AIBU to think school street restrictions and PCNs will cause more chaos?

[Whatabouttheparcels]

a council near me are introducing school streets to stop congestion outside schools which is a great idea. They are introducing permit parking great

what this means in reality is hundreds of houses aren’t allowed any deliveries, no taxis and no none essential building workers in the area every school workday between 8am and 9.30 and 2.30 and 3.45

A permanent career can get a pass but not random district nurses etc. imagine telling delivery firms they can’t deliver at these times or they will get a PCN. Anyone saying they should use lockers, my last delivery was a dishwasher

AIBU in thinking this is a stupid idea and school traffic will just park a bit further away and this will cause chaos?

https://www.salford.gov.uk/parking-roads-and-travel/school-streets/frequently-asked-questions/

Clicky link or a photo (when approved) if people don’t want to click on the link

There’s a few of these near me and the exclusion is for a much shorter time - 8.30-9 or something, similar at the end of the day. I wonder why it’s such a long period? Also as far as I know it’s not PCN enforced either, at one a member of SLT used to go and put cones out and would let some people through - for example I was a supply teacher and arrived after the road was already shut and they let me through.

Everything and everyone one not a resident is banned

if you have a permanent career (and who has just one visiting) could get a permit but not different ones several times a day

We have one of these camera zones and it has been a nightmare because it means that the lazy entitled parents just block the corners and pull up onto the pavements right outside the camera controlled zone because they can’t be arsed to park legally and walk 5 minutes extra. So rather than one danger point right outside the school, we have dangerous parking across the whole area. This year I’ve had a scary near miss where we had to inch out into the road with zero visibility at a corner completely blocked by massive SUVs blocking the view of oncoming traffic, and twice had drivers bump up or reverse onto the pavement right where we are walking and then get arsey with me.

Also the Amazon delivery drivers etc don’t know about the restriction as the signage is so shit and confusing, so there is still loads of non local traffic coming through.

And yes I expect it’s crap for people in the zone as their deliveries, carers, etc can’t get in at set times.

The only winners are the council who have made a ton of money out of it.

I also recently saw an article where residents were fined in error. I know it's to encourage kids to walk to school but I feel for the working parents who just need to drop and go. I think it'll be on the delivery companies to sort. There must be some way to appeal in those circumstances. I'd like to think so anyway.

And it’s 2 PCN cameras on the main road. £70 or £30 if paid within 30 days or whatever it is

Local tradespeople will just refuse to work at those premises. It’s too inconvenient for them if they need to nip out and get parts etc. and they can’t park for the way if they have lots of gear / equipment. Plus it’s not safe to leave a van loaded with tools / materials out of sight.

Seems particularly unfair that residents with cars can obviously still access, but someone who doesn't drive, who doesn't generally contribute much to congestion, can't get an occasional taxi.

As a supply teacher I refuse to work in any schools in such zones.

We have one of those. It does not cause chaos and we no longer have parents sitting in their cars with their engines idling. Drivers are capable of reading the sign saying it's a school street.

I know.

I can imagine the outrage from them when their parcels get returned to depot as they were arranged by a computer somewhere to be delivered at a certain time by a delivery driver who’s got it on his list and has been stung before

They introduced one here and it lasted less than a term, it simply didn’t work as it caused gridlock across the town and parents still drive and clogged up the next road along

This is ridiculous.

1. They should surely start actually fining the parents who park stupidly, not anyone who is parked normally outside a house.
2. 8am and 9.30 is far longer than it needs to be - if you can't leave your child at school till 8.40 say, and all the children need to go in by 8.50, it only needs to be restricted 8.30-8.50. No-one will park from 8am, move their car elsewhere then at 8.30 (still 10 mins before they can leave their children) walk to school from the new spot and then, go back to their car, move it to the restricted area at 8.50 and sit their before driving off!

A taxi driver i know picked an elderly woman up to take her to A&E and got a fine - I guess the council would say call an ambulance?

It might not be a perfect solution but it solves 95% of the problems of dangerous parking with a broad brush approach. Thank the selfish drivers.

Delivery drivers will need to park and walk. That's their business cost, not yours. A large dishwasher delivery is so rare you just pay the extra fiver for a slot or leave a note at checkout. or write to your council or councillor with proof of delivery and ask for a 15 minute exemption. If you all don't and demonstrate a problem then they may change it.

Yanbu.

School traffic parking a bit further away is the whole point because they will do so in numerous different directions so instead of 200 cars trying to all get down the same residential street within a 10 minute window, the same number of cars get distributed around 8-10 neighbouring streets in all different compass directions and the chaos is less in each street due to being spread thinly over a wider area.

Civilisation will adapt to your various spurious objections. They are not beyond solution. Washing machine companies want to be able to sell to people in school streets. They will start offering 9:30-2:30 delivery slots to people living in school streets. In various other ways people will adapt. We will see more carers and couriers making their rounds by bike. People who aren't disabled and need a taxi can walk between the edge of the school street zone and their front door. People who genuinely need unfettered vehicle access to their door 24/7 will move to live further from a school. It will be find once everyone adapts

But this doesn’t work for an automatic PCN camera

all it does is move the school drop off point 2 minutes on the main road and blocks the main road. theres no way a delivery driver is going to park and walk for hundreds of houses . They don’t even have time for you to open your door when they are parked outside your house

There’s a school opposite on the main road that’s currently having 5 new classrooms built. I’m not seeing how these new restrictions are going to help with the congestion

You say delivery drivers wont park and walk but they will if they don't want a fine. It's that simple.

As a resident near a school who is sick of the crappy and obstructive parking, i couldn't honestly care less where it pushes the problem onto. That's their lookout.

Eta. Anyone with disability issues should lobby for the appropriate reasonable adjustment. The q and as show a 5 day turnaround for requests

I live near a school street and there was absolute uproar when it was announced, but a year or so on it’s actually really lovely to see all the kids walking, cycling, scooting into school many without a parent at quite a young age. Yes some parents still park in neighbouring roads but lots don’t bothered anymore and as someone else pointed out, there’s lots of roads they can choose from so it’s not just one bottleneck.

Honestly, it’s really worth the inconvenience for an hour day or so each day and the school have recently given such amazing feedback about positive changes noticed in mood, attention, attendance, well-being, general health and happiness of their kids since this was introduced it’s surely worth the odd delivery not getting through.

It needs to be far longer than it "needs to be" to work. Even without a school street arrangement thr jostling for prime parking slots starts ridiculously early - especially at the end of the day, the SAHMs play a oneupmanship game arriving as much as half an hour before school ends in order to get one of the few slots right by the gate. In our school streets it's only moving cars that are banned, a legally parked car is fine if it doesn't move, so the period for movement to be banned needs to be at least 90 minutes or people would willingly just wait it out.

Amd it honestly couldn't be any more obvious that you're an inconvenienced driver pretending to be all concerned "for the residents".

How does that work with 8 to 12 and 12 to 6 slots
don’t think I’ve ever ordered anything that has such a specific time slot available

thats massively restrictive I’d be straight on to council
they need to look at the parents arrangements not the residents it’s outrageous

No it’s really not

It'll still do the kids good to walk further.

If you're a resident then how is it a council near you introducing it and not your council?