AutoTalk – What We Think!
April 22, 2009 by Matt Brogan
To show we’re more than road testers and news writers, members of the CarAdvice team will from here on in present regular editorial pieces on a topic close to their heart … or simply something they need to get of their chest.
Every morning when leaving for work I have to pass through a school zone some two blocks from my estate. It’s the worst five minutes of my driving day.
It’s unavoidable too, I have no other way around, and though it may seem a small deal to most, this one small section of road is loathed by myself, and quite a few of my neighbours, and I’ll tell you why in one single word: attitude.
The disturbing display of driving behaviour, lack of courtesy and utter contempt shown by the majority of parents dropping their ‘little darlings’ off to school each morning is completely deplorable.
You’d be wrong if you thought parents are supposed to be role models, setting good examples for their kids, because it simply doesn’t happen.
Now, not to sound frightfully old, but back in my day we rode bikes to school, and though this presents issues of its own, it pales into insignificance when you compare it to the utter stupidity and shocking attitudes shown outside this, and I’m sure many other schools each morning.
Tailgating of those who obey the 40km/h limit, speeding, double parking, triple parking, driving on to nature strips, not stopping for the Children’s Crossing, sudden braking or swerving into prime parking spots, inattentive driving and, believe it or not, obscene verbal road rage … and the list goes on.
Worst of all I see it every single morning – without fail.
When school went back earlier this year, St. Kilda police (an inner Melbourne suburb) caught 17 drivers speeding in one morning – a 90 minute period – and this was the first day back for the school term.
One driver was nabbed doing 97km/h in the 40km/h school zone!
To add insult to injury, a few weeks later in Victoria’s second largest city of Geelong, 25 drivers were caught in that same 90 minute time-frame outside one school, the majority of offenders caught were parents of children at that same school.
Now to highlight my point about attitude, and this is a ripper, after being pulled over for speeding a mother in question remarked “do what you need to do, I’m in hurry to pick my kids up”.
It’s shameful.
Several parents were also nabbed for drink-driving offences, not wearing seatbelts and talking on a mobile phone during that same period.
And you wonder why I’m nervous!
One morning I’m convinced I’m going to be hit, or worse still, see an accident involving a child.
It’s a pathetic lack of respect and a danger to the young lives we’re supposed to value above even our own, and yet it happens day-in, day-out.
As far as I’m concerned it’s about time School Zones were more heavily policed, for maybe then, with any luck, these irresponsible parents might get it through their thick heads that safe driving in school zones is far more important than dropping your kids within a metre of the front gate.
Print it: 
I agree wholeheartedly – I pass a school zone every morning and I see the exact same behaviour by so called parent’s flouting the very same rules designed to protect the kids.
In any case – I observe the speed limit and constantly get tail gated by all and sundry. Needless to say – I really don’t care and late last year – someone who pulled out to overtake me got booked several hundred metres down the rd. That was justice. LOL.
I agree – something more needs to be done and another consistent behaviour i see is drivers failing to stop once the lolly pop person has started to stop traffic and you just see cars zoom through.
As a user of the Monash Freeway ( Nightmare ) I am fed up with the majority of motorists that have no regard for the speed restrictions and have the attitude that they can do any thing they like – the Victorian Govt can save a bundle on money by melting down the speed signs and selling them for scrap and then not bother to replace them. The Vic Police reported that they booked 5000 motorists over the Easter Weekend for speeding – I am suggesting that they could do this every couple of days on the Monash if they wanted to and had the rescources to do -
I think that they should make it that no schools have direct vehicle or pedestrian access onto a main road. Because when I was living in the Blue mountains there were a number of schools built on the Great Western Highway which meant the RTA created 40Km/h school zones.
However; if you’re travelling at 80 Km/h on the highway and you start braking for the 40Km/h school zone you’re virtually through it before you have to speed back up to 80Km/h I mean you’d be lucky to ever reach 40Km/h [as on average they are less than 500m long]
The other option is that instead of teaching our kids something really “useful” like french – why not teach em road safety – it can start in primary school with how to cross a road and include the impact of a car travelling at 40-60-80Km/h etc…
It can then flow through to High school where they learn the the road rules and how to drive a car
Wow, you have 40km/h school zones… try our bloody 25km/h zones here in SA. Unfortunately for us we have drivers acting like this everywhere in SA, not just school zones. Road rage is just a part of getting to and from work here.
A while back I was thinking about the whole road rage thing and thought as a way to curb this idiotic behaviour it might be handy to have new laws passed that made it a traffic offense to display certain acts of road rage.
I dunno, maybe its all just a symptom of our society becoming less tolerant and more self-involved.
Wheelnut, you’re supposed to slow down to the speed limit before you get to the sign, and schools do have a comprehensive road safety education program, right through all age groups.
What annoys me is the variation, of shool crossing rules in particular, accross the country. All states have adopted the “National road rules” but there are still too many vatriations.
And BTW 40 km/h is too fast through a school crossing.
Matt are you talking about a “crossing” or just a school “zone” – there is a difference.
School zones are a pain in the arse. Even (especially) parents don’t adhere to them. I believe they should be scrapped and replaced with traffic light crossings and fences along the edge of the road. Traffic safety was a small part of my primary school curriculum and it should be expanded.
I’m going to play devil’s advocate here. Before the introduction of 40km/h speed limits in school zones, did Vitoria have a problem with children being run over left right and centre? Has there been a sharp reduction in fatalities in school zones since then? Or are the reduced speed limits simply an excuse for a) the government to make more revenue, b) select public servants to justify their salaries, and c) people with no life to point their finger and scream at anyone doing 43km/h just like the pod people in Invasion of the Body Snatchers? (The 1980’s Donald Sutherland remake, not the crappy Nicole Kidman version). I dunno…I don’t remember there being a plethora of kids being squooshed near schools by people doing 60km/h.
Mega, I disagree. The biggest variable in school zones is the kids themselves, hence why we need to have school zones i.e. we basically have to do their safety-thinking for them. There is nothing wrong with the existing laws, other than they should be policed a hell of a lot more frequently and harshly. Perhaps tripling the demerit points and fines for those breaking any traffic law within a school zone – that would go a long way to making those reckless parents respectful of the laws quick smart.
^ and before I get bashed around the ears for making these comments, I should also add that I too find having to slow down frustrating, but I look at it as a necessary evil. I will have kids some day in the very near future, and I would be pretty annoyed at reckless drivers needlessly endangering the lives of my kids becasue they can’t be bothered to obey the traffic laws within the school zones.
The whole cutting people off to get the closest park to the school gate couldn’t be more true. The most frustrating part is that the activity has nothing to do with getting the child to school on time and more to do with showing off the new X5 and getting a spot close to friends. The same friends you’ll be meeting for coffee 10 minutes later.
What I can’t understand is why parents have to drop their kids off at the front gate? They have 2 legs and a heartbeat, why can’t they walk 100 meters?
Another annoying thing is that there are some places where there is an overpass and 7 foot high fences so that kids can’t get onto the road or cross it and there is still a 40km/h zone, and worst still, some have a speed camera.
There shold be no schood zones for Highschools on main roads if there is a traffic light crossing.
If highschool kids can’t work out how to cross at a crossing then they should be sent back to kindy.
There should be no 40 zones on any road of 70km/h or more. is just to dangerous.
The big problem is people (including myself) just don’t notice school zones in area’s they are not used to.
Why can’t they colour the road with that paint stuff they use in bus lanes ? No one would miss that
wow, sorry for the atrocious spelling/grammar in my previous post. that’s what typing angry does to me !
here in SA, 2 school zones i drive through have speed & red light cameras on them. There’s a certain sweetness about knowing your painfully doing the limit and the guy that just sped you past has taken his own picture.
avoid d*ckheads matt. leave for work earlier.
Horse, can’t you read road signs?
I drive past 3 School zones each time I go to or from work. I also work with plenty of kids who you class as ‘at risk’ of spiraling out of control. Most (not all) of the time, looking at the parents and their attitudes are directly related to their childs issue.
Each time I drive past the schools, its easy to see why there are so many ‘crazy’ kids now days, because Mum or Dad are Moronic fools!
I would say to motorists, “Picture each kid you see near a school as your own when your driving” but thats a waste of time just as Matt wrote “Now to highlight my point about attitude, and this is a ripper, after being pulled over for speeding a mother in question remarked “do what you need to do, I’m in hurry to pick my kids up”.
It’s shameful.”
People should require psych testing before they are allowed to breed.
That would cut the birth rate a bit I reckon, around 80%
Instead we pay them $5000 for each unwanted brat and then expect the parent (yes, I don’t mean the plural) to be a responsible adult at the school zone 6 years later (when the money’s all gone). That’s a false expectation as is evidenced by the posts.
Reckless1 – But it isn’t the poor ones relying on welfare that are the problem. It is the stuck up b*tches in their Prado’s, Territory’s and other generic SUVs that are the problem. These women have such a high opinion of themselves (and their kids) that any word of criticism is taken personally and you get a mouthful of sailor speak back. Of course, their kids are special and are perfect little angels.
I have noticed when dropping my son to school that as the PTSI increases, the amount of psychopathic mothers increases with it.
PTSI is the Prado/Territory/SUV Index.
How about the Government set up large car parks for people to park then the parents can walk to the gates and collect or drop off their children?
The benefits of this are -
1. Parents and children get some exercise
2. Children can learn some road awareness from their parents
3. Roads are less congested
If it’s raining, get an umbrella.
Most school zones are not designed as high traffic areas. If a school can not accommodate the volume of traffic than why not stagger start and finish times to allow an even flow? I am sure if you gave parents the option for early or late drop off you would relieve the tension.
Yes, its true that many do not slow down in school zones (seriously goto Blaxland Road in Denistone in Sydney at 8:10am, you will see about 20 in the whole morning actually doing 40km/h).
CA, how about the next piece be written about the lack of motorists’ headlights on during either grey days and/or rain or worse. I was driving through the Blue Mountains yesterday (Leura/Katoomba etc) when complete fog/rain came along and covered everything in sight and honestly you couldnt see 10 metres in front of you. I was probably the only person with headlights-front/rear foglights on in my Skoda in the whole town! Massively more safe than other drivers, and massively more aware of the dangers of no headlights on.
Ha I used to get p’d off by the two school zones i go through on my way to work, now I just leave home half an hour earlier and stop at gloria jeans for a coffee and read the paper before heading to the office. Get to the office relaxed and don’t have to worry about drinking instant coffee in the morning. Works for me and I don’t get the agro :-)
Has anyone noticed that most parents picking up their children from school, possess very bad attitudes regardless of whether they are breaking the law?
A prime example is my local primary school, where parents queue in the middle of the road so they could eventually get into the pickup/dropoff zone. It’s an absolute disgrace as other road users are forced to either wait, or drive on the other side of the road into oncoming traffic to bypass those blocking the road. I’ve found that no matter how long I lay on the horn, these rude parents wouldn’t budge and even give you accusing looks in their mirrors.
It’s time for the police to not only focus on speeding motorists in school zones, but enforce general traffic etiquette and deal with those who impede traffic.
Too right damian. Im a student in year 11 in Sydney, but the parents in front of my school are very corteous and follow thr rules. there is the occasional boofhead but they all pass. The good thing our school did was make a divider in the middle of the road to stop u-turns that were holding up traffic and also stop overtaking as the school is just before a bridge and its really long and straight.
Shak, I hope they don’t put dividers outside my local primary school, since the only way of bypassing the queue is to drive onto the other side of the road. This is, no doubt, the most dangerous and hazardous option. However, the only other alternative would be to endure the ten minute wait. Why should fellow motorists have to make concessions and suffer just because a few parents want to pick up their deliquents?
We have a local school that has a 40kmh school zone on a six lane, 80kph road – most cars slow down to close to 40kph – except for a lot of the cars in the left lane….. the ones turning in to the school driveway loaded with kids…..
I Hate the school zone on narrelan road, smeatons grange. I go home from work that way and it’s 80kph on that road but in the school zone the only kids i see are on the bus. I don’t even know where the school is. But thats nothing compared to how many times i been stuck behind tractors on the way home I HATE TRACTORS
^btw i always slow down for the school zones
Great article Matt. So true, with the problem not just in Australia. We have similar problems here. My kids school is about 150 metres from out front door on a quiet road and it’s lethal sometimes trying to cross the kids over the road. Footpaths are 1.5 meters wide with parents insisting they they have to park on them to drop their kids off when they should in theory live no more than 15 minutes walk away (Catchment Zones).
The bigger probnlem is we all turn into different animals when we get behind the wheel, the educated like you Matt and myself keep a level head and see the better picture, the type that read tabloids have no intelligence capability to make a decent considerate decision. Morons some of which have made comments here!!
most parents are complete idiots who smother there children.people who usually live 50m away will drive tehre angels to school.
Yep,these school zones are needed because of the unruly children and parents not being able to control them.
Children are put up on a pedal stool with hardly any discipline at home and our society pays for it with ratbag behaviour from these children later on in life.
These kids can play computer games,argue,manipulate,lie etc and yet,they have trouble crossing the bloody roads!?!
Someone talked about parents maybe walking their children to school.That could work especially for fat bottomed mothers!that seem to NEED an AWD such as a HUGE Toyota Landcruiser to drive their one child to school!
There are so many school zones in sydney , back streets main roads, they are everywhere !
The other thing that pisses me off is I never know when school holidays is, I had a guy go ape at me for doing 40 through a school zone in the school holidays, I don’t have kids, how the hell was i supposed to know ?
Damian, dare I say it – get a life. For 15 minutes, twice a day there is always haevy traffic around all schools. Don’t you have something more serious in your life?
Anyway, change of shift in large manufacturing areas is MUCH worse, well it used to be before KRudds mismanagement forced all of the closures!
Ha Ha Ha, my opportunity to really upset my fellow bloggers. If I offend anyone I offer my appologies beforehand, but I feel the need to point out the following.
Reading a lot of your replies about how bad it is to be held up by someone else during a one hour period every day and how irate you get is just a prime example of the lack of driver education in Australia.
Sorry but queing up on a road whilst waiting to turn into a drive way IS NOT ILLEGAL! It may be impolite sure but it’s not agianst the law. Sure the people dropping kids off are anoying, but if the average motorist had actually used common sense and drove to the prevailing condidtions in the first place these zones would not be needed.
WHy is it that as far as the majority of vocal car drivers are concerned, it is always the Trucks (including Semi’s), 4wd Drivers, Motorcyclists, Caravaner, Cyclists, Pedestrian and Tractor drivers that are at fault not the car drivers??Perhaps the average car driver need to learn the simple fact that the world doesn’t evolve around them. As Cupid said a lot of you become diferent beasts once you are armed with a set of wheels.
As I said a little earlier in this thread, I have to go through two zones on my way to work, so I simply changed my routine leave earlier and have a very nice Coffee on my way to work arrive relaxed and ready to start the day. Also by leaving earlier the actual trip time takes less becasue there is less traffic to contend with so again less agro etc etc. If others took this attitude they might actually find that their whole life gets much nicer.
Flame away at me if chose, or go back and read how selfish you sound in your comments.
“Damian, dare I say it – get a life. For 15 minutes, twice a day there is always haevy traffic around all schools. Don’t you have something more serious in your life?”
Dare I say, Bret, you’re one of those d*ckheads that incovenience other motorists by parking in the middle of the road so you could pick up your kids?
That 15 minutes is still my time and instead of wasting it being stuck behind selfish parents dropping off their little sh*ts, I’d rather spend that time arriving to work early and posting on CarAdvice.
Frontman, you’re a fool ….. for thinking that half the twits on here could be so rational. I mean why let common sense and courtesy get in the way of you’re own self interest. Really!
(Please read this with the sarchasm it’s intended)
Damian, thanks for proving myself and Frontman 100% correct – tool.
And I suppose everyone who gets in your precious way wasting your precious time is a d*ckhead? Geuss what everyone else thinks of YOU? D*CKHEAD!!!
And BTW, no I don’t use the entrance off the main road, but the off street “drop N go”. Our school is on a major thouroughfare (but still only 50 km/h road anyway) and the school doesn’t cause any of the “sh*t” you b*tch about.
FRONTMAN, Well said! I agree with you 100%…well other than the cup of coffee, never did like the taste.
The only issue I have ever had with school zones is when they are 24hr 40kph zones…completely unnecessary.
Heres a idea, make the little brats walk to school like we all had to.
Get a job where you leave for work before school zones kick in, Simple.
In QLD most of the new schools and some existing have been upgraded to have a drop off car park in a drive through maccas style set up.
I do understand though that there will always be that one person that has to land the boot half a metre from the gate.
I thought it was christmas when i ever got droped at school.
Walking or riding home in a cracker of a summer storm is only character building anyhow, toughen up Australia
Frontman Says:
April 23rd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
“Why is it that as far as the majority of vocal car drivers are concerned, it is always the Trucks (including Semi’s), 4wd Drivers, Motorcyclists, Caravaner, Cyclists, Pedestrian and Tractor drivers that are at fault”
Just to clarify i don’t blame tractor drivers for anything there only doing there job i just don’t like them.
Having spent some time riding with my brother in his b-double on long haul trips really does give you a good perspective on how many bad drivers there are on our roads (and I hope i’m not one of them).