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.

This is hilarious. I regularly walk 30 mins from the train station to work and have never once needed a shower when I get there

This is hilarious. I regularly walk 30 mins from the train station to work and have never once needed a shower when I get there

Parking right on the corners on double yellows 30m from the school regularly round here. No regard for pedestrians who have to dodge high up doors on 4x4s being flung open as they try to squeeze past.

Parents used to be able to use the car park of a church nearby on the understanding that if the car park was needed for a function they would need to park elsewhere ( and plenty of notice was given for this with signage around a week before. ) This was stopped after the hearse and mourners at a funeral were not able to get near the church- the cones that had been put out to save the place were moved. Unbelievable!

No idea why usually resonable people seem to act like idiots at school run time

In my experience as soon as someone sits behind the wheel of a car they lose 50 points from their IQ and gain a personality disorder.

It's not a new thing, in the 1950s Disney made a cartoon about the subject:

Utter utter selfishness

Should not be fines though that may be the quickest option. Should be a few driving bans. I bet some have eyesight that has worsened but this is undeclared and some are over the drink driving limit in the morning or have taken drugs.

Social services are too stretched to deal with this form of child neglect and lack of care for other children.

I see it every morning with my job, all these cars suddenly appear at school drop off time, then drive up the curb of the narrow road, that the children and families are walking along. Not all of them though some are considerate.

Our old neighbours used to drive the kids to school when the Dad was off work. We walked and would get there before them before they’d found somewhere to park. That was just laziness on the parents part.

The parents of school children can be astonishing. They put everyone at risk with parking dangerously and thoughtlessly. Many live really locally, and could walk. 🤷‍♀️🙄

We had a short term rental near a school while we waited to complete on our house. Never again!! We were in a cul de sac two streets back from the school and it was a nightmare every morning. The parents didn't give a stuff if they were blocking your drive or even the entrance to the cul de sac as "it's only a few minutes" (it never was). We will be moving again soon, if I find my dream home and it's near a school I will just keep looking as I just never want the hassle again

Careful now, it's already been notes that the poster dared to say all bosses are men as an example. You don't want to be accused of being fat phobic 🙄

In many years of teaching, several of which were as an advisory teacher, visiting several different schools, I never came across a single school that didn’t have issues with parents parking. It’s only become worse over time and is now reaching the critical stage.

When my own children were at primary school it was bad and many houses have been built since then. The road has now been made one way. It’s a street of mixed age houses, but most are Victorian or Edwardian. A five minute walk away is a large car park for the village hall.

Before it was one way, I witnessed two cars approaching one another. No room to pass because of parked cars and both refused to reverse, so they just got out of their cars and shrieked at each other, thus blocking the road completely and setting a fine example for the children emerging from school.

I regularly saw slanging matches between parents and residents when I was teaching. The roads around the school (both primary and secondary on same site) were horrendous. Plus, everyone nowadays drives huge cars so there’s even less space.

Hackney East London has school streets. No vehicles can go into a school street during the morning and afternoon school times without getting a fine. It is brilliant. School pick up and drop offs are convivial, not stressful.
and definitely not dangerous.

O/T but do any School Streets cover roads that aren't strictly residential? Opposite our Primary School are several shops... I don't think they would be happy about customers unable to access their car park for example.

When I lived near a primary school, my neighbours and I wrote many times to the council about our concerns for road safety in the street because of school traffic. We weren't complaining about congestion or parking. We emphasised it was about safety. No one ever replied or showed up to have a look. I later worked at a school in the same local authority but in a very affluent village. The school was located in a street full of multi million pound houses. We had traffic wardens there every other week. Money talks apparently.

When I've seen this I have hit the car hard in a place that make a loud noise (bonnet, door etc). They stop immediately because they think they've hit someone or something. I then have an uber polite conversation that they nearly hit me or my child and next time it could be fatal. They usually still look shocked after the bang and consider what the consequences could have been.

I believe some of the problems is because you don’t have to apply to your nearest school.

Friend’s DGD lives in a road with primary school at the bottom of road. Despite applying on the first day applications were open, she didn’t get a place. So had to get a place in a school a mile away. Due to the traffic problems with schools, friend picked her up at 7am and had breakfast at hers - school is 5 min walk plus walk through a jitty.

Parents, look at your kids. 99.999% chance they have things called legs and feet. Use them to make them walk to school

👏👏👏

If the school will let them...............

@Nickynicks i assume you mean if they can…not everyone lives within walking distance of their school!

Well cycle then.

To be fair that's easier said than done depending on where you live. My friends in pan-flat Cambridgeshire with miles and miles of cycle paths don't own a car. I live in a congested town but with crap public transport and steep hills. No way I or my kids would cycle. It's Chicken and egg though isn't it. Fewer cars and I might cycle but there won't be fewer cars unless people do. There's no excuse for dangerous and inconsiderate parking but I do think there are multiple factors about how modern life is now with two working parents and the school allocations that do make it harder not to drive.

I live on a hill in North Wales so am familiar with the challenges it poses. Thing is though that when cycling to see a friend up the valley I'd sooner take the route that involves a 1-in-3 hill (which is as steep as steep can be) than take a gentler route up a 1-in-15 hill because the former is dead quiet while the latter is a busy A road.

It's amazing how many people will excuse driving their kids to school on the basis that there's too much traffic for it to be safe, without acknowledging that they are part of the problem.

I don't think they're oblivious to the irony but in the end life is busy, time is very tight and cycling through tightly congested streets as an adult let alone a child is simply not an option for many. None of this however, excuses bad or dangerous parking and driving.