20 is plenty

I’ve been meaning to post about road safety outside schools for a while and a rare sighting of common sense yesterday has provided a nice photo to illustrate the way I’ve long thought speed limits outside schools should work. There is a school at the end of the road I live in which provides plenty of entertainment as parents cause utter mayhem and chaos at the start and end of the school day. So far the council has mostly resisted the cries of, “Won’t Someone Please Think of the Children?” with pointless pinch points and a couple of “20 is plenty” signs rather than some of the more ridiculous options I’ve seen. I’m convinced that some of the crazier road schemes actually make things more dangerous for the children who do walk to school.

So what’s the answer? Well, driving more slowly when there are mad parents driving 4x4s badly does seem like a good idea (also good if there are children running about the place) however a permanent 20 mph speed limit is over the top for the short times at the start and end of school that it is intended for. Then there’s the school holiday. The answer is so blindingly obvious that I’ve been wondering for years why it hasn’t already been done but I’m happy to say that it has already been done, outside schools near Bath:

Simple and clear. The lights are already there and a sensible sign like that won’t cost any more than daft efforts with snails on. Enforcing it would help of course, especially to begin with, preferably with a real person who could assist parents with not driving quite so dangerously at the same time. Might send this photo to Eastleigh council to see whether they want to try it.

The next huge improvement for safety would be for schools to admit that most parents drive their children to school and make proper provision for cars to drop off and collect children safely with staff on hand, on school grounds! (The space would be free the rest of the day as a playground.) Getting rid of all the cars parked where children want to cross the road would help wouldn’t it? Maybe that’s a little too crazy!

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