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!
I live less than a half-mile from my kids’ school, and people ask why I walk them instead of driving… everyday I see people who live closer than I get in their cars and drive 2 blocks to pick up their kids!
Its madness I tell you
That’s honestly disgusting. Not only for the environment and public safety, but those missed opportunities to get some level of activity in your day are simply pissed away in a car.
Like, people are OK commuting by car for 1-3 hours a day… but a 20 or 30 minute walk with a dozen benfits? NO WAY!
So many of them really just refuse to exist in public space. “The public” is full of evil undesirables, so let me go from my private space (home) to my private space (car) to go to my private space (work/school/venue) so i never have to exit in the scarrryyy public.
Even my more progressive best friends (a couple) refuse to go downtown because they can’t park directly in front of where they’re going, even though where they’d probably find a spot is still closer than your parking spot at Walmart or a grocery store - but I’m the crazy one for not prioritizing getting a new vehicle at all costs, sure.
Shit is bonkers.
There’s an elementary school near my house that borders a big housing development on two sides, so kids can walk there. But their parents drive them to the place where the crossing guard is. They sit there and wait for them at the end of the day, clogging the road.
It’s also part of the reason why so many of these kids (and their parents) are overweight.
my mum used to do that to make sure i actually went to
glorified baby sittingschool.