ok, I know, I know...... there are more urgent things to worry about - but I just had to shake my head today! I'm going to vent......  
 
I was picking my child up from school, and I couldn't believe it! I've drawn a handy little diagram and will post it with this topic for your viewing pleasure (and also so you can understand what the heck I'm talking about).  
 
I was parked on the street along the school yard and then I proceeded to make a right turn onto a side street. As you can see in the diagram, this street is RIGHT across from the school, with a cross walk and there is a stop sign on the corner.  
 
There is a woman who goes to the school in a big white SUV truck who parks on the right hand side of the street, right on the corner where you turn! Lady - if you are reading this - just because there is snow there - the curb is still painted yellow under neath it! She doesn't just stop there for a quick second while her kid jumps in the truck - she parks there for quite a while waiting for her kid to come out of school. Actually, I think that whole side of the street might be "no parking".  
 
Now, as if this isn't bad enough, today, there was another lady in a big black SUV PARKED at the STOP SIGN, and they both have their windows open and are having a conversation across what is left of the street(which is already narrower than usual due to the snow banks)!! GOOD GRIEF! What is wrong with these people?  
 
So after I managed to squeeze through these two, I'm driving down the street, and I see a snow plow coming down the street.  
 
First of all - It's 3:30 and the kids are swarming all over the place on the snow banks (because that's what kids do) and secondly - it's garbage day on that street.  
 
Now, this is nothing against the plow drivers, (they're just doing their jobs after all)...... the poor guy is sitting there waiting for some kids to move off the snow bank and they don't get it. They think it will be cool to stand on the snow bank and get a front row seat view of the snow plow. So finally I opened my window and hollered at the kids that they couldn't stand there or the plow would run them over. So, they moved away (good job kids) and I then notice that all the dumpsters are still out (seeing as people aren't home from work yet) and they are all getting plowed in.  
 
Who in the heck at City Hall thinks it's a good idea to schedule snow plowing on the same day as garbage day??? At a school, at 3:30 pm???  
 
How much stuff can the poor plow driver try to avoid? How about the people who all have to come home to shovel out their dumpsters? What a mess!  
 
 
I don't know...... I realize that scheduling things, etc is hardly an easy job, and maybe it was an oversight, and that we should all just be grateful that they are plowing the streets - but really? Doesn't it seem like common sense to do an area where it's NOT garbage day?  
 
Don't even get me started on what it was like at Massey today after school either! That place is a zoo!!  

I hear you loud and clear, my kids school is nuts. The caretaker is useless, i have to call the school board and complain before he makes an attempt to shovel. I am sorry but sprinkling some sand dosent consitute shovelling. Parents who pick up their children seem to forget the rules of the road, crosswalks are there for a reason, STOP, and let the kids who walk home cross safely. Sorry but this is a real sore spot for me, as you can tell.

If this was at Massey and it seems that it might be, I think I know of the person that was in the white SUV. She used to park in the City bus spot right in front of the school. I wish someone would report her for her driving/parking habits.

this wasn't at Massey - I had to go to Massy AFTER this fiasco! LOL! That place in itself is a whole OTHER story! LOL!

Schools seem to be a place where common sense goes out the window. I thought you were talking about my kids' school for a second when talking about the big white SUV - I watched a vehicle of the same description do some ridiculous things before finally parking in a no parking zone, so far out from the curb it was interfering with traffic. They have not plowed our school yet, save for what the janitor has done. And because the same ignorant people park along the NO STOPPING zone every day - there are two women who have decided the area in front of the fire hydrant and the crosswalk are prime parking spaces (because the rest of us obey the signs and park where we are supposed to it leaves big spaces)It causes kids to climb over the snowbanks some days to cross the street. One day some kid is going to slide down into traffic...today there was a line up of six cars behind one person who decided to stop in the middle of the street to let her three teenage girls get in - of course this made one guy behind furious and he whipped out around her, it makes me shudder some days. It is a SCHOOL ZONE people!!

Reading the city web page about snowplowing and how long they say it may take for MAIN streets, (think it was like 24 or 48 hours), how can they really schedule around a 5 Day garbage cycle, and each and every school opening and closing and anything else (bad drivers) that may be involved without encountering something such as original poster states. Impossible in my opinion.

You are probably right about scheduling around EVERYTHING - but I just thought that garbage day would be a pretty big day that stands out. They ask people to remove their cars, etc most times a few days in advance (leave out the "no parking" signs) so I would have thought that garbage day would be a main factor in scheduling.  
 
Maybe not though...

My kids go to the same school and it is nuts. 2 deep in the "traffic circle" so that no one can drive through. One woman parks her Mercedes SUV sideways, blocking off the whole thing and jumps out of her vehicle to talk to someone. Cars were piling up behind her and she was completely oblivious to it.  
 
But that is not the worst of it. So many times I see people parking right beside or ON THE CROSSWALK. You have to be extra careful because you cannot see the kids between the parked cars. Come on, keep your vehicles away from the crosswalk. The patrols cannot go out there all the time due to cold weather and this makes it real hard to see the kids waiting there, especially when your SUV is parked in the wrong place.  
 
The other thing that irks me is parents who take their kid by the hand and teach them that jaywalking is OK. Use the crosswalk. That is what it is there for.

 
your story screams waverly park,,,,

and yeah - that traffic circle is a Zoo! It makes me so angry I just want to honk my horn at people and tell them to move their asses! Seriously, it gives me road rage in there - so I avoid it at all costs! If I HAVE to go that way, I'll use the church parking lot to loop around.

have seen the scenario you are talking about Handy and I agree it is ridiculous of these people to park in those spots. It would be bad enough if it were a smaller vehicle and not winter, but the sheer size of the SUV and the position it is in makes it difficult and dangerous for drivers to maneuver through while watching out for the kids. I am dumbfounded at how stupid some people are.  
Also, in regards to that school, I find pathetic that parents drive their kids to school when they live literally 10 houses away. It's not like these kids are in kindergarten or grade one. I could see if it was -30 or something, but I've seen it happen on beautiful spring days. If these people wopuld walk their lkids to school then it would help to ease the traffic issues.

exactly - what ever happened to walking to school? I don't understand how children cannot seem to walk these days.  
 
 
 
You know, uphill, both ways, in bare feet?  

When my youngest is in preschool, I have to pick up my oldest and then race to pick up my youngest. I ALWAYS park on that stretch along the fence of the yard. I am ALWAYS within the areas that are marked okay. And it never fails, someone will park right behind or in front of me in the no-stopping area...then I have to wait till they move cause they're usually within an inch of my bumper. But I am proud to say, that my son does walk back and forth to school most days otherwise....unless it's minus 50 or something!

the thing, there are times when picking up the kid from school is necessary because you have somewhere else to be right after. It is the ones who (I have actually seen this) drive the kid to school which is probably 30 seconds away and then drive home and go back in the house. There's no "rush to get somewhere".