[Closed] Parking outside the school gates!

I feel your pain. We live 9 minutes walk from school so 90%+ of the time we walk/scoot/ride.

Don't half see some sights though. Personal pet hates are people parked halfway over pavements (they get their wingmirrors folded in FOC) and it's always the same old mums and dads who park dodgily.

Chatting with a lollypop man last week who told me about the number of times he's had drivers drive at him. Depressing news that.

The rozzers could do a 1 day blitz that would solve it for a good while but never seem to give a crap.

Oh, and whilst I'm on, taking dogs into the playground. Despite letters every term or so, still seems to happen.

It’s the same situation at my daughter’s school, parents parking over the zigzags outside the school with no regard for anyone else so long as the can pick up/drop off as close to the gate as possible. My daughter has cycled to school everyday since yr1 regardless of the weather, leaving early to avoid the idiot drivers and have recieved complaints from the school for dropping her early! I’ve even been accused of cruelty by other parents on cold or wet mornings.

They start parking up at the school down the road from me from 2pm. I see mummies and daddies just sat there playing on their phones, waiting for their little darlings, and causing everyone else to have to veer round them along an already contested road. And during the winter they sit there with the engine running to keep their little toes warm, but also warming up the environment for their aforementioned little darlings to inherit. Gits.

3 schools close to me. Sheer idiocy of the parking/driving at finishing time makes me weep for the generation they are raising. Massive v6 Audi SUV cosistantly looking like it has been abandoned right by a busy t junction is my favourite.

Same issues at my kids primary - but it's down a cul de sac, with residents who have on-road parking - you can guess the chaos. One incident needed the police calling - a taxi driver was waiting to collect a kid with special needs, one fella wanted his 'space' and kicked off a huge amount of abuse. The fella doing the abuse literally lived 500 yards away.

The local facebook page kicked off last year when someone complained about the parking - the parent's just didn't get it - we will park there, I don't have time etc etc. (despite the school having use of a church car park round the corner).

The other side of the coin, at the main junction near to the primary and secondary schools (100 yards apart) near us there is a carpet and tile shop. Every morning between 0730 and 0930 there are 6-10 vans parked on double yellows loading goods and chatting over coffee, most of the vans are there for 30 mins and there is a queue of of them waiting for space.
The local traffic wardens are busy at the school bollocking Mums and Dads who stop for two mins to drop their kids off.
We walk past on the way to our school which is a mile further on. However after my kids nearly choked to death on some diesel fumes from one of the vans idling, whilst driver absent, I asked the traffic warden why he wasn't at the red lights where all these vans were causing massive congestion. Sometimes the lights go red, and nobody can pass on the shop side as the cars coming the other way fill up the road.
He said "its a business they need to load and unload". I asked him what was more important the safety of the kids or the waistlines of the carpet fitters?
Most of the parents are on their way to work, juggling childcare and bosses hassling them, mum and dad both working. Apparently 30% of the kids at the comp(I don't think it is called that any more) are from out of the "catchment" because its not the worlds best school but will take anyone who needs a place, so some poor mums and dads who didn't get Tarquin into their oversubscribed local school have to drive the Evoque to get the kids here. I am sure that only a small percentage of mums and dads drive as there are bloody hundreds of kids and parents walking in the mornings, and given that the primary is 450kids and the comp is 1400, if they all drove then its inconceivable what might happen.
I say walk in someone else's shoes for 5 mins.

You should try being on gate duty after school and having to tell parents they cant drive onto the school grounds. Some just dont get it/dont care/wont listen....I've been moved off that this year as I am apparently not polite enough to parents who refuse to follow the rules even when asked.

Of course kids should be walking/cycling to school.

I don't have much sympathy for all the "It's so packed I cannot get my car through" complainers. Everyone thinks they 'need' to drive, and everyone thinks their 'need' is greater than everyone else's.
If the road is jammed and you're in a car then you are not suffering a traffic jam, you're contributing to it.

I’ve concluded that a lot of the under-16’s must clearly have lost the use of their legs. It’s the only explanation for the parents needing to park no more than 6ft from the school gates, maximum.

viz had a profnaisuarus definition "video shop cripple" - someone who is obviously able bodied but loses the use of their lower limbs in the event that an un-rewound copy of Sleepless in Seattle needs to be returned.

The local school to us, the parents park on the zig-zags, they actually park on the crossing and then let their kids out.  Despite complaining to the local police nothing is done, even though it would be an easy traffic figures boost.

I still laugh at the memory of the mum who went apoplectic at the Bus that got stuck at the top of the road so she couldn't drive another 200 yards to her normal parking spot.  It was a lovely day, she could've parked up and walked but no this Bus had to move.  It couldn't due to other stupidly parked parents cars on the corner.  She was incandescent!

It is my two or three times a week source of joy and humour. We drive to within a decent walking distance to school, park up and walk 5 minutes in. No stress, no drama, quite pleasant. We always end up crossing the road and watching the snark up of X5s, Cayennes and Macans blocking the road and being generally selfish.

A few years ago i suggested to the Head that they should send out some yr6 pupils armed with digital cameras wearing hi-viz vests to take pictures of bad parking which could be uploaded onto the school website to embarrass and shame parents but was told that it was illegal due to data protection?

I really don't understand why they don't pedestrianise a 100m radius of every school at start and finish times (or, y'know, provide a car park). It's crackers.

If a council can weaponise bus lanes I'm pretty confident they could do it with schools.

Double yellow lines outside my daughter's school don't count if you park half on the path.

We have a drive that leads past the front of the school, then a roundabout with an exit that leads into the staff carpark.

It's easy to park up outside the school gate and drop off the kids, but no, every ****er has to drive in, around the roundabout and then out again.

The roundabout has double yellows on it, and we also put cones on it for the hard of thinking/seeing. But we still have to ask idiots not to park on it whilst dropping off or waiting.

On duty last week I had to point out to one moron that they had a cone wedged under their bumper as they drove off.

And don't get me started on arseholes using their phones whilst driving on the school grounds. Apparently it's ok, because "I'm only going slowly."

I say walk in someone else’s shoes for 5 mins.

You mean the shoes that Mrs ws 95 percent of the time or me 5 percent of the time used to walk in when our kids were at primary, that's right we used to walk there not drive. My lad has rode to "big school" now yr 9 everyday rain snow or blow, daughter has always walked, that's probably why they are fit and not fat like half the kids you see these days.
As for contributing to the "traffic jam" I needed to go and look at a job 5 miles away, not really one I could walk to and to be honest there would be no traffic jam if people didn't act/park like self entitled bell enders!! Anyway I now know not to make that particular journey again at that time. I honestly feel for folk who live near a school.

I walk my 5 Yr old lad the whole 15 minutes to school come hell or high water. His school is down a cul-de-sac and it's the same situation there. They park on the corners, the KEEP CLEAR sign and zig zags and the double yellows, they block people's drives and don't give two shits about anyone else. The other day the school had two PCSOs telling people to piss off/kindly go and park elsewhere. The road was nearly empty 🤣

Thing is, his school even have an agreement with the big Tesco that parents can park there, cross one road and walk fifty yards to the school. I'm all for parking exclusion zones around schools. Seems none of the parents that park like dickpoles are aware of the fact they're putting everyone's kids in danger.

And during the winter they sit there with the engine running to keep their little toes warm, but also warming up the environment for their aforementioned little darlings to inherit. Gits.

Plenty do it all year round here. Worst offenders are the grandparents in their Quashqais who rock up 30 mins early for the plum parking spots and sit there reading their Daily Mail with the diesel chugging away.

It's probably a good job I don't have a bazooka with me normally.

Same all over, we've got a 450 space carpark less than 100 yards from school doors, access is pedestrian from the car park. Guess what the "adults" chose to do.
As for the chuffing knee shufflers on a Sunday morning on the other side of the road.

Utter madness, kids nowadays will never know the joy of shoplifting.

I'm quite happy to knock on a car window and tell them to move, if parked on the zig zags outside of school. Often I'll get a 'I'm going now', but no movement. So it's phone out, and I start taking photos (and mention 6 points and £100 fine). That shifts them.

I'm usually in running kit, should shit get real.

You come down the road I live on and there's a 90deg left followed by a short stretch of road long enough for 5 houses & then a 90deg right.
We live on the short stretch between the bends.
On the left hand bend is a junction to the right for a short cul-de-sac.
Just around the right hand bend is a primary school.

Kid drop-off & pick-up time is absolute carnage.

The parents will park as close to the yellow zig-zags as possible, all the way around the left hand bend and down the road. Never mind that you aren't supposed to park on a corner or near to a junction.
They create such a long stretch of single lane road that there is no escape route should something come the other way - once you have committed to this bit of road from either end you are buggered if anything comes the other way - which it always does of course.

And heaven forbid someone should park on the other side (our side) of the road before all this kicks off. The poor parents can't compute that 'their' space can't be used because of a car on the other side of the road, so they invariably park anyway and cause a pinch point so anything wider than perhaps a Transit can't get through. I've seen a flatbed transit have to turn round before as it literally couldn't fit between the gap.
Luckily we are normally just observers in all of this.

Occasionally I have come home during the melee & generally end up being tailgated by the latest Evoque/Qashqai/Sportage as I come down the road. I come to an absolute crawl near my house, put my hazards on & point to the driveway I am planning on reversing into. This makes no difference to the pressured parent who just gets a bit closer to my bumper so I 'get a move on'.
Cue absolute bafflement when I stop the car & stick it in reverse....I've had to get out before & explain what I am attempting to do and tell them that if they just give me 10ft of room I will be out of there way in seconds.

We've even had the ironic situation of the coach returning kids from a school trip unable to get said kids back to the school because the parents who are trying to pick them up have parked so badly that the coach can't get down the road.....

One of the neighbours said that there used to be a teacher on patrol duty to try & control all this nonsense, but it stopped after a parent assaulted a teacher for having the audacity to suggest they moved their car...

I find the whole thing completely and utterly soul destroying. It is one of those things that should really be quite simple & everyone should just get on & be sensible about it, but the reality is an every man for himself mentality & daily carnage.

A few years ago i suggested to the Head that they should send out some yr6 pupils armed with digital cameras wearing hi-viz vests to take pictures of bad parking which could be uploaded onto the school website to embarrass and shame parents but was told that it was illegal due to data protection?

I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but it’s a handy excuse not to do anything. It’s a public place, anyone can take photos of anything they want.

it was illegal due to data protection?

I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but it’s a handy excuse not to do anything. It’s a public place, anyone can take photos of anything they want.

Yeah, that’s the usual bs excuse from somebody who doesn’t want to do something but heard something about data protection in a course they weren’t listening too...

I’m pretty sure that’s not true, but it’s a handy excuse not to do anything. It’s a public place, anyone can take photos of anything they want.

Or perhaps the head doesn't want to be responsible for putting others into harm way. The whole ethos is wrong. We are about to plan a new school for build in 5years. The places under consideration have poor access and no real cycling access (one is between two main roads and one at the top of a steep long hill)

I have to say this is one of those issues that turns me a bit gammon. That and your hedge protruding into the footpath. 😉
It has been pretty bad at my son's school despite there being a perfectly quiet road 250 metres from it!AAGHHhh. - The school have a green council and the kids organised a peaceful protest- placards and the like ( I had suggested the kids dressed up as zombies but that was poo pooed ,Ha!).
Due to the daily presence of a parking attendant giving tickets ,it seemed to ease last term.

"And during the winter they sit there with the engine running to keep their little toes warm"
Plus they get too hot in the summer so they have to run the Air con!
To$$ers.

As parent council we bought a few of these, we asked local police to be there randomly twice a month and had a group of us happy to knock on windows of cars.
There were a persistent three to five 'hardcore' drivers of the 53 families, but it did have an effect.

The biggest impact on one tough nut was local police turning up one day and speaking to a parent they had spoken to before - they ended up with parent in back of police car, second police car to look out for baby in back of car, blue lights on. Cue all the kids and parents treating it as a sport to stand overlooking the police car with lady in and then the German & Dutch parents heckling her when she got out...

The signs are up permanently now, and it does seem to now be in everyone's culture to challenge idiots.

Fossy - it’s not
In Harrogate is it? It sounds very much like my girls’ school.

I sigh with relief when I get home after Fridays school run, there are stupid and dangerous things happening every day. It must be nice to be able to walk it, but we don't all have that luxury, for many people there is a very small window of time to drop your kids off and get to work on time at a very busy part of the day.

bagstard - why don't the kids walk on their own?

We've always walked to school with the kids.
Fortunate enough to live in a place with fewer other parents in cars endangering ours that at a good age (7 or so iirc) they could walk off ahead 'by themselves' and by 9 or so totally on thier own.

Thankfully my two have always walked (primary a 10 min walk, secondary is closer to 40 mins). Our school has had 3 people (adults) hit by cars outside the school in the last 6 months but nothing seems to be being done about it. There’s been a parking officer there a few times but he’s certainly not being paid per car he tickets as most of the time he just stands back and let’s people get on with parking wherever they want.

Have to feel for people who live on the streets near the schools

tj, they are eight and three, the distance is nearly two miles! Also school policy means you have to take them into the school and pretty much to their classroom, you can't leave them at the gate, not even the eight year old.

3 yr old - OK

School policy means they are not allowed to go to school on their own? WTF? I walked to school every day on my own from 6 yr old. and before you say "times were differnt" - indeed they were. Glasgow in the 70s was much nastier than most places are now.

We have the same, my daughters school is a tiny rural primary school with 84 pupils in total, the car park for the village hall is 84 metres from the school entrance, and the instruction is that parents should park in the village hall car park and walk over, a total of about 90 seconds walking, but 90% cannot. last time i dropped by daughter, 2 cars in village hall and 19 outside school.

This being rural Norfolk, the number of times large tractors and combines are literally stuck trying to get through and just have to sit there for 30-40 minutes, but still nothing.

All makes me laugh that you can tell those that own the farm estates as opposed to those that work on it, own the land, Range Rover, Cayenne etc, work on the land, Isuzu Trooper....

Too true tj, but most of the dangers were probably sleeping off hangovers, whereas the traffic is out in full force during school run!

Always impressed with the young girl who I see most mornings, walking to school on her own through one of Wolverhampton's roughest suburbs. She does a very good impression of Kristanna Loken in Terminator 3

School policy means they are not allowed to go to school on their own? WTF? I walked to school every day on my own from 6 yr old. and before you say “times were differnt” – indeed they were. Glasgow in the 70s was much nastier than most places are now.

Whether you agree or not, that's the rules.... It's not until year 6 (10-11 years old) they're allowed to walk/leave without an escort.

whereas the traffic is out in full force during school run!

Chicken and egg time.
Like cycle lanes.
Like direct and safe footpaths.

All covered in this thread (and many others).
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fewer-cars-we-still-dont-have-the-ambition/

I wouldn't let my girls walk to school by themselves (yr 5) - it's a 30 minute walk each way from our house, it's a rat run to the main Leeds road out of Harrogate, and the footpath is narrow/non-existent in places.

Whether you agree or not, that’s the rules…. It’s not until year 6 (10-11 years old) they’re allowed to walk/leave without an escort.

Utterly ridiculous - who makes that rule and how can it be enforced? Its certainly not a universal rule

Utterly ridiculous – who makes that rule and how can it be enforced? Its certainly not a universal rule

The school. They do not release the child from the queue unless an adult/responsible person of age is present. It's that simple. They line up to leave, if your grown up isn't there, you're not leaving.

We live opposite a primary school, with an en-bloc garage on the same side as the school and have road parking, no driveway.
Generally it's not much of a problem because we're gone before school and back after. When my partner used to work nights occasionally she would get back at school drop off time with no spaces available. Which is frustrating but part of it. The fact that we live in a small village and the most anyone would have to walk is 10 mins, 90% would be less than 5 mins, that's what's annoying.
But nights when something is on, such as plays around Christmas were the worst, people thinking its fine to park in front of the garages while watching the plays.

I largely agree with most of what's been said above, we live in he middle of a load of schools, our kids walk, everyday, regardless of weather.

Weeksy
Weird. How can they enforce it on arrival? I also very much doubt they have the legal right to stop a child leaving because there is no adult present. Wrong answer to the question!

How can they enforce it on arrival?

Clearly they cannot. However thaat's not their reposonsibility 🙂 they don't 'own' them until dropped off... They're not responsible for them at that stage.

Whether they have the right or not, they do it and it works well... Although inconvenient at times for the adults 🙂

But it doesn't work well! It causes massive inconvenience and congestion and also means kids get coddled so do not grow up appreciating dangers /learning self reliance. Its utterly appalling and self defeating and quite probably illegal.

also means kids get coddled so do not grow up appreciating dangers /learning self reliance. I

Only within their school life, not necessairily outside of that. 🙂 My lad is allowed plenty of freedom with long cycling rides etc just him and his mate/mates. So yes while in some ways you're correct, you're also not seeing the bigger picture.

Things like cars, traffic and 'bad people' are the reason why...

@tjagain - the school has the legal authority to do pretty much *anything* that they consider is in the best interest of the child. Their playset, and they've obviously considered the issue and done a risk assessment because they allow older kids to leave unaccompanied.

My brother and I used to walk the 2 miles to school from about 9, though it was down quiet country roads. Used to get a lift from my mum if it was chucking it down but was still dumped at the public car park in the middle of town to walk the last 5 minutes.

Google in loco parentis.

I walk the kids to school if the weather is decent. Its a mile, my younger son (6) has hemiplegia so its good he gets the exercise, we take the dog and the kids enjoy it.

I was walked to school by myself every day after the first week in the 70’s

I only ever got hit by one car and I didn’t even die.

I only ever got hit by one car and I didn’t even die.

I'm sure that knowledge will make the parents who's kids have died a lot happier knowing you're not dead while they stare at the gravestone.

Flaperon that only applies in school hours surely? I do understand in loco parentis but surely the schools control ends when the bell rings.

I'd love someone to challenge that policy. I am fairly sure stopping pupils from leaving would be illegal.

I’m sure that knowledge will make the parents who’s kids have died a lot happier knowing you’re not dead while they stare at the gravestone.

Dunno about that but it certainly made my Mum happier when she arrived and looked in the back of the ambulance to see that, although badly injured, I was still alive.

The point I was trying, insensitively, to make was that perhaps the modern way of making sure little kiddies  get to school safely is perhaps worth the effort and the additional inconvenience.

No excuse for parents acting like dicks though.

I am fairly sure stopping pupils from leaving would be illegal.

What about if they just wandered off at one in the afternoon or ten in the morning.

Should the school just let them go?

Would the school be responsible for them then?

At our school there have been many scenes over the years. The ones I remember most clearly was the proper full-on fist fight between two dads after one questioned the other over his parking on zigzags, the time someone parked right across someone's drive and the guy was apoplectic with rage (to this day I don't understand why someone would do that - so selfish). Most weeks I see people parked on the crossing (I always photograph and send on to the head). People park on pavements everywhere, they drive right into the school grounds despite several signs saying not to, almost every week there are repeated requests from the head for people to park more considerately. And yet I see the same people parking in the same inconsiderate places week in, week out. Still, just one more year to go and then our girls are at secondary school and they can walk in.

Inconsiderate parking outside schools does slow the traffic down a bit, so suggest the council are quite happy with the situations you all face.

I’d write a strongly worded letter to the Head, the Councils Head of Education and your local MP.

I’d suggest most of those are too busy doing other things to GAS about the parking you all describe..

Bless.

My drive and neighbours gets blocked every day by the same parent, when collecting his kid. It doesn't really affect me since I get in for work very early however it does irritate me since there are several other parking options that would bother no one less than 50m away from the door.

Inconsiderate parking outside schools does slow the traffic down a bit

It also puts the safety of pedestrians at risk (which is why parking on zigzags on pedestrian crossings is expressly forbidden at all time FYI).

We cycle in twice a week, then park-and-stride the rest. What gets my goat is the parents who stick their disabled relative in the car so that they can justify parking on the double yellow lines outside the school. Disabled relative doesn't actually leave the car so in reality they are abusing the disabled badge, as well as blocking the lowered kerb and making it more dangerous for children to cross the road..............

Inconsiderate parking outside schools does slow the traffic down a bit

Plus make it more hazardous for the pedestrian and riders.
Plus pollute everyone.
Plus set a children's culture of being driven everywhere.
Plus wear out infrastructure quicker than walking or cycling.
Plus lowers childrens ability to concentrate and perform at school, so getting lower exam results.
(Etc)

Johndoh, why not photograph and send to your local PCSO rather than the Head? I reported one fat **** that parked every day on the zigzags and the PCSO turned up. Fortunately he was so incredibly stupid that he did it again right in front of her. He never did it again, despite never having seen the PCSO again either...

Guess how slim his kid was...?

Flaperon that only applies in school hours surely? I do understand in loco parentis but surely the schools control ends when the bell rings

Hmm. You're absolutely right.

When it comes to driving in the UK, whilst I think who we react to the sight of a Ambulance with it's lights on still represents the best of us, parking on the school run probably represents the worst.

For my sins I do the drop-off in the morning. I park in a legit space, it's a whopping 100m from the gate and we walk down together.

Other parents don't have the same laid back attitude to it. They seem to like to do a combination of the below:

Arrive very late, at speed and in a mild panic, abandon their car on the pavement / double yellows. Throw their kids out the door, sometimes on the road side which baffles me and then ROAR off, proper flat to the floor in 1st and 2nd like hitting 0-40 (I hope none of them actually hit 60 in that road, but lord only knows) in 3 seconds instead of just driving off at 30 is going to make them unlate for work.

Arrive 30 mins early, to get the best chatting spot, sill abandoning their car as close as possible to the gate, zig-zags, double yellows, destroy the schools cones they bought to try to stop them, double park - yeah why not eh!? and then camp for the morning. Honestly a few weeks ago I dropped my daughter off, went to work, came back to the village for the dentist, had a check and passed the school and they were still there at the gates chatting shit.

We're slowly building up distances so we can ride to work occasionally, but I'm sort of dreading it, I think we'll have to push the last 100m on the pavement, I can't have pig-shit-think Barry in his pick-up Trannie screaming past us at 40mph.

Utterly ridiculous – who makes that rule and how can it be enforced? Its certainly not a universal rule

It's Yr5 in my Kids school. They enforce it by not letting kids leave until an pre-approved appropriate adult is there to take them.

School run mums have zero morals. I would happily admit that they have broken my community spirit and I really couldn’t care less if a bus wiped the entire bus queue out one winter morning when the roads are all icy. That’s how I feel about them.

I have for 10yrs walked my kids to the same bus stop to go to school. It was only when I got myself a dog and experienced having to ‘continue’ the walk did I open my eyes to how bad it was. Parents driving 250yds to park, then drop off their kids before driving home. Cars blocking 90% of the footpath. Cars parking literally at the bus stop, next to a junction and with a staggered bus stop opposite turning a major road into a chicane. An accident spot waiting to happen.

I admit I was a little churlish in catching a couple of wing mirrors with my arm whilst attempting not to walk in the mud to avoid them. Yes it was silly, but when confronted I pleaded with the idiots to please ‘think of the children’. Please consider the disabled. Please allow for prams and push chairs. Considering there were at least 6 mothers on the opposite side of the road watching this confrontation who were pushing prams I reckoned on a little support. Every single one turned their back and I was asked “who do you think you are to tell me where I can park” by a little orange faced woman who lives literally 25m from my own home but drives to the bus stop and parks opposite.

I am an able bodied bloke who could quite easily avoid the car and cross the road safely. I didn’t need to invite trouble but now I really can’t be bothered. Same for dog shit collecting, anti social kids, shoplifting and rubbish. In the past I have confronted people about it. Now I choose to walk on by

Johndoh, why not photograph and send to your local PCSO rather than the Head?

She collects everyone's pictures and forwards them in one go to the police. It doesn't seem to make any difference though - they come out (or traffic wardens do) and people briefly start to consider others but soon fall back into their usual ways 🙁

People are selfish. I'm guessing it's the same just about everywhere. I see the same behaviour at the pool when I'm picking up my son. Two car parks, small one at the entrance and a bigger one 50m away. People will go to ridiculous lengths to park in the small car park but there's almost always spaces in the other one.

I see the same behaviour at the pool when I’m picking up my son. Two car parks, small one at the entrance and a bigger one 50m away. People will go to ridiculous lengths to park in the small car park but there’s almost always spaces in the other one.

We have the same at our local swimming pool - people park in the disabled spaces, parent and child spaces, on the verges, on the reserved space for coaches etc, all just to avoid walking an extra few metres and the car park is huge and only fills when there is a gala on so always lots of spaces. Yet they are going to the pool/gym so surely they are trying to be fit so why not walk that little bit further?