could the school come to an arrangement with the supermarket for school drop off times? Our local school as this arrangement for a park and stride with a nearby leisure centre and I know of another that has one with a nearby pub. Might be worth exploring?

After many years of school runs I don't think there is a solution. For some reason a lot of parents will always park and drive like idiots around schools.
My DCs Primary had a park and stride which was around 3 minutes walk up a safe path from a large carpark and STILL loads of parents tried to park right outside the school gates and surrounding streets despite it taking longer to drop off. Parents would park badly in the carpark we were allowed to use, all piling up one end rather than walk 20/30 metres more and there was some very bad driving in the carpark until the arrangement was withdrawn by the owners.
After much negotiation by The Head and The Council we were allowed to use it again but people went back to driving too quickly in it and parking badly despite it being huge.
No idea why usually resonable people seem to act like idiots at school run time