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news
School sign.jpgCar ban to be trialled outside Solihull schools
A new council trial is to see motorists banned from driving near schools during drop-off and pick-up times. Three schools in Solihull will be selected for the experiment which will begin in September next year.
According to the BBC, the scheme comes following complaints that parents were parking on grass verges and blocking residents’ drives.
The trial will see an ‘exclusion zone’ enforced during the school run and anyone who transgresses could face a fine of £70. Only those with permits, including residents, the disabled and emergency services, will be exempt.
Tina Wiggin of Solihull Council told the Birmingham Mail that school gate parking was an ongoing problem across the borough.
“Numerous complaints are received by disgruntled residents living in the proximity of schools due to inconsiderate parking and sometimes obstruction of driveways.
“Civil enforcement officers are acting on a reactive basis but are not able to be at all schools at the same time and often when attending cannot issue instant fines due to legislative waiting times that parents take advantage of. Obstruction of driveways can only be enforced by a police officer.”
According to Sustrans, a fifth of rush hour traffic comprises cars taking children to or from school with the average journey to primary school just 1.5 miles. The organisation’s 2010 survey of schoolchildren also revealed that despite almost half wanting to cycle to school, only four per cent were allowed to.
Parents interviewed outside Greswolde Primary on Thursday told the BBC that the plan was unfair on working parents pressed for time during the school run. Local commuters have however expressed their support.
Chris Harris said: "The amount of selfish, thoughtless and dangerous parking I see on the school run every day drives me mad. What’s wrong with parking a little further away and suffering a whole 200 yards walk?”
Alex has written for more cricket publications than the rest of the road.cc team combined. Despite the apparent evidence of this picture, he doesn't especially like cake.
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20 comments
It took the council 3 years to respond to our petition but we got a no parking 8-9 and 3-4 Mon- Frid in our road next to a school. Idiot parents parked all over the place and it was impossible to get delivery vans up the road, luckily we didn't need an ambulance or fire engine at those times, now we can get out of our driveways which often got blocked and when that happens the police and council don't want to know. One guy with double yellows across his driveway found it blocked just as we was about to set off for a hospital appointment. How stupid can parents be?
I think you mean how selfish can drivers be? This is in no way exclusive to parents. Drivers generally feel they have the right to leave their cars where they like, and if there is not enough legitimate parking they will park inconsiderately. It is just exaserbated at school run time as you hae large numbers all trying to park at the same time.
Any visitor to my town that was unfamiliar with the highway code might deduce that yellow lines mean park half on the pavement, and double yellow lines mean park fully on the pavement. With pedestrians forced out into the traffic to get past.
My wife's a lollipop lady in Birmingham.
Given that a reasonably large proportion of the drivers at her crossing already ignore 9i) the rule about no phone use, (ii) the rule about no parking on the zig-zags, (iii) the rule about no speeding, and (iv) the rule about stopping for the lollipop, I dont suppose that it will overburden them to be faced with another rule that they can ignore.
Like most road safety rules, the problem lies not in needing more of them but in needing better enforcement. Self-enforcement is clearly beyond many people.
£70 fine?
Fail.
Seems reasonable to me as long as it's enforced often enough. If a parent ends up getting caught once per week then I'd reckon they'd change their parking habits.
This is a hard circle to break, more cars mean the only perceived safe means to travel is by car. Children take their social cues from others, too, and want to be delivered in the same way as everyone else. Presumably most children are still living within a couple of miles of their schools, in walkable or cycleable distances. Good on Solihull for giving this a go.
Brumberhampton / Solihill
I think it's a reasonable approximation.
Maybe they could specify if it's Tudor Grange or Widney Manor......
Whilst i agree that at times the parking by schools is atrocious but what do the residents expect when they own a house next door to a school ?
I live nearby a school and it does get hectic at the start and end of schools but its only for a matter of 20-30 mins. People need to be a bit more relaxed about it.
The alternative title for this post is "How I learned to stop worrying and love the car".
And if parents are too scared to let their kids cycle or walk into the mayhem that's just fine. Or if someone cycling past gets knocked by a harassed parent (as happened to a colleague two years ago) that's just dandy as well is it? Because hey, nothing matters as much as making drivers happy.
Two local to me within the last six month
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/boy-11-seriously-injured-after-bei...
http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/new-malden-crash-teenage-girl-dies...
Note, the second one wasn't school run traffic, it's even dafter. Trucks moving around in an area with several schools and opposite a primary. It's also part of the supposedly quiet cycle route.
No change at either localation so far despite complaints and petitions. That probably just means even more people driving "because the roads are too dangerous".
Well, yeah, but I really do feel it's got worse. My kids go to the village primary and yet most kids are driven to the school. The furthest point to the school is less than a mile. I've walked the kids to school then gone down to the village shop and met people parking up whom I'd passed parked outside school. Our village school is on a long straight road with cars parked both sides, and people still think it's appropriate to drive their kids to school.
not sure how this will work to be honest, will parents stop driving or will they simply trash the streets just outside the enforcement zone!
You're quite right, it doesn't work at all. Parent don't stop driving, they do simply trash the streets nearby.
The school about 1/2 mile from me had exactly this problem, grass verges wrecked, footway parking, junction parking and driveway blocking, etc., so the local council, in their wisdom, brought in waiting restrictions at school run times. Now the roads outside the approximately 300 yard exclusion zone are as bad as the roads near to the school were before the restrictions.
These parents just don't seem to grasp the fact that they themselves make the journey for kids on foot or two wheels unsafe by refusing to get out of the car.
The fact that the story quotes Tina Wiggin of SOLIHULL Council might just be a clue that this is happening in SOLIHULL, not Birmingham.
I know that neither of these places are in London, but that does not mean that they are the same place.
BTW. My daughter's school solved the problem by instituting a one-way system.
road.cc are based in Bath, have a go at them if it makes you feel better.
But none of these places are the west midlands so it's all the same. London/Bath often mused up.
"Look, Edward, there *is* a Swansea!"
My daughter's school *is* on a one-way road and if anything I can only imagine it's worse: parents park on the yellow zigzags then get the horn sounded at them by other parents behind who want to get up to the zigsags.
What's inexcusable is it's an inner city school with a tiny catchment area. Never mind cycling, the kids live close enough to pogo stick there, and yet so many are driven it defies belief.