Parents say illegal parking in front of Cambridge school is a safety concern

Every day Scott Howlett looks out his front window to see a line up of cars illegally parked along the side of the road in front of Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Elementary School.

And while he no longer has school aged children of his own, his concern is growing for those who do.

"It's absolutely chaotic," Howlett said.

"If you have a big vehicle, you can't get through because there's someone parked at the school and a school bus behind them that's into the road."

The most frustrating part for Howlett is there's routinely a line of three to four cars parked in front of a no parking sign.

"There's a difference between no parking and no stopping," he said.

"If they made no parking on one side of the street, it'd alleviate it a little bit. Everyone just wants to turn a blind eye to it."

Howlett doesn't understand why the driveway to the parking lot, which he said is usually only 60 to 70 per cent full, can't be utilized. He said the entrance into the lot has a perfect wraparound design for drop offs.

Instead, cars are forced to spill onto the street.

"Currently, Hammet Street has a 'S' curve in front of the school which creates a traffic jam when vehicles are parked on both sides of the street," Howlett said.

Albin Jlbz has a kid who attends the school and he agrees with Howlett that there needs to be a crackdown on people parking where they should just be dropping off.

On Wednesday morning for example, he had to drop his kid off down the street, forcing them to navigate through the cars and across the road.

"I would like my kid to be dropped off in the corner," he said of the bend in the road directly across from the school.

"People park there. It should be a drop off point. People shouldn't be parking."

There are times when enforcement is out watching people to make sure they obey the signs, he said, but he doesn't believe any tickets have been handed out.

His main concern is safety and he feels a clearer sign should be put up to deter people from ignoring the existing warnings. 

"Because it's residential, people do what they want," he said.

"They tend to abuse the rules."

CambridgeToday reached out to the Waterloo Catholic District School Board seeking clarity and potential corrective action on the issue but our email and phone calls were not returned.