"Mark" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 27 Apr 2009 14:54:40 +0100, "mileburner"
wrote:


"Mark" wrote in message
. ..

To me this shows a lack of care, awareness and consideration. All of
which should be present for someone to be allowed to drive IMHO.

(I am a parent and school governor and have been campaigning, with
only minor successes, for many years for road/pavement safety
improvements to be made near the schools so I am particularly
sensitive to Simon's statement.)

I would be interested to know what improvements you would like to see
concerning road/pavement safety.

In this particular case the roads are generally narrow and there are
areas where parking is *not* prohibited. In places the pavements are
very narrow and not continuous. Some of the pavements slope steeply
towards the road. There is a lot of vehicular and pedestrian traffic
due to the 3 large schools nearby and the road is used as a rat run to
avoid traffic lights on the main road (I assume).

The problems we face a
- Cars/lorries mounting the pavement due to the narrowness of the
road. The fact that the pavement is full of children does not seen
to dissuade them of this.
- Dangerous overtakes of parked vehicles.
- A continuous convoy of parents who drive their child to the door of
the school, turn round and leave. Some of them actually block the
pavement or entrance of one school!
- Many more issues that I haven't time to recount.

There were some changes made a few years ago (one pavement widened & a
ped crossing added) but the increase in traffic levels have negated
these IMHO.

So it's a fairly big problem. I'd like to see the road closed (access
only) during school times but I don't think this will happen.

Other things we'd like to see is the pavements fixed and widened. One
of the local councilors has suggested a one way system or traffic
lights to ensure traffic is only flowing one way at a time but I doubt
they would stump up the money for this.

The issues are complex because solving one problem can lead to another. For
example, if you remove the parked cars, (legal or not), you end up with
increased traffic speeds. The biggest problem (and the one which can most
easily be tackled) is the school eliminating the problem of parents driving
their children right up to the school. What this *will* do is have a major
impact in the volume of traffic itself. Another thing that has worked well
outside my childrens school is they have painted a cycle lane. This has
stopped parents stopping and parking in it and the pedestrians now use it as
additional footway - oh yes, the cyclists just ride out wider into the ever
narrowing road. As a result of the ever narrowing road, the amount of
traffic which now try to use it as a rat-run has decreased sharply.