Negative comments

• Congestion on surrounding streets is the most frequently mentioned negative comment about the school street area during the trial
• Danger from inconsiderate driving, a lack of safe crossing points and illegal parking are also frequently mentioned (more than 10%)
• There is frustration that the trial is not always in place because of bad weather or insufficient volunteers

*question wording changed from previous waves. Wording for waves 1 and 2 was “What, if anything, do you dislike about the street the school is on?”

This table shows the most common themes around what respondents dislike about King’s Academy College Park’s school street during the trial:
28% dislike the congestion on surrounding streets
16% dislike that it is unsafe
11% dislike inconsiderate/ dangerous drivers (i.e. speeding, reversing, pulling out, etc.)
11% dislike cars parked illegally/ improperly
10% dislike that the trial was not consistently in place e.g. bad weather, not enough volunteers
4% dislike that vehicles were still using the road during the trial or arriving earlier to park and wait
4% dislike that it makes the school run or getting to work more difficult/ take longer
4% dislike verbal abuse e.g. of volunteers, lollipop man, other drivers, pedestrians
4% dislike children not using their road safety skills
2% dislike that there is no lollipop man
2% dislike that there is not enough parking spaces
2% dislike dog poo
8% give other comments
6% give comments that are n/a
45% give no comment

I have found since the school street trial began, it is more obvious children are not using their skills to cross a road safely because they are blocked off they are just running across, however many children have further to go then just the next road and it seems they are getting in more of a habit of not looking for traffic. Cars are constantly dropping off at the barrier and reversing into the main road to leave again. It’s becoming much more dangerous around surrounding streets.

The school regularly announces due to bad weather whether school streets is running on that day, there is no need to announce this info and it’s counter intuitive and gives a heads up for parents that it’s ok to drive to school. I have also noticed parents parking their cars in the school street zone before roads close which defeats the whole point of safer streets initiative The surrounding streets becoming gridlocked, especially Kirby and Stubbington Avenue

Traffic congestion was worse. The removal of the lollipop man made crossing Kirby road more dangerous.  As a resident it made leaving my house during school time very difficult and I was late to work as a result on more than one occasion

Parents are still trying to get as close to the school as they can, careless, angry drivers make it a horrible walk in surrounding streets before the closed roads