Since moving from the suburbs of London to live in the ‘country’ eight years ago I have been living in a bubble. My children have attended a very lovely small prep school in a small country village.
I could never really understand the uproar over people parking on yellow zig zag lines outside schools, surely that didn’t really happen? People really wouldn’t put children at risk would they?
I didn’t have to worry about parking as the school had it’s own car park, however I did notice that some parents parked irresponsibly there too making it hard at times to walk with several children and a baby safely.
The school would often send letters reminding parents to park responsibly.
My daughters have just started at our local primary school. It is a tiny school with just over a hundred pupils. Being new there I could be wrong but I would guess that the majority of the children have to travel to school by car because of the rural location. There are no buses, and pavements are few and far between.
Parking isn’t easy as the road isn’t very wide and most days I’ve ended up being about the furthest car from the school. I’m not used to the very early finishes…..who decides that the school day should end at 3.05pm? That’s the middle of the day in my books!
What I have been shocked to see was how many people park on the zig zag yellow lines. At first I thought they were taking advantage of the partly snow covered lines, did they think that made the restrictions void?
Did they not remember that the lines were there?
Do people not realise that those lines are there to protect their children?
Parking on these lines is only down to sheer laziness. I can understand that some people only need to drop off their children and not actually get out of the car but to park on these lines?
I noticed that others had parked and were actually taking children in to school, or picking them up.
‘Outside a school where yellow zig zag markings are shown, no vehicles should park or even let passengers out whilst the restrictions are in force.’
Bristol city council give £70 on the spot fines for this offence.
There are even Facebook groups campaigning against people parking on zig zag lines.
Here is one- ‘Parking on zig zag lines ouside schools is illegal you know ‘
We do seem to becoming a nation of very lazy people. To avoid parking outside the school may mean walking two minutes at the most up the road, probably even less at my daughters’ school. Why can’t everyone do that? The majority do.
Over the past twenty years the number of children going to school by car has more than doubled but the distance they travel to school has only increased slightly.
I remember my mother always walking me to school, she couldn’t drive at the time. When I got older I walked by myself. I never questioned it, there was no other option.
I’m no saint, I’ve had the odd speeding ticket and I’m no evangelist either but I do feel a bit miffed about people causing children danger unnecessarily. We are lucky, my children don’t need to cross the road, and there are no pavements opposite so it’s unlikely that anyone else has to either but I just can’t imagine what the situation is like in towns if this happens everywhere.
It seems that whatever deterrents are used lots of people still ignore them accepting the consequences whatever they may be.
Perhaps the headteachers should be taking a note of all the number plates and naming and shaming those that continue to endanger children.