Yay for traffic wardens

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Not strictly my commute, but whilst collecting my eldest from School today (she's doing her induction period*) I began fuming at the inconsiderate idiot who had parked blatantly on the 'School - Keep Clear' section of the road right outside the school gates...

Upon collecting my Daughter I noticed with glee that a Traffic Warden was taking photos and (presumably) ticketing the vehicle too.

I pointed it out to my Daughter saying that "the Policeman was going to tell the driver off as he shouldn't be parked there"... some other parents noticed me pointing this out and began to mention it to their offspring too and generally all were saying that it was a good thing that they were being done for their parking....

So, hopefully we have her at a school where at least some of the parents have their brains engaged enough to realise the dangers and won't do it themselves... well, I can hope!!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Just a question to all of the above, but do Traffic Wardens actually have the right to ticket such people? Is it legally enforceable on the yellow zig-zags? I know the white ones are (near ped crossings etc.).

 

[TwickenhamCyclist]

I live opposite a school, have worked in a school and also have children at school and it never ceases to amaze me that a selfish minority of parents seem to think that the keep clear areas are there to allow them to drop off and pick up their children.

Ask The Head to put a reminder in the newsletter, or better still, find out who it is and ask the school governors to write the parent a letter explaining how dangerous and selfish they are.

 

[swee'pea99]

Speaking as an ex-governor, it won't make a blind bit of difference. They know how dangerous/illegal/selfish they are. They just don't care.

Our (primary) school was plagued by parents who'd bring their kids in 10-15 minutes late, every day. Very often ones who lived in the same street as the school. The head and governors contacted them again and again, explaining how unfair it was to their kids and the teachers, and disruptive to the rest of the class. Made no difference at all. Same ones, every day. Just....don't care.

 

[wafflycat]

Yup - every school my son went to, the parking was awful. Every few months the local plod would turn up and give warnings/tickets. Cue "Disgusted of Norfolk" attitude of those warned/ticketed followed by a few days of courteous parking and then everything would be back to normal once it was realised plod wouldn't be around for a while.

 

[Arch]

Our local press have just run a story highlighting the point of the yellow zig zag apparently, but when I went past a local school last week at 3ish, you'd think the yellow zig zag meant 'park here'...

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

I'm training my eldest to voice her displeasure loudly and not so subtley (sp?) at such things - i.e. "Daddy, why is that man parking his car there? He shouldn't be doing that, should he?" which draws attention to the offender and *may* shame them into altering their behaviour.... get me, what planet am I on today???

 

[domtyler]

She may start getting called Lisa Simpson!!

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

as long as I don't end up like Homer it's okay.

 

[wafflycat]

I'm training my eldest to voice her displeasure loudly and not so subtley (sp?) at such things - i.e. "Daddy, why is that man parking his car there? He shouldn't be doing that, should he?" which draws attention to the offender and *may* shame them into altering their behaviour.... get me, what planet am I on today???

*snork*

My offspring, in his much younger days, whilst he & I would be cycling on road, would pass an adult pavement cyclist and say, in a loud voice, "Mum, does that person's mummy not think he (she) is old enough to cycle on the road yet?"

 

[Bollo]

Standard behaviour for the school run I'm afraid. The mums are generally distracted and the dads are at their most aggressive and everyone is 'special' and the rules do not apply to them.

The ride away from my daughter's school after drop-off is easily the riskiest part of my commute. Despite repeated requests not to, many parents still drive into the school for a drop-off, despite issues over safety and insurance.

 

[BentMikey]

You should have heard the fuss that was kicked up after the school installed card controlled electric gates so that the shiny-bottomed lazy parents couldn't drive into school anymore!!!

 

[John the Monkey]

You should have heard the fuss that was kicked up after the school installed card controlled electric gates so that the shiny-bottomed lazy parents couldn't drive into school anymore!!!

The place my little monkeys went to when we still lived in Heald Green banned parents from the car park after numerous close shaves. We were about 5-10 minutes walk away, and I knew people not much further down the road who;

a) Drove every day, regardless.
Still couldn't manage to get there on bloody time.

Sharky, and other Manc commuters might be interested to know that the wardens are ticketting in Rusholme again (one of the worst areas for bloody stupid parking in Manchester centre, imo).

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

Standard behaviour for the school run I'm afraid.

I hope it is.. the part where they get ticketed, I mean.

It's a narrow road which leads to other narrow roads which are, effectively, single file in the mornings and evening... it must take them longer by car as they have to wait their turn to be able to drive up each bit of road until they have to pull over to let someone move forward a bit... etc. etc.

 

[Cab]

Its a bit of a catch 22. They all drive their kids to school becasue walking takes too long and its far too dangeorus (or so they believe), due to all of the cars and due to just how stupid all the motorists are... Thus they're all really contributing to the problem they're trying to avoid. If they all DIDN'T drive their kids to school and instead walked them there (or allowed them to walk) then there wouldn't be this problem, but, of course, that ain't likely...

And there does seem to be something particularly brain dead about school run parents.