[Closed] Parking outside of schools - The madness that is - Can anything be done?

Sadly a universal problem. The school can do something if it's motivated, letters to parents etc. You can write to the local authority the best angle to take is safety with parking on double yellows being an issue. I have heard of "name amd shame" campaigns where parents or residents have taken photos or cideos of bad parking and people's faces and posted them online - does the school have a facebook page ? People really really don't like being photographed like this but it will certainly get a few "backs up" it is effective.

If you are this frustrated about it after a few months just wait until you have had to put up with it for a few years – you'll be apoplectic.

(It sounds like an identical problem to the one we have at our girls' school - I just take pictures of offending cars and pass them to the head teacher).

Same everywhere unfortunately. My boys school even put up signs made by the kids saying "please don't park here you are putting us in danger" type stuff with adorable handwriting and drawings and guaranteed there's an Audi parked right in front of it on the no parking writing.

Would hate to live on that Street...

Had this at our local school. It's a whole 10 minute walk for us. Interestingly people try and park as close as possible. If they parked a few hundred yards up the road and walked a bit more it would actually be quicker for them. The highlight for me was walking from our house to the school to drop the kids off and getting there before someone who decided to drive the same distance at the same time.

Anyway the school sent letters to parents advising them to walk to school, be courteous to local residents etc etc. Didn't make much difference. They have had the police out a couple of times as people park on corners, on double yellows, on pavements, on the zig zags. This had a an effect for a short time only.

I do miss the big pram now the youngest is no longer in it. Was always good fun pushing that against wing mirrors and cars where they'd partially blocked the pavement 😈

Speak to the police, if they're breaking the law then I imagine the police will act. They do swoops around here occasionally (with parents getting very upset; tough).

Happens a bit here too, despite the garden centre 100m away allowing parent parking in their massive carpark. Every now and then the head sends a note out and the a bad parking stops for a while. Then builds up again, followed by another note etc...

I used to work in traffic management for a local authority. Believe it or not, this can be a desirable situation. It acts as natural traffic calming and reduces vehicle speeds. The likelihood of serious injury is greatly reduced.

Sometimes, locals requested one way systems. None were ever implemented as the resultant speed could have serious consequences.

The Police don't tolerate it at the schools around here, every once in awhile they clamp down on it.

Report it saying that they're blocking ambulance and fire access that you've seen an ambulance stuck trying to get through.

It's pretty universal, authorities in Cardiff do take it seriously. At least the parking on zigzag yellows. They have a camera van that does the rounds but people still do it. I hate, hate picking up people from schools at kicking out time. They're invariably standing on the zigzag and moan like drains when I drive past and they have to walk a few yards to get in my cab !!

It used to happen at my Kids school, bedlam. Drives blocked, crossings blocked, corners blocked.

I couple of times a year the council send up their crack unit of Traffic Wardens who slap fines on anyone not parking within the rules, you should see the look of indignation on the faces of the 'victims'. "How am I supposed to take my kids to school" "I was only 5 minutes" or the best one "they only come up here because they know they're get loads of tickets".

It gets much better for a few months, then it starts getting bad again. Yeah it's the big 4X4s and Galaxies that are the worst culprits, I guess massive cars are hard to park, until the next round of tickets.

They used to send up a couple of PCSOs to put on nice notes about not being so lazy that you’ll endanger someone else’s kid crossing the road to save a 5 min walk, it didn’t work as well.

I live next to a secondary and a primary school. Driving law seems to be suspended at drop off and collection times. Parking on Xing zig zags, stopping on the Xing itself to let the kids out, driving on verges etc. Never any police around to issue fixed penalty notices.

The funniest one was a bus broke down at the end of the road, it was carnage. One particularly irate woman(in a 4x4) was red with rage and anger at the inconvenience of being stuck 100m from the school, only heightened when the bus driver pointed out she could park where she was and walk! I thought she was going to explode.

Keep reporting to the police and LA and eventually they'll send someone round. That'll sort it for a day or two, and then it will start again.

There was a fire alarm at my kid's primary at opening time, so they didn't let the kids in. The fire engine couldn't get to the school because of all the badly parked cars.

[i]The school can do something if it's motivated, letters to parents etc.[/i]

The head at my daughters old school decided to stand outside the school and ask parents to move their cars when they parked on the zig-zags. In one morning she was

a) shouted at
b) threatened with being punched
c) spat at

by drivers whose sense of entitlement was greater than their moral sense.

She didn't try again.

Every few weeks wardens and PCSO's would be around but mostly the daft parking continued as before.

My favourite was the mum who stopped *on* the zebra crossing outside the school every morning and got out the car to let her kids out and say goodbye. She went ballistic if challenged.

I think probably the best thing to do is to just like..... get over it

The one I find even more inexplicable at our school is the parking outside of normal school hours (for example on parents' evenings). The roads around the school are always very quiet at these times and the church is happy for people to use their car park. However the road closest to the entrance to the school has a couple of spaces on it but if they are taken some people would still rather park on the zebra crossing than just around the corner (literally 50/100 metres away) where it is perfectly legal to park.

Schools are always short of money, seems like a good way to raise funds.

My daughter's school got the council to put up official "no stopping" signs by the zig zags, and the deputy head sometimes stands there to move people on. Now the selfish nobbers park in the disabled bays opposite instead.

The crazy thing is that it's a resident's parking area which doesn't start until 9am - so there are always plenty of legal spaces close to the school. It seems a 30 second walk is too much for some people.

In one morning she was

a) shouted at
b) threatened with being punched
c) spat at

That's pretty tough for her but all of those are [s]assault[/s] criminal offences, why didn't she call the police?

Seems like a great opportunity for a traffic warden to bump up his ticketing stats - you can't park within 15 metres of a junciton I think and also on double yellows...

[i]why didn't she call the police? [/i]

no idea really, she was telling me about it a few months later.

A couple of the parents were banned from the school grounds as a result - so they sat outside in their cars with the engines running instead...

I used to work in a Safer Routes to School team. For most parents, a stranger (i.e. police, teacher, other parent) etc. telling them that their parking/driving is inconsiderate/dangerous is interpreted as being told they are a terrible parent. There is little to be gained from this approach.

The best thing we found was to get the school to teach the kids about road safety, the benefits of walking, and let the kids pressure the parents. Set up walking buses, make it fun for the kids, get the kids to tell off parents who park badly - literally, to (politely) tell them off in the street, or write and hand out hand-written notes saying that they are not happy that their lives are being endangered. Some people are just ****s and won't listen, but many will respond in a positive way.

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I get it at my daughter's school as well and fortunately we can walk to the gates. I take the passive aggresive approach rather than direct confrontation and will talk loudly to my daugthter as we pass 'YES THAT'S RIGHT IT IS VERY SILLY TO PARK OVER THE WHOLE PAVEMENT, THAT MEANS PEOPLE WITH PUSHCHAIRS WILL HAVE TO GO INTO THE ROAD, ENDANGERING THEIR LIVES WON'T THEY, THEY ARE VERY SILLY AREN'T THEY' and perhaps give them a death stare. I did confront a woman once about parking over the footpath and she replied 'but there's no spaces left in the carpark' with surrounding streets not 300-500 metres away free and available. Entitled selfish Morons!

yunki - Member
I think probably the best thing to do is to just like..... get over it

This is easier said than done.

Remember it could be a child's face next time or a Baby Robin thats struck by a car trying to cross the road.

Some really saddening stories above 😥

The fact that its the same everywhere isn't a reason to do nothing but is actually the sour to do something.

Time to write to the Head/LA etc.

same situation at my kids school. main road leading down to the school is used as a rat run by commuters so the council painted double yellow lines down most of the road...but this moves the problem onto the neighbouring residential streets. the school has sent letters and emails etc warning parents not to park on the main road but because there are sections that arent restricted by the yellow lines many still park there but most are considerate enough to park on the kerb but leave enough space for pedestrians and oncoming traffic.
the school kids also come out and place traffic cones near the school and stand on the kerb to stop people from parking near the school and theres always a teacher nearby who watches over them. traffic warden also makes regular visits to ticket any offenders.
i always park on a side street...but my sons nursery is at the end of that road...so after he's been dropped off i then walk his brother and sister to the school from there. takes only a couple of minutes.
it seems quite civilised as most of the parents seem to understand the issues bad parking causes...still get the occasional idiot...like the idiot who always insists on parking facing the wrong way then does a 3 point turn in his 4x4 to head back...or the ignorant woman who is always late and parks her audi wherever she likes and then sits there while her oldest daughter takes the kids into school...some people just never learn

most parents do this - even leaving their cars running whilst taking their children in!

I take my daughter to school and drive, its a few miles. I park about 500m away with no problem, we meander to school and pass all the cars in a jam waiting to get in the car park. This week i passed someone on the way in who was still there on my way out. Its like World War II (private school so its all Audis, Jags and Beemers).

The problem is that saying people can't park in certain places does not fix the problem. At the end of the day you have to encourage people to walk or cycle or provide a carpark for people to use. Fundamentally many schools are in the wrong place and don't have the facilities even such as playgrounds or sports fields that they should have.

In some ways we just have to accept that people will drive and then either convince them not to or devise other ways to make the dropping off of kids easier.

Its interesting the remark about bad parking being good as it actually slows all the traffic down and probably also makes people for hyper vigilant when crossing the road. It feel more dangerous but is actually loads safer.

We have this problem at my daughter's school. My suggestion was that at the PTA Quiz Night we should have a round consisting of "identify the illegally parked car" from photos - unfortunately I was vetoed.

woody74

Its interesting the remark about bad parking being good as it actually slows all the traffic down and probably also makes people for hyper vigilant when crossing the road. It feel more dangerous but is actually loads safer.

Sometimes yes....sometimes no. Like the OP I've recently started taking offspring to school and despite the demolition derby of cars at the gate there's always one or two cars (parents I should add) who will then try to blaze through quickly so they can drop little miss no legs off at the gate. And of course on top of this you get the odd random driver who gets frustrated and launches off once they get clear line of sight through the cars.

woody74

At the end of the day you have to encourage people to walk or cycle or provide a carpark for people to use.

Yep. Schools these days seem awfully on point about charity fundraisers, enforcing uniform protocols, collecting "donations" etc to the point where they make voluntary things seem awfully mandatory. They could quite easily create a stigma around not walking kids to school, driving like a **** and parking like shit.

I'm lucky in that I live relatively close to the school so I would never consider driving, and yet the couple across the road who have an older boy, drive every day. And so does the family behind them. And plenty of others around. Even if I lived double or even quadruple the distance away I would still walk, it's nothing. And yet yesterday I started to question myself walking the kids up the road (it was bitterly cold) as all my neighbours drove past me - "am I being some kind of cruel sadistic parent"? Then I remembered I used to walk 4.5 miles to my primary school until I could be trusted to cycle 😉

In some ways we just have to accept that people will drive and then either convince them not to or devise other ways to make the dropping off of kids easier.

At my daughter's school:

1. People are encouraged to walk or cycle
2. The school provides covered bike racks
3. The school is located in the neighbourhood where most of its pupils live
4. The school has plenty of legal parking nearby.

I'm afraid that reason and rationality is wasted on the selfish morons who continue to park on the zig zags.

Our local beat bobby comes once or twice a year, has a word with any offending drivers, and then it is dropped.

Enforcement is the only way to fix it, though I'm happy with name and shame, and would gladly do it. We normally walk to school but if we have an early appointment for work will drive, but always park safely and legally.

The head is currently getting getting a lot of complaints about parents parking on, and chewing up, the grass verges in front of houses. Not owned by the householders, so nothing can be done, but really making that end of the estate look shite.

Speak to the police, if they're breaking the law then I imagine the police will act.

If they're yellow zig-zags, they require signs to be enforceable, check for them. If they're there get onto the police, if not talk to the council about getting them installed.

My favourite was the mum who stopped *on* the zebra crossing outside the school every morning and got out the car to let her kids out and say goodbye. She went ballistic if challenged.

Just use the crossing anyway. Car bonnets are fairly easy to climb over. (-:

I once saw some eejit parked across a crossing. A group of half a dozen lads used the crossing by opening his rear door, scrambling through and out the other side. Quality.

Challenger 2 should do the job - few days of firing at will on badly parked cars would get the message across

I once saw some eejit parked across a crossing. A group of half a dozen lads used the crossing by opening his rear door, scrambling through and out the other side. Quality.

I have this most days as I live directly opposite a school. I have come home to find people parked on my drive with their bumper up to my front door. My drive is constantly blocked and the school passes the buck and the local councillor says she can't help. I think parents with kids in cars at picking up time are probably the lowest scum you can possibly meet.

[url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38021839 ]It seems this school has the right idea :-)[/url]

When I'm in charge and under my Draconian Lefty Dictatorship i'll be ilegeal to drive your child to school if the live within walking/cycling/public transport distance.

Unfortunately their needs to be a sea change in attitudes to getting kids to school. I think various studies have suggested that over 20 - 40% of rush hour traffic was solely school run related.

I particularly like the scheme one school has employed to encourage kids to come to school of providing a bicycle that if they meet 100% attendance targets they get to keep. If this along with better cycle storage and cycle route infrastructure was rolled out on a wider basis it would be amazing. Probably do wonders for local bike shops business too.

It is a constant headache across the UK and (as I found out this week) Europe....

Scotland has a few bans in place, that supposedly work really well.
http://www.eastlothiancourier.com/news/13564781.Traffic_ban_outside_Haddington_schools_made_permanent/

Our own school:
- negotiated use of Indian restaurant car park for parents to use, that is less than 100m from school, on main road.
- has more warning signs out permanently, although we were stopped short of 'oi, you selfish b*st*rd, parking there may kill my child' though
- randomly the police turn up and get stroppy
- the Head has a word occasionally
- the parent council occasionally say 'oi, not there', especially our German and Dutch parents who are happy to get really antsy!
- we got the older kids to do 'surveys' at school dropping off time. This worked brilliantly as they stood in yellow vests with clipboards and a camera, taking pictures of the one parent who would not listen to police, head or parents about where he parks every single day to pick up darling son. This survey was followed up by pupil council writing to the said parent[s]s[/s] and saying 'oi, [s]*%*^ £&!^" &*" ^$&^[/s]stop it now you mean person'

We now have it down to a couple of usual suspects it seems.

It's selfishness, arrogance and laziness, but perfectly decent people seem to turn into these people when they switch to protective parent mode.

Cliché saying it, but I'm just amazed we survived in the 70s and 80s. Walking half a mile, a mile or more to school.

Used to walk half a mile on my own from about age 8 or 9. Didn't actually get driven to school until secondary, and only because it was in the next town. Even then I ended up walk to station, catch train, walk to school. So even the argument that people can't get a place at their local school because it's miles away and have to drive, doesn't wash. We had busses coming in from all kinds of rural places. Very few drove.

Doesn't help these days that because you have a child you obviously need a tank to drive them to school, along with a bazillion toys, plus scooter and/or bike so they can ride the few metres between car and school gate.

Many moons ago I used to live opposite a primary school, and have on many occasions been unable in the morning, if I was working late, to not be able to get off my drive as parents have parked on my drive blocking me in, (including a woman who was stood chatting to others mums at the gates, oblivious to her lack or consideration.
I spoke to the school and I offered to buy a clamp for cars that i caught doing it again.
My favourite was the time I came home from work to someone parked on my drive so I parked up behind them then sat in my garden with a beer I then refused to move my car as I had a beer and would hate to drink drive. I think the message kind of got across from there on.
Sadly parents with children in their cars are so concerned with themselves that they actually forget that there are other humans around them.

The school keep clear generally needs to be positioned such that it creates a clear area where the children are crossing at the school entrance (sometimes it needs to be on both sides of the road), and it needs a sign plate and traffic order so it is enforceable.

People are not allowed to stop their car in the school keep clear area during the hours of enforcement, this is different to double yellow lines where people can stop their car to drop off/pick up passengers.

There is a lot that can be done in conjunction with the school to engage with the parents and raise awareness of the issues. You can google school keep clear campain to see some stuff that has been done elsewhere. I have also known concerned parents to go out with leaflets and posters in the morning to encourage other parents not to park on the school keep-clear and to park further away from the school.

Essentially a lot of issues can be resolved if parents park a little distance away from the school and walk in for a couple of minutes rather than drive into a cul-de-sac where it presents issues turning around, blocking crossing children, congestion etc.

The biggest thing we can do is value the walk to school again!
Health and wellbeing time, it is great to walk to school and home again. Both physical and mental health, as well as local geography, managing risks, proximity to nature etc etc.
If parents got the value of this, they would choose to find the time to walk with kids, or choose to accept a minor level of risk in allowing their child to walk alone.

https://www.livingstreets.org.uk/

- we got the older kids to do 'surveys' at school dropping off time. This worked brilliantly as they stood in yellow vests with clipboards and a camera, taking pictures of the one parent who would not listen to police, head or parents about where he parks every single day to pick up darling son. This survey was followed up by pupil council writing to the said parents and saying 'oi, *%*^ £&!^" &*" ^$&^stop it now you mean person'

This is a work of genius, matt_outandabout!! I can see this being really effective.

Rachel

All these threads on parents acting like twunts makes me even happier I've chosen not to have kids, means I don't have to interact with selfish people like you all describe!

I used to walk to school every day as it was under half a mile, even rode in occasionally if I was going to a friend's house afterwards. It was normal for everyone to walk back then ('90's) as we all lived in the same town as the school or buses brought you in from the neighbouring villages and dropped you off in the school car park which was a 1/4 mile walk from the main building. Now the same school with the same layout is a carcrash of people carriers, 4x4's and SUV's fighting to get into a small car park with the buses while kids run amok everywhere! My parent's lane was being used as a drop-off point by some entitled parents as it runs to the bottom of the school playing fields. As it's an unadopted private road the residents took to closing it off at school time after a kid got knocked down a few years ago. The grief that caused with parents yelling and threatening them was so bad they stopped closing it off after a few weeks. Another kid was knocked down a year later but instead of the drivers taking action to behave sensibly they lobbied the council to improve the road safety! It was then adopted, resurfaced and had street lights installed. 6 weeks later another kid was knocked down. It's the same cars down there every school day.

The School Run should be banned.