Posted By Crim This is something that happens every day outside my son's school. You all know what I'm talking about - a line of cars parked on one side of the road restricting the road width. Cars moving up and down the road with those on the opposite side from the parked cars having to drive with 2 wheels on the pavement. How unsafe can this be? A pavement outside a school and drivers putting pedestrians at risk. Trouble is when you don't go on the pavement to allow other cars to pass you get the height of abuse from other drivers. I stand my ground when I have the right of way because I refuse to put others at risk. It also damages the tyres which aren't cheap these days. I wonder what other safety professionals do in these circumstances?

Posted By Phillipe Walk the kids much easier, but then the school is only 400yrds away. Interesting this week, the gas contractors are in renewing pipes and such like. What do they do, yes they have dug up both paths, on either side of the road, forcing parents and children to walk in the road for 100yrds or so whilst the traffic is driving moving along. Very inconsiderate and downright dangerous if you ask me.

Posted By TBC Depends on the road markings, but certainly get the police involved. If it's reported (even if you have to report a couple of times) and they don't do anything about it and then something was to happen they would be in the do-da. At least you will have tried to do something.

Posted By Lilian McCartney Have I read this correctly, is the road too narrow for two cars to pass? If so, there must be parking/stopping restrictions. I know in my area police or traffic wardens come out every now and then. Unfortunately this doesn't stop the parents who are bad drivers. Once when I was passing where they were doing gas pipe work the workman said just drive on the pavement. As it was a very high pavement I thought I might scrape the bottom of my car so I made them move all their stuff til I got by. They'd learned their lesson and followed Chapter 8 for next day! I sometmes feel in circumstances like this that I wish I had one of those monster trucks and can just drive over them. Schools sometimes also send letters to the parents. Lilian

Posted By Crim Well done Lilian and thanks to those who have replied responsibly. The road is wide enough for 2 cars to pass but not when cars are parked against the kerb. There are no restrictions in place and it is drivers who have nothing to do with the school that are abusive. There is also a bend in the road that contributes to the problem. By the sound of responders so far it looks as if lots of our fellow safety professionals are treating this with indifference - could it be that they also drive on the pavement. Hands up those who don't!

Posted By peter gotch Various authorities trying to blitz this via e.g. "Safer routes to school" initiatives. P

Posted By Stupendous Man I used to live near to an infant and junior school, which was situated on a busy road. The Police used to turn a blind eye to double parking as in their eyes it narrowed the road and made the flow of traffic slower, thus reducing the risk of an accident or injury to a child crossing the road. Obviously they considered that this far outweighed the risk of children emerging from behind parked cars into an (albeit slower) flow of traffic. Having said that, this all comes back to the current, sad situation, where an increasing number of people think that they have a god-given right to drive exactly how they want, without consideration for others. It seems that we cannot enforce motoring laws for fear of infringing their 'human rights'. I'm formly of the belief that driving risk assessments, travel to work plans and risk assessments regarding the movement of pedestrians (including children) should all make reference to the fact that there are people out there who do not drive according to the law or prevailing conditions.

Posted By Lilian McCartney My work mate has just said that at her daughters school the school has come to an agreement with the local supermarket that parents can leave their cars there and walk the kids to school from there. This seems a good arrangement to me as its a school which serves a wide area an is in the city. Of caourse you need something close at hand for this to work. I'm not sure (pills I'm on makes me forget things) but in the depth of my brain I seem to remember that it can be an instant £50 fine for parking on a pavement - or at least it used to be. Again you'd need the police to enforce it.

Posted By Mike Palfrey Hey, be fair, this is about the only off-roading those 4x4s will ever do. Be careful out there Mike

Posted By Frank Newman Not really being involved in this, kids here get bussed to school from local villages, may I suggest that all teachers agree to block the road with their vehicles every morning, maybe a couple of hundred meters from the school ? At both ends. This might help to break the town-tractor habit and at least ensure that kids walk at least a few hundred metres every day ? My youngest is now well over 40 And it's Friday. Merv