Congestion and the desire to find a park as close as possible to the school entrance often leads to such dangerous and illegal driver behaviour as double parking, blocking access by parking over driveways, parking on broken yellow lines, parking too long on time restricted parks or parking without a permit in disability parks, and even parking over zebra and kea crossings.
The 'Chaos at the School Gate Campaign' aims at educating drivers to the reasons for the rules and so improving parking behaviour outside school gates. Prior to the commencement of the three week campaign, participating schools advise parents about the campaign in school newsletters and send home child road safety information.
Child Road Safety Helpful Tips
All drivers parked outside the school are spoken to by the parking officers during the first week of the campaign. Those who have parked legally are acknowledged. Drivers who are parked illegally have the safety issues of their behaviour explained to them and alternative places to park pointed out to them. Because every driver is spoken to and no tickets are issued during the first week of the campaign, a non-threatening environment is created which facilitates communication between the Council staff and the offending drivers.
Infringement notices are issued during the second and third weeks of the campaign. Usually very little illegal parking is occurring by the third week. Periodic return visits are made to participating schools following the campaign as further reinforcement.
