Monday, October 22, 2007

An Accident Waiting to Happen

That is maybe the nicest thing I can say about the drop-off area at my daughter's high school.

The drop-off area is between 2 small parking lots that must be used by staff & visitors, and each one one entry/exit, at the street side of the area, but not directly out TO the street - they funnel into the main entry/exit of the drop-off loop.

The loop is not very big around - maybe 10 car lengths, with a fountain/pond thing in the center. It's meant for a single line of cars, but the cars enter & file into 2 lines, which would be okay, except that there are always a few buttheads who think they're more important than everyone else, so they drop their kid and then zoom up the space between the two lines of cars, and create a bottleneck with everyone trying to exit at the same time where only one car at a time is going to fit. Not only that, but you have cars trying to enter from and exit to both directions on the road, at the same time, and there is nobody directing traffic there, either.

The worst part of all this, though, is that nobody looks where they're going! Now come on!
This is a student drop-off area. Which implies that there will be children getting out of cars & walking to the building's doors. It further implies that there will be moving vehicles in the area.
And yet, the kids get out of their cars and head straight for the doors without once checking to make sure there are no cars moving near them. And even worse, the drivers drop their kids off and start moving, without checking to make sure there are no kids walking in front of them.
WTF???

Yes, these kids are old enough to know better. They should " look both ways" before crossing the mini-street that is the drop-off. But even if it were adults being dropped off, any driver should have the sense to check the road in front of them before they take their foot off the gas.
Sheesh.

Oh. And to the people who are in such a big stinking hurry to get one or two whole car lengths ahead of where they started - no. You're not really that important. Go back to kindergarten and learn to wait your freaking turn. Thank you. That is all.

8 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

So people act like assholes in other places, too? Why is it that it usually takes a tragedy before something changes?

10/23/2007 7:27 PM  
Blogger Just-Me-Jen said...

Yes, and the worst part is, it only changes for a month or so, and then the same people are right back to being the same dipshits they were before...

10/24/2007 6:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Bet you fantasize about blowing 'em away with a rocket launcher! (or a phaser if you don't care to leave a big mess.) ;-)

10/24/2007 9:39 AM  
Blogger Just-Me-Jen said...

Ooh! Phaser! Ya got any?! :-D

10/24/2007 5:50 PM  
Blogger jeanie said...

That is awful - why aren't the school doing more to police this, or advising the parents of correct procedures?

10/30/2007 8:47 AM  
Blogger Just-Me-Jen said...

I guess they figure that adults and older teens should know by now that a 3500-pound mobile machine is dangerous. But it would be wise to have some sort of supervision out there, since obviously so many people don't have the sense of a houseplant.

10/30/2007 5:48 PM  
Blogger NML/Natalie said...

Hello! Thanks for your comment yesterday. I am back blogging and intend to blog more frequently as have been a bit awol... I am scared of school drop off areas and I don't even drop any kids off. It's full of maniac parents who seem to think that they are the only people that exist and can do what they like. I love the last couple of lines of your post. They made me laugh!

10/31/2007 4:58 AM  
Blogger Just-Me-Jen said...

Yay! I'm glad you're back! I'll be right over! :-D
Thanks for the kind words, too - glad I made you laugh!

10/31/2007 6:22 AM  

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