I live in a village.
I actually feel really sorry for the people who live in the same road that our primary school is in.
Even though it's a village, so you'd assume all parents walk their DC to school, in reality masses of parents drive through the village to drop their DC at school because they then need to drive straight off to work afterwards.
The school is situated on a residential road. Every house in the road has their own driveway.
Oh my Lord. The sheer chaos this causes on that road twice a day is horrendous. It is so heavily congested with cars at drop off and pick up, it's honestly awful. And because every house in that road has a driveway, it means there's extremely limited space along that road to park your car, because there's only the small gaps in between all the driveways along a street of houses and driveways. This means there's way more cars than there are places to park, so cars drive up and down and up and down and up and down desperately trying to find a space to park. This causes traffic congestion. Then there's so many cars parked in every little space along the road, plus so many cars driving along the road that drivers drive up on to residents drives to get past cars coming in the other direction, or to get past a car that is parking (if they've been lucky enough to find a parking space!) because they're in too much of a rush to wait patiently until the road is clear enough for them to continue because they're panicking about getting their DC to school on time, so they drive up on to the pavement/driveway to get past the car thats trying to park, and this causes chaos with all the mums walking along the pavement with their young DC, many of whom are pushing buggies too. The sheer volume of cars driving along that road causes a backlog of traffic along the whole street, whilst drivers slow down searching for parking spaces. Then you get the scenario of a parent driver spotting a parent walking back to their parked car because they've just dropped their DC off at school, whilst loads of parents are still driving round with their DC trying to park, so they stop dead and wait behind the car that the parent has just returned to, waiting for them to pull out and drive off so they car get their car parking space, only the parent gets in to their car and then sits there on their phone for aaaaaaages before they eventually drive off, leaving a tailback of stationery cars all sitting there with their engines running waiting for the car at the front of the line to park, who won't give up on this parking space no matter how long that car is taking to actually pull way, cos there's nowhere else to park and they've been driving up and down the road for ages trying to park. Meanwhile no-one can overtake this waiting car because there's too many cars coming along the road in the other direction - all drivers are parents doing the school run or residents caught up in it all trying to get to work! This happens on a daily basis. I've seen people who live there unable to get out of their driveways because of the congestion on the road.
Then you get the parents who are walking to school with their DC and their younger pre-school children who are toddling along aged 2 or 3, holding their parent's hand, walking at a snail's pace because of the tiny child, then the parent starts telling them they've got to hurry up because they're late for school.....cue screaming meltdown/tantrum from the pre-school child right outside someone's house. This happens all the time toddlers standing outside houses screaming and crying on the school run.
Then you get the year 5s and 6s who go home on their scooters shouting out loudly to each other as they go.
I see parents park obstructing driveways, then leave their car there whilst they take the DC in to school. I've seen residents not be able to get out of their driveway because of a car parked either right across it or halfway across it.
i am constantly receiving emails from the Head teacher that have been sent to all parents, saying "Dear parents, today we have been contacted by yet another resident who called us to report that a parent parked across their driveway and left their car there whilst taking their children in to school. Please can we remind all parents to stop parking across residents driveways". Then the next week the same email gets sent out again. And the next!
School have got so fed up with residents who live on tbe same road contacting them to complain about parked cars over their driveway, that they now ask the resident to take a photo of the car and numberplate on their phone and email to the school....school then send the photo out to every parent and say "If this is your car, move it! The resident cannot get out!".
And if it's raining, the volume of cars on the road doubles as EVERYONE drives for the school run, regardless of whether they need their car afterwards or not. And the chaos doubles.
In the summer, an ice cream van parks up in the street at pick up time, outside someone's house, creating a huge queue of kids and parents buying ice creams all queuing outside houses.
What I'm describing is all going on on a completely normal, residential street of nice houses in a lovely village!
I walk along this street twice a day to take my DC to/ftom school, and I honestly feel sorry for everyone who lives there!
School holidays are only 13 weeks a year. The other 39 weeks are full of this chaos twice a day!
Plus factor in increased traffic at after school club pick up times......it's never ending.