Drop-Off Parking NEEDED at Lord Lansdowne & Da Vinci

There needs to be a drop off zone on Robert street near Lord Lansdowne public school.

We have been ticketed 3-4 times with $150 each time just for 3-5 min pull over trying to drop off/pick up our son, and it is so unfair. Thank you for your help on solving this issue.

I am able to bike my son to Da Vinci/Lord Landsdowne. For various reasons, others are not so fortunate and in need of a place to briefly park their cars. A large contingent of students are commuters and their safety is the issue here. To claim that parents parking their cars for 3-7 minutes while they drop off their children is an obstruction while film crews are allowed dominate Spadina Circle for days is illustrates the hypocrisy and misplaced priorities of City administrators.

Parking is essential. I drive down Spadina every week morning to take my daughter to Da Vinci. One lane of this mjor road is blocked due to parents dropping their children off at the JCC. We would like and expect the same leniency and understanding for dropping our children off at school as the parents who drop their children off at the intersection of Bloor and Spadina. Thank you.

The lack of a drop off zone causes traffic chaos and puts children at risk. It's absolutely unacceptable, especially considering the very busy location, that there is no zone for Lord Landsdowne/da Vinci schools. This shows a complete disregard for the needs of the families and children who attend these schools.

We have accrued over $600 in tickets on Spadina Crescent in the last two years that our son has been in Kindergarten. With little to no options for parking which still fulfilling the school's mandate to hand-deliver our children to the Kindergarten teacher. We have been proactive and gone to court on two occasions and had the opportunity to speak with a judge on the matter and while he can reduce our initial fine he has explained that he is powerless to change the conditions of the parking situation or the parking attendants "questionable," in his words, behaviour in this regard. In a second attempt we have spoken with parking attendants on the circle who have explained to us that our stopping on this circle "obstructs traffic" and is the cause of the ticket. We would be sympathetic to this argument entirely if it was actually the truth instead of a flagrant misrepresentation of reality. The easier position to take when considering the "obstruction to the flow of traffic argument" would be to consider why construction vehicles for the adjacent construction site are not ticketed when parking on the circle and blocking the space for their activities - is this simply because they are considered more necessary than the flow of traffic. Yet more egregious and questionable is the blocking of the circle's "no stopping" lane for movie company vans and semi-truck trailers for their purposes - and that we must somehow believe that both the size and scope of these vehicles and these actions are not deemed "obstructions" or illegal, however, parents dropping of children below the age of 5 within the DIRECT VICINITY of the school, having to hold their hand to deliver them is an offense so flagrant on Spadina Crescent that it requires immediate penalty. I wish this is all I had to say, but it is much worse than this as my husband and I have taken to tag team dropping off our children, which means that while I get my son out of the car and to the curb he will drive off and around

Something needs to be done, this is a health and safety concerns to all parents who drive, we need to make the community safe to park to get our children to school and accessible to park without frustration, concerns or worries.

I would like to have a safe spot to drop off and pick up my kids without having to look over my shoulder for a parking enforcement officer.

I fully support that. In the last few month we got $360 worth of fines.

This is an issue for the da Vinci school as well - it is fully optional attendance, so families are not all walking distance from the school. Public transit and cycling are also not always an option. Working parents need to have the ability to transport their kids by car. If you have a kid in both kindergarten and another grade, or in both schools (like me!), they have different dismissal times, so you also need to be able to park, not just stop. Why not at least let us use Robert Street? There's rarely any or many local residents parked on the street and the road is plenty wide enough to accommodate parking on one side. This situation also discourages parent participation in School Council etc. as there's no convenient legal parking until 6:30pm and many meetings and activities need to start earlier.

Please, this needs to happen already.

I personally walk/bike, but I understand that an alternative and French Immersion school requires car drop off/pickup. I attended the parking planning meeting. This is a classic case of the City and Board unable to coordinate and create a system that functions for the residents of the city. Because Spadina is an artery it is deemed dangerous to allow drop off pickup on the street, and the planners implied that will be virtually impossible to change. One of the planners even suggested that we could have pickup/drop off if we carved some space out of the schoolyard, as though this is a reasonable alternative. Bottom line is that drop off pickup is already happening on Spadina with no impact to the flow of traffic - rather than fight what is already working the City should find a way to make this area safe. The TDSB and/or school should also consider enabling parents to curbside dropoff and pickup their kids (I mean the JK and SKs). With a little thinking I'm sure we could work out how to have a very quick turnaround on the pickup and dropoff. Cheers

The lack of a legal pickup area is ridiculous! LLPS serves people from a broad area, and not everyone can arrive on foot. Please give equal access!

I myself have received a $150 ticket bringing my son to his JK class. As many others have noted, it does not make sense that a school that houses an alternative school as well as French immersion has no designated drop off/pick up zone. Especially a school in a busy downtown location. We are simply asking for what many other schools across the city already have; a designated drop off and pick up zone where we can safely bring our children to school without worry of also getting cost prohibitive tickets on a daily basis.

This is a serious issue not only for convenience, but for safety. The only legal spots anywhere close to the school are on extremely busy roads, the closest being a blind curve. My best friend was killed 2 years back while putting her daughter in her car seat also dropping off at a school on a narrow busy road. Safety needs to be paramount, as well as the simple reality that immersion and alternative schools have kids coming from all over the city with working parents that makes car transport a necessity for many. Thank you so much for helping to fix this situation quickly.

I have been frustrated for 6 years watching parents get parking tickets while taking 2 minutes to drop off their kids. The situation must change.

Joanne Blanchette

Some parents have no option but to drive due to distance. It is necessary to get out of a car to take a 3 or 4 year old to the door especially at the beginning of the school year. JK and SK students are physically handed over to their teacher. This school houses both an alternative school and an expanding French Immersion program, the number of very young children attending is only increasing. Most schools have designated drop off zones for a short period at the beginning and end of the school day. For the City to pretend a school does not exist at this busy location in the middle of the city is both unsafe and short sighted. Joanne Blanchette

We desperately need short term limited time dropoff parking, it is unreasonable to expect people to walk, bike, ttc or pay to park 100% of the time. Other schools have this, we deserve the same.

Lord Lansdowne PS needs a drop-off and pick-up zone outside the school. This will make it safer for everyone, including for kids who walk and cycle (like my family). Please change the bylaw or take whatever measures are necessary to ensure safety for our school families and community. Many thanks, Miriam