Walking my grandkid to/from school, it absolutely floors me how many dangerous drivers there are around kids.
In a matter of maybe 10 minutes, I’ve witnessed:
- at least a dozen cars illegal parked. It’s not the parking that bothers me, but the fact that these cars are often parked on turns or just before intersections, making it impossible for other drivers to see small kids.
- Several people not stopping at stop signs, including at the exit of the school parking lot.
- One car, who completely blew through a stop sign at the front of the school, made a left turn and nearly hit a guy walking his kid. The driver didn’t even slow down.
- Super fucking huge pickup trucks parked in the school parking lot, but their long ass hangs well over the sidewalk near the kindergarden area, leaving very little space to use the sidewalk.
- Speeding. Obviously, you have to have speeding in school zones, right?
This happens every day, during drop off and pick up. I was told that bylaw were “cracking down”, but no, they aren’t. If they were, our municipality would generate $5000 in fines each and every day at every school.
The other day, I rode my bike past another school as kids were getting out. Not only was their massive parking lot completely full, but they had blocked the bike trail (WITH PYLONS) to make space for more cars. Then as I entered onto the road, cars were illegally parked along the road and on a bridge for a like 100m. Making it extremely difficult and dangerous to cross because they blocked visibility for me and other drivers on the road.
I asked the cross guard if these students all lived out of town, requiring every parent to drive them home; he obviously didn’t get my joke.
Seriously, fuck cars. All of them!
The car drop off lines they have in America look like pure torture. I don’t understand. Does America not have school buses anymore?
The high schools in my city have dedicated city bus routes that transport most of the students. All students who live more than about 1km away get a city bus pass for the year, which means the school transport can be pretty flexible. This is in Canada btw. Many of the people who opt to drive instead either cone from far away because of certain programs at the school or are just privelidged af.
I’m in Canada, and yes, we do. In fact, the buses were having difficulty getting into the school’s parking lot because of the way the illegally parked cars were quite literally at the edge of the turn (leaving little space for the bus). It’s been sheer madness these past few weeks.
And it’s hilarious (not) when people put on their hazard lights to park illegally while they pick up their kid. I swear to the gods, if my municipality ever gave citizens the ability to write up parking tickets, I’d reduce our property taxes by 10% from the revenue I’d generate! 😄