Monday, May 07, 2007

Attn: Shelby Middle School carpoolers

Many mornings, I have the morning carpool for my children and others at Shelby Middle School. These are sixth-graders, so we go past the school, take a right and drop the children off there.

Sometimes, the line stretches around the corner, causing a small delay of 1-2 minutes.

It's amazing to me, though, to see parents simply drive around this line, bypassing those who are waiting their turn, and then knife in at the front.

When I was a kid, we called that cutting in line!

Why is this any different?

Shelby Middle parents, help me out -- what am I missing?!?!?

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is that a one-way street? If not, it should be. If it is, the solution is for the lined-up cars to make their lane out of the middle of the street, keeping drivers from passing and cutting in.

Anonymous said...

I agree with you. I patiently wait in line to drop my sixth grader off only to have someone fly by on the left and cut in the front of the line thus holding up everyone else while their "privileged" child gets out of the car. It is cutting in line. Why can't the school do something. Eventually someone is going to take the matter into their own hands and handle the problem. Maybe we should set up cameras and call them into the office and suspend their privileges.

Anonymous said...

Still trying to figure what monkeys came up with the school traffic plan...just kidding.
it is obvious that the school and the city need to come up with a plan to alleviate blocking Marion St. Maybe it's just me, but it seems there are far more kids picked up by parents than ride the buses. Mayve block off the one way street by the tennis courts and use it for bus traffic ?

Anonymous said...

One problem is that two grades are picked up/dropped off on the side street (6 and 7th), while only one of the grades(8th)is picked up/dropped off out front. But we all have to wait behind those eighth grade cars. Often there isn't even a line waiting on the side street, but we are all backed up on Marion street due to the 8th grade line. The afternoon pick up is much worse than the morning drop off actually.

Anonymous said...

Honestly, I was so frustrated with the line there that I began dropping off at the back of the school in the mornings. I have patience to wait in the line, but not for the people who think they shouldn't have to wait like the rest of us. Skip, if you really want to get fired up, go over to Jefferson in the afternoon and come from the direction of the YMCA to turn left into the school. It never fails that someone coming from the railroad tracks will cut into that middle lane so they do not have to wait in the right hand lane. Even after being told for years that lane 2 and 3 are for cars coming from the direction of the YMCA. So glad we just have a few weeks of school left.

Anonymous said...

Besides the obvious danger of cars cutting in and out of line on the one-way street, the more important concern might be what these parents are teaching their children about respecting the rules of the road, not to mention the rules of the school.

When problems at Jefferson arose (as mentioned in one of the responses), a letter from the principal went home to the parents. While it did not solve the problem entirely, it did curb some of the rule-breakers. Perhaps a letter signed both from the principals and the school police officer would remind parents of their responsibility in abiding by the rules set forth by the school and the DMV.

All of that aside, why is everyone in such a hurry at 7:45am in Shelby? What is so important that it warrants such poor behavior?

Anonymous said...

Another solution is to let our kids ride the buses that we are already paying for anyway!

When I was in elementary and middle school we didn't have 500 cars piling in to pick up kids. Why is it we could ride the bus to and from school, but little Johnny and Sally cant ride them today?

Anonymous said...

In response to the person who suggest that Johnny and Sally ride the bus. That would be a great idea if more students could ride the bus to and from school. The only problem is the black students that act like monkeys on the bus. Maybe all the kids that live in a 5 block radius of SMS could walk to school? Oops! Forgot about lightoak, ramblewood and hollyoak! Nevermind.