Daventry Neighbourhood Police Teams

NeighbourhoodTeamDaventry@northants.police.uk

School traffic at start of new academic year

At the start of the school year there will be children attending new schools transported by parents unfamiliar with the usual congestion associated with the morning school run. As such this is a good time to remind people of the following considerations to ease some of these issues;

• Park with consideration to residents – do not block or overlap driveways.
• Do not park on the corners of junctions as you reduce views and make it awkward for vehicles to safety turn into or out of a street.
• Do not park across or impede pedestrian crossings or school zig-zag markings.
• Do not drive along pavements when a road is blocked – be patient and wait for traffic to clear.
• On congested routes plan ahead and do not proceed unless there is a clear space to use to give way to oncoming traffic or to allow traffic to give way to you.
• Allow larger vehicles, such as buses, enough space to turn into or out of roads.
• If possible join with other parents and share journeys to reduce the number of vehicles used and/or avoid congested routes.
• Please be patient where a car has to cross a pavement to exit a carpark. The driver’s view may be restricted and this will be further reduced by pedestrians congregating whilst waiting to pass.
• Be aware that children do not easily judge the speed of traffic and may step out into the road. 20 or 30mph may be the limit but generally much slower speeds are required.
• Pedestrians, especially with young children, should use the side of the road with the widest pathway and wherever possible protected from flowing traffic by barriers or parked cars. “Why should we have to cross and use the other side of the road?” – If it’s the safest option in any situation then it’s worth doing! A large number of children using a narrow path will always be at risk no matter how busy the road.

The above list is not exhaustive and there will be occasions where people make errors of judgement, especially under pressure. We are all human so please be patient. Police officers will monitor where they can, however there are a large number of schools across the Daventry area all experiencing the same issues.