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Dear School-runners,
If you have left your car more than a few inches from the kerb you have not parked well. If you have left it in excess of a foot from the kerb you have not technically parked at all. Rather, you have abandoned your vehicle in the MIDDLE OF THE SODDING ROAD...
While we're at it, did the spawning cause you to lose all ability to use mirrors or indicators?
...And I'm not going to dwell on your apparent need for a faux-four-by-four, simply in order to manoeuvre your obese offspring to the school gates
Grrr...
Amen. I almost got taken off recently by a forgein lady in a 4x4 at approx. 3:20pm, bearing in mind I was doing 20mph in a 20mph zone, she overtook and cut me up real bad before slamming the brakes on, stepping out and what I assume is picking her child up, as she did park outside a school...
I almost got taken off recently by a forgein lady in a 4x4 at approx. 3:20pm,
How do you know she was forgein (sic)?
Ok, here I go.....
Lady on her own,good driver. Ladies together,a collective panic sets in. Must be pheromones or something.
Perhaps the simple fact her number plate had a big F on it...
Dont start me on the school run drivers.
One mother insists on parking just outside the school gates in a freshly repainted yellow cross hatched box.
Another bloke insists on parking his car on the pavement (dropped kerb for people with mobility issues, I assume) blocking where we have to cross the road at the school gates. Took him to task, and his reply? "Its a dropped kerb, I can park here". 🙄 I give up, I really do.
😆Perhaps the simple fact her number plate had a big F on it...
Ok, here I go.....
Lady on her own,good driver. Ladies together,a collective panic sets in. Must be pheromones or something.
Thanks for your sexist BS
People do seem to leave all sense when they do the school run. I got hit by a non indicating car turnin right into a road entirely on the worng sid eof the orad.....aparently it was my fault for having a bike....th epolice saw it differently.
The school tries really hard but the parents are just such lazy sods
I live opposite a primary school and get to witness all this first hand if I am at home during the week. The school has great big FO yellow Do Not Park Or A Child Will Die lines painted outside. But those don't apply to mothers in 4x4s if they are running a bit late and leave their hazard lights on, didn't you know that.
LOL in regards to hazard lights, myself and my dad got overtook recently in the city streets by someone in a VW golf with hazard lights on. Switched them on before making the manoeuvre then switched them off after coming back infront of us. As if this makes it OK 😆
I live 200m away from a primary school fortunately I leave before and arrive home after the carnage! If I work from home it would be comical if it wasnt so dangerous and inconsiderate.
Many of them simply stop in the road and leave their cars ! IME the majority of them are also overweight so maybe their is a lesson for them to learn.
They can park quite easily a few hundred metres away and walk but few of them do.
Perhaps the simple fact her number plate had a big F on it...
Would you apply your simplistic logic to all cars that have a big F on them?
I got abused on the school run this morning. Decided to drop my daughter off on the way to work (a rare thing in itself), and about a half mile from school so she can walk the rest, and avoiding the school run mania.
I pulled up across someone's drive, and just as I did the mother and junior-school daughter appeared out of th efront door. Given I was stopped for approx 20 seconds whils my daughter got out of the car and closed the door:
Mother appears out of front door and gives me a look.
She then runs to car, jumps in a starts up before duaghter gets in.
Slams car in reverse as daughter gets in with hand on horn.
Reverses upto 3ft away from my car as my daughter jumps out of the way.
Hangs out of her car door f-ing and blinding (in front of both our kids and others walking past) saying she's got to get to work.
I pull forward and let her out.
Total delay time approx 5 seconds.
I gave her a nice wave and get the bird in return. I was fuming all the way to work, but in retrospect I find it both quite amusing and shockingly depressing that someone else is starting their day as aggresively as that. I just hope she doesn't have a customer-facing job.
If it wasn't fr the fact my daughter had already opened her door, I would have pulled forward anyway.
Its not illegal I understand to block a drive that doesnt have a car on it but is illegal to block a car in.
I find it hard to believe that the only place for you to stop is across somebodies drive.
Next doors son was making a bit of money by posting ad flyers for local services, one week he had some for a local driving school.
His deadpan comment made me laugh.
[i]"Think I'll stick these under the wipers of the dumb mums who park outside school, I don't think any of them have passed their test yet!"[/i]
I work round the corner from a school. They turn up well before 3pm to stake out their parking spaces for when the kids kick out at half-past, and sit there with their engines running too. Then they clog the road up for a good twenty minutes trying to get out with their inept driving and stupidly huge SUVs. The local residents staged a protest a couple of months ago, they had placards and blocked the road and everything, it was grand.
When I'm king driving your kids to and from school will be illegal.
Keep trying Don, good work.
😆Keep trying Don, good work.
Makes me laugh. Where mine go to school is a narrow road which is double parked the full length only allowing one vehicle through at a time.
Every couple of weeks the school send a letter out pleading for people to be a bit more sensible and stop all trying to park right outside the gate.
If we're in the car, me and the kids always park 3 or 4 streets away which is traffic-free, then just stroll down, laughing at the idiots having Mexican stand-offs, trying to force their way through in their 4x4's. Its an awful lot quicker, not to mention a lot less stressful, just to walk round.
I think the root cause of the problem is that some adults have effectively lost the use of their lower limbs. The idle bastards! They're sending a great message to their kids 🙄
Kids should make their own way to school. It gives them a much needed opportunity to smoke, swear and flirt, away from their over protective parents.
Keep trying Don, good work.
As a Brit who drives a car on forgein (sic) plates, I'm genuinely interested in this attitude because I happen accross many pr1cks in an typical driving day. It's even more disturbing if this attitude is coming from a teenager.
@ R S - can they still collect train numbers on the way?
*Do trains still have numbers?*
The best thing to do is to drive a 4x4 Talib Hilux with Icelandic tyres (the one Jeremy Clarkson used for the adventure) and bull bars ... then challenge them critters ...
I'm genuinely interested in this attitude because I happen accross many pr1cks in an typical driving day. It's even more disturbing if this attitude is coming from a teenager.
What do you mean "teenager"?
One of the worst offenders I ever saw was a School Dad. I came home just as school was getting out (big mistake) and right outside my house (not moaning about that, it's a public street, just to be clear) a big MPV parked at a diagonal to the kerb, in an humungous space you could have put two cars in, so kind of half the car was sticking out in the road and the other half was in the middle of two spaces.
I double parked thinking I might have a word when they got back with the little dahlinks, and park in one of the spaces. A couple of minutes a huge big guy comes back with 4 kids under each arm "sorry about that Hen" in strong Glaswegian accent.
Discretion being the better part of valour and cowardice being the better part of discretion I kept my mouth shut. But next time he's getting a strongly worded note on his windsreen. Yes thats right, with capital letters so watch out Big Yin !!
As a Brit who drives a car on forgein (sic) plates, I'm genuinely interested in this attitude
Also good work. Chapeau. Please Sir, accept my apologies.
G.
What do you mean "teenager"?
A youth between the ages of thir[b]teen[/b] and nine[b]teen[/b].
There's someone who lives near to our local primary school who's had people parking on their actual driveway in the morning. Mental.
Yep, playing on the railway is an essential part of childhood.
I live in a cul-de-sac that, from the entrance in, has a road going off to a school. our street has right of way and the road to the school is a give way. The amount of idiots that come flying out (and not exactly hanging around either) without looking is beyond me. My favourite has to be the "i've stuck my hand up, i'm not looking at you, can't you see my hand? I'm indestructible" gesture.
I came home one day to find a woman half parked in my drive with her 7 seater mini-bus. I flashed at her to get out of my drive, she gave me the universal "I'll just be ten minutes" gesture, I parked my car in front of hers so she couldn't get out then walked into my house making the "i'll move it in twelve hours" gesture......never had a problem after that.
Yep, playing on the railway is an essential part of childhood.
Thins out the idiots too.
Common theme here, children. However best I've seen is parking both sides of a single lane road bumper to bumper for 200 metres. So no where to go when cars at a both ends trying to get past. Idiots.
Also why is it that kids need to be picked up at 15:30? Surely this doesn't fit in our modern society where both parents are generally working? It seems daft to me and cause's pointless disruption to peoples days.
Surely it would be better to have kids in school from 08:30 for a nice gentle start to their day and then they would be ready for class starting at 09:00
Normal school till 15:30 then from there the kids stay in school but can dress down and the formalities are relaxed. During the time from 15:30 till say 17:30 the kids can use the schools facilities to do "homework" in a fair and even environment or other after school activities such as sports or music etc.
Seems fair to me. I used to stay after school loads to play sports or finish of technology projects it used to be great fun.
Other things, parents can remove kids from school after 15:30 if they want too.
Kids should make their own way to school. It gives them a much needed opportunity to smoke, swear and flirt, away from their over protective parents.
+1 kids being driven less than a mile to school is pathetic.
Having said that we have someone on our street who [u]drives[/u] to see her mother at the other end of the street. Our street is 25 terraced houses long.
This is a big problem where my daughter goes to school as well - not sure why as the catchment area is less than have a mile from the school so nobody would be outside easy walking distance when their eldest child first went to the school although lots of people do seem to move to ensure a senior school place.
There is one guy known as "Angry Dad" who really lets the parking offenders have both barrels. Last week he was standing in front of some womans Chelsea Tractor outside the school gates waving his crutches at her whilst she blasted the horn at him. At some level it is amusing but I could easily see it escalating. Apparently the guy has been going off the rails - lost job, lost wife, run over by a car - so he is probably using this as a release.
He tends to be a figure of fun to many of the car driving mums but I have some sympathy for him.
A youth between the ages of thirteen and nineteen
You will note that in my question I left out the "by", so your clever quip actually only highlights your error. You also need to observe my use of "".
Nevermind, your backtracking is nice to watch.
I'm sure that there are people with legitimate reasons for driving kids to school -- if you have an inflexible employer who insists on you being in work at a time that doesn't allow for a 15 minute walk back from school, for instance.
I'm equally sure that those people are in the minority 🙂
[url= http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/estate-car-workhorse#post-3961985 ]Here you go Einstein.[/url] 😀
OI!!! 2hottie!!! Don't be coming around here with yer common sense and logic!!! Now sling yer bloody 'ook!!!! 😉
hels - Member
so watch out Big Yin !!
Eeek
It's even more disturbing if this attitude is coming from a teenager.
Do you apply this simplistic logic to all ages?
Oh I see, fair point but its fair for me to ask the question as I dont have an encyclopedic knowledge of all the previous threads on here.
Doesnt change the fact you were trying to divert this thread in a different direction with your initial question. The poster made a valid assumption in my opinion and you made another remark.
I dont think a teenager assuming that someone who drives a foreign registered car is foreign is in anyway wrong or illogical, seems to be an issue for you however.
The actual schools are half the problem ime.
I lived in a flat which had two different exit roads. One of these routes would always grind to a halt when the Mums blocked all access twice a day.
This wasn't normally a problem because I could use the other exit road...until we had road works. Suffice to say I was late for work that week despite leaving earlier and earlier each day so in the end I rang the Headmaster and politely suggested that under the circumstances he or his staff should be stood outside to prevent the Mums blocking the ONLY exit from my road but he flattely refused and suggested "the union" might have something to say if he did and was totally unsympathetic to the problem his school was creating for residents.
Basically the Schools don't give a shit so why should the Mums.
Doesnt change the fact you were trying to divert this thread in a different direction with your initial question. The poster made a valid assumption in my opinion and you made another remark.
I simply questioned bradley's valid assumption, asking for the reasoning behind this, especially coming from someone with such a small amount of experience on the road.
The assumptions and backtracking is being done who made assumptions about me. 😆
I dont think a teenager assuming that someone who drives a foreign registered car is foreign is in anyway wrong or illogical, seems to be an issue for you however.
The word is forgein... 🙄
Basically the Schools don't give a shit so why should the Mums
Maybe, maybe not however we are talking about adults here who simply choose to ignore laws and refuse in this instance to consider others (including other childrens safety) Its not for the school to reinforce the law the car drivers are adults after all.
@enfht
Its not the schools job to organise the road outside their gates. Lets be honest, they must get royally fed up receiving complaints from locals who have to put up with this crap twice a day, 5 days a week.
I would love to see the council send one of their parking wardens down once a week on a random day and start dishing out tickets. All this crap that "its only 10 minutes" and "its not doing any harm" would soon get sorted out.
I'm sure that there are people with legitimate reasons for driving kids to school -- if you have an inflexible employer who insists on you being in work at a time that doesn't allow for a 15 minute walk back from school, for instance.
Who does that prevent kids either walking to school themselves, or being dropped off [i]near[/i] the school (within say 500m) but not directly outside the gates?
Having said that we have someone on our street who drives to see her mother at the other end of the street. Our street is 25 terraced houses long.
KILL HER
My neighbour opposite once drove to nursery. on return [ i was dropping my kids off there as well] she parked in her drive, got all the kids out and then explained to me her start point was the nearest place to park!!!
She continued to "drive" there 🙄
Eidt I have to use th ecar on Monday but as others note simple park a little further away and walk...it is actually faster if nothing else
🙄I simply questioned bradley's valid assumption, asking for the reasoning behind this, especially coming from someone with such a small amount of experience on the road.
Ye, course you were.
Simple solution: give schools the power to enforce private parking restrictions and collect fines for their own benefit. 😀
Guns and brutal Darwinism please Graham
I would love to see the council send one of their parking wardens down once a week on a random day and start dishing out tickets
They do this occasionally near me but given that they have high viz vests on and the parents do only stop for a few minutes and given their are so many of them this has little affect.
Probably makes it worse as they all get on their mobiles to warn each other !!
Ye, course you were.
Do you want a bigger shovel?
I guess you don't realise how often cars with foreign plates are treated badly on the roads (perhaps you do it), by what I validly assume are British driver. I have even had the Highway Code incorrectly quoted at me in some half arsed excuse.
I was genuinely interested, but if you can't get that, carry on...
I dont think a teenager assuming that someone who drives a foreign registered car is foreign is in anyway wrong or illogical
He also assumed that the driver's child was attending a local school. Which is slightly bizarre, although possible, if the car was "foreign registered" as you seem to think it was.
Who does that prevent kids either walking to school themselves
Depends on the kids. Averse though I am to cotton-woolling them, I don't think many people would be happy to send five or six year olds to school unaccompanied.
or being dropped off near the school (within say 500m) but not directly outside the gates?
Nothing (although it doesn't solve anything, 500m is still well within the blast radius at our local one...).
I didn't realise it'd be necessary to exhaustively list every parameter that might conceivably make driving a child close to school of a morning to be justified 🙂 However, you're making the same point I am, which is that such circumstances are somewhat rare.
(Our walk to school goes past houses from which people drive...)
It's not often you make me smile ernesto, but in this case I'll make an exception. 😆
Junkyard: we only found this out after my missus spent last winter popping in every day to make sure her mum got her medicine, because the daughter "couldn't drive in the snow"! 😯
I would love to see the council send one of their parking wardens down once a week on a random day and start dishing out tickets
This.
And/or install CCTV so that, in between the morning & afternoon school run, someone can go through identifying illegal parking & issue fines.
I have no sympathy for motorists who deliberately infringe laws or what-not.
When I'm Prime Minister the [i]minimum[/i] penalty for ANY motoring offence would be having your car taken away and crushed to the size of a satsuma. And being charged for it.
Don't they have school buses any more?
I guess you don't realise how often cars with foreign plates are treated badly on the roads (perhaps you do it),
Bit more conclusion jumping, its going really well.
On a practical note I do occasionally make mental note of left hand drive cars, I have driven abroad quite a bit and observation can be tricky.
I would love to see the council send one of their parking wardens down once a week on a random day and start dishing out tickets.
They do send parking wardens out from time to time at my son's school. It calms them down for a week or so, but they're soon back to their old habits, parking on the zigzags and pavements. Having said that I've heard one school dad (drives a massive 4x4, obviously) say he deliberately parks on the pavement to annoy people.
Don't they have school buses any more?
Not for primary schools round here, no, the catchment areas and numbers of kids are too small. The school near my office operates a walking bus and it's well subscribed but there's still loads of parents too precious or stupid to get their kids to use it instead of driving them in.
Don't they have school buses any more?
Pfft! Don't be daft! That's bloody socialism that is!!! Bordering on communism, if I'm honest. The ****-everyone-else, get-out-of-my-bloody-way free for all, chaos will prepare our children well for life in a capitlist society
Bit more conclusion jumping, its going really well.
Conclusions only gained from experience.
Do you have a problem there surfer? You seem to be looking for something that doesn't really exist.
Pfft! Don't be daft! That's bloody socialism that is!!! Bordering on communism, if I'm honest. The ****-everyone-else, get-out-of-my-bloody-way free for all, chaos will prepare our children well for life in a capitlist society
*Rubs chin*
Duke of Westminster used to send his girls to school in the school bus to Parkgate. There was a four car security detail that followed it though. Moreton Hall has buses to pick up the students.
When I'm Prime Minister the minimum penalty for ANY motoring offence would be having your car taken away and crushed to the size of a satsuma. And being charged for it.
joao3v16, I thoroughly approve of your transport policy and would like to join your political party.
My youngest goes to school on a bus. Seems to move the problem as parents pull over at the side of busy roads to drop their kids off who were too late to walk!!
One of the posh schools in central Edinburgh employs a security guard to stand at the big stone (one lane) gate at the entrance, as so much traffic carnage was caused by the mums dropping their legless wunderkind off in the morning. Now they just park along the road and take out hapless cyclists with their car doors.
(I don't think I recall ever once in my entire life getting driven to school. Mind you I grew up in the colonies where the weather is better. And I did get a car bought for me when I turned 15, so I would drive myself to school.)
joao3v16 - MemberI would love to see the council send one of their parking wardens down once a week on a random day and start dishing out tickets
I have no sympathy for motorists who deliberately infringe laws or what-not.
When I'm Prime Minister the minimum penalty for ANY motoring offence would be having your car taken away and crushed to the size of a satsuma. And being charged for it.
+1
I've heard one school dad (drives a massive 4x4, obviously) say he deliberately parks on the pavement to annoy people.
Aaaaaaargh! (it works)
"Morning. I've broken the law, caused a hazard and increased the risk to children just to annoy you."
"Thanks. I've let all the air out of two of your tyres just to annoy you. Have a nice day."
On a practical note I do occasionally make mental note of left hand drive cars,
they're easy to spot, being the ones driven by people with no sense of time, space or other road users. masters of the art of road-based fkwittery as it were
I agree! I'm also very very important and these 15 minute periods of free-for-all make me very upset too. It means I have to be particularly careful around schools at certain times of day and sometimes I have to drive slowly. On occasion I'm even delayed!
"Morning. I've broken the law, caused a hazard and increased the risk to children just to annoy you.""Thanks. [s]I've let all the air out of two of your tyres just to annoy you.[/s] Don't worry about it, and I'm sure that key scratch will polish out nicely. Have a nice day."
I walked the boy to school today and we have to go past the usual parking chaos at his old infants school. This morning we saw one parent pull up into a space, blocking a drive, that was only 20-30yds from free spaces. She got out and was told by some of the other parents that she was blocking a drive, ignored them and walked off. As I walked back the homeowner of the blocked drive was sitting in his car looking very pissed off as he tried to get out.
There was a guy who used to park on the yellow zigzags in front of the school every morning. The police were called after him being asked not to. He got 6points and didn't do it again. Numpty.
is this vandalism? if I tried it on someone who had just nearly killed me then parked up and buggered off before I got chance to chastise them would the police arrest me for such things?"Thanks. I've let all the air out of two of your tyres just to annoy you. Have a nice day."
I'm thinking probably vandalism but very limited chance for legal ramifications as opposed to keying.
Here come the hardmen.
driven by people with no sense of time, space or other road users
Very concise description of 'motorist'
"Thanks. I've let all the air out of two of your tyres just to annoy you. Have a nice day."
is this vandalism?
No actual damage done, so technically not vandalism (?)
When I was young and daft I made a living as a motorcycle courier. When you're on the road all day on a bike, you soon learn an almost zen-like ability to spot risk.
You can forget your ranting Psychotic taxi drivers, sun reading white van man, what really struck fear into even the hardest bikers was the school run mum in a 4x4. The hour from 3-4 when they were all out, was like having the spectre of death hanging over you every day.
Has she seen me? Yes. Is she going to just pull her *ing range rover out in front of me anyway, regardless? Of course she *ing is!!!
Their attitude seems to be that as long as little Sophia and Harry make it to school and back ok, then everyone else is just collateral damage. And road traffic laws? Frankly incidental
Vehicle interference and is a criminal offence so not recommended. Draw a massive talliwaker on A3 paper and tape it to his windscreen.
Ok, why don't just one of you actually follow through on any one of your childish threats, then come back and tell us about it.
Traffic Wardens.
Every few weeks Altrincham council send a traffic warden to the school gates to try to sort the carnage at my kids' school. He just stands there highly visible, everyone parks where they should that day. The next day he isn't there so they all resort to their scum approach and park wherever they want.
I don't understand why the council doesn't do the obvious thing and tell him to keep a low profile until he can ticket someone and that'll sort the problem for good.
SamCooke - MemberI agree! I'm also very very important and these 15 minute periods of free-for-all make me very upset too. It means I have to be particularly careful around schools at certain times of day and sometimes I have to drive slowly. On occasion I'm even delayed!
Oh dear... You're one of [b]those [/b]people...
Oh dear... You're one of [i]those [/i]people
what does my homosexuality have to do with any of this?