can anyone who parks on double yellow lines in front of their school please explain....

[braveandcrazy]

... why they think they have a God given right to do this?

I am new to the dropping off at school thing and after one month I felt like a rant.

why oh why do you do it?

If they are parked accross your gate so close you can't get pram out I would make the point of tapping on the window and asking them to move so you can get out, whilst being dead cheery and smiley, stand your ground until they move, or say oh its Ok i can just about squeeze by and scrap it up against the car, oh sorry but I did ask you to move.

I live in a cul-de-sac next to a school and we have double yellows at the entrance and a pinch point. Last week some woman parked on the double yellows in front of the pinch point and very nearly blocked it. Another car had to inch its way passed to get out. A van or a larger car wouldn't have been able to do it. What was amazing though, was that the car that was blocked then went and parked on the double yellow lines at the other end of the road, on a blind corner.

Drives me potty - I am seriously considering asking the HT to get the traffic wardens out again. They come round occasionally but haven't been down our end for a while.

The worst however, is the large mini-bus that often parks on the double yellow lines on the blind corner, waiting for children to come out for an after-school club - totally stupid. Dangerous for the children, dangerous for other drivers and dangerous for those of us who have to cross in front of them. Idiots.

Even more idiots as I am sure that the HT would give them a pass to let them in to the school grounds for a pick-up. The school had to get a barrier as too many parents thought the rule about no cars entering the school grounds at the end of school applied to everybody except them but those with a good reason are allowed passes.

Also some of us just have the urge to rebel. When I lived in LOndon I just considered yellow lines more expensive parking spaces.

Sorry flum but still not valid reason to park so close to school. |Been in that situation myself, I used to walk with pram, as I didn't have car, can tell you it was so temtping to park close and hover nearby and wait for DS to appear but, didn't. Arrived early to get closest legal safe space and got baby out.

Sorry meant when I got my car it was tempting.

No the council did not paint lines down the road for safety reasons. There are several pedestrian crossings which are always kept clear and it is a very wide road with the path separated from the road by a hedge and a low fence and grass fgs! It is just a money making exercise as there have never been any incidents, probably because parents have to park so far from the school so it is already a 10 min walk and I drop off at 8.45 and have to be at work at 9.00. But why bother arguing, I spose I should be a SAHM so I can walk my kids to school, right.

I park on the double yellow lines in the morning when I drop her off..........

but I drop her off 30 minutes early when there is no one there so she can do the fruit/milk for the infants. It is bliss before 8 in the morning (parking restrictions are after 8) and when I pick her up I park at the shops opposite so she can walk over to the car

You either arrive earlier to get a space near school or you arrive at your normal time, find a space futher away and walk for 5 mins. not difficult really is it.

I think having a baby is a reason - it ain't the greatest reason but it IS a pain to get the baby and a toddler out when you could just dash in and get the school kid and be gone in 3 minutes flat.

I see all your points that it is safer and nicer to park further away and walk to the school but you have to admit it is a pain in the arse so very tempting to park closer and ease the pain for yourself.

Personally I don't mind people scratching my car it is a work horse of a car, not a status symbol but I don't really want to piss off all the mums or scare the kids so I will try not to do it.

Not sure if my resolve will hold up when say both baby and toddler are asleep in car........

Flum - is it too far to walk? I think I would prefer to walk so if they fall asleep theh they are already in the pushchair and you haven't got to move them.

Leaving a baby in the car wouldn't even cross my mind and I have 3 dc's the first two were close in age, dd was 20 months when ds1 was born.

Amazes me. Ds1 is 5 in a week and ds2 is 21 months now.

Having a baby isn't a reason. My dad is paralysed from the neck down, that's a reason.

lol, we have these problems in the states also. The only thing I can say is...call out the tow trucks and the boots!!!
No one and I mean no one does anything that is posted against when the police are on patrol. Everyone does the speed limit (well, thats not so actually and I think they actually could fund with all the speeders in the school zone) when they see those gentlemen in uniform.
We did have a car that ran over into the school (twice..not same car but same area) and a child that was struck even though everyone was following the rules.

I was going to say you won't be the only mum with younger children will you? FGS its not about it being nice its about having some consideration and not bloody blocking up the school gates.

I live in an area where the popular primary schools have a 500yard radius catchment area... And still people park on the yellow zigzags and block the road (which is odd, because if they lived so close why do so many of them need to drive? )

Also have to drop DD off at sec school at 8.30 (no probs there as circular drop off so can just push DD out the door and don't need to park) so must be 'bone idle' that I can't make a 9 mile round trip in 40 mins on foot with DCs in tow. Better get some sleep now so can try it tomorrow!!

Don't judge everyone who drives as lazy, sometimes people are unavoidably delayed (perhaps DC decides they need a big poo just before leaving or mums have been all up night with younger DCs so are knackered) so have to drive. The problem with primary schools is that you need to physically take kids into the school so need to park. This should be factored in when they build them!!

I don't think the debate was about driving them to school it was about parking on the yellow lines.

Just defending those judged as bone idle because they don't walk.

Bone idle because they can't park in a sfae and legal place and walk a bit to school gate, nobody said bone idle if you don't walk 9 miles to school

atm i get all 4 of mine into the car by about 8.10, to drop dd1 to college (3miles one way) then spin back round and drop dd2 to secondary school (2 miles back where i came from), then onto the junior school for ds1 and 2

i park in the school as i have already said, because ds2 uses a wheelchair so we get special access

but before that i used to just drop dd2 and ds1 (when they were both at junior school together) to walking distance to the school, and often they would walk there and back together

and even before that, long long ago when i had not pass to park in the junior school, i used to park further rather than closer away, and wheel ds2 in his chair to get the others, because it was easier than fighting for a spot within a few yards, when i would have to put him in his chair regardless. I assume the same would apply to buggies really, yes? I mean if you have to put them in a buggy anyway, you may as well park further away and get less stressed about where you can park.