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TRAFFIC SIGNS ARE NOT SUGGESTIONS!
- Oct 21, 2009 at 10:52 AM
- By
- Comments (21) Total Views (381) Everyone can see this journal post.
I just got back from dropping my fourth child off at the third school of the morning. I have just one word for the experience at all three schools - ARGH! Okay, that is really not a word, but I am just speechless at the shear number of people who think that traffic signs are not meant to be followed - at least by them. Because for some reason they find themselves above the law in these incidences. That is right, people! It is against the law to disobey traffic signs!
That sign in bright red letters that says - NO PARKING, STANDING OR STOPPING and the hours listed below it. Guess what? It means exactly that - no parking, standing or stopping in that area when you drop off or pick up your child from school. There are no caveats for it's raining, You're running late or you don't want to wait in the carpool line like everyone else. It is not a suggestion, it is a LAW and you are breaking that law every time you stop traffic because you ignore the sign. Look around you. You are not the only person who has to get your child to school and when you back up traffic it makes all the law abiding citizens late because they can't get past the intersection.
Did you see the sign that has an arrow pointing left with a big red circle around it and a diagonal line drawn through it? That means that you are not supposed to make a left hand turn into the parking lot from there. The law does not care that you live in the opposite direction from the school and it is inconvenient for you to circle around to make a right turn into the parking lot. Notice the long line of cars waiting to turn right into the school? It is inconvenient for those people to let you sneak in - they left in plenty of time so that they could obey the traffic laws along the way to dropping their kid off at school. Flipping them off when they don't let you cut in front of them does not make them want to give way to your tantrum-like behavior, it just makes you look foolish in front of a group of elementary school kids.
Did you happen to notice the big white writing on the two lanes for traffic running through the circular driveway? One clearly says DROP OFF LANE and the other lane equally as clearly says DRIVE THRU LANE. Let me take a moment to educate you on those two terms. Drop off lane means that you stay in that lane, the one on the right so as to allow your child to safely exit your car (how smart is that!), until you get at or near the entrance of the school. You then let your kid out and then you swing over into the drive thru line so that you can continue on your way out of the parking lot safely without running any kids down. Oh, wait! No one can do that because there you are - breaking the law again. You are using the drive thru line as your personal lane to line skipping, thus clogging the lane whose sole purpose is to keep the line moving. No one cares that you don't want to sit in that line because you are running late, have a meeting to get to or whatever. NO ONE CARES! No one wants to have to dodge your kid as he darts out of your car that you have stopped in the left hand lane (you know, the one marked DRIVE THRU). Nor do they want to have to sit in the right lane after they have dropped their kid off legally for you to move out of the way in the drive thru lane.
No one likes to wait in long lines. Everyone feels a bit rushed in the morning. I get that, but those traffic signs were placed on the streets in front of schools for a reason and that reason is SAFETY. It is not safe to everyone around you when you decide that those traffic signs were not meant for you to follow. No one wants to be responsible for hitting your car, or God forbid, your kid because you did not follow the signs. Get up earlier, plan ahead, do whatever you have to do, but please, for safety's sake, stop breaking the law.
Tags: traffic, frustration, school, carpool
Comments:
At our school, we have a "Bus Only" entrance and a "Parent/Visitor" entrance. The Bus Only takes you to the front of the school, where, guess what? The buses unload the kids! No personal vehicles allowed! The Parent/Visitor entrance takes you to the street to the back of the school, where they have it set up for Pick up/Drop off, with teachers there to supervise the kids. We had so many parents not following the rules, the principal had a sheriff come and park there. Everyone that went to the front of the school (or came through the Bus Only entrance) got a ticket! He had sooo many doing it, he had to call for back up!
There IS a reason the entrances are SEPARATE. There IS reason the drop off points are SEPARATE!
Use the brains God gave you and follow the rules!! You might actually save a life!
So true, Debra.
A young girl was killed the other day in a town near me. Someone blatantly drove thru a stop sign and ran her over. They have now posted a crossing guard on this corner but sure seems a little late. If only people read the signs. ~sigh
Oh that's terrible, Maria. :(
That is awful, Maria. We have a crossing guard at the elementary school, but the high school is on a fairly busy road. I don't trust high school kids to watch where they are going and I don't trust the drivers around there to watch out for walkers.
but wait... I am more important than everyone else... now is it okay??? *wink*
We have many of these things happen at the school I teach at. A mother broke the law and cut off a school bus. The mirror on her car was broken off and the bus driver lost her job. The mom got a $200 ticket but the bus driver was the only income for her family (husband in laid off,) Grrr.
WELL NOW
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AMEN!!