Parents queuing up on the Princes Highway to pick their children up from The Illawarra Grammar School are not breaking any roads rules.
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This information from Roads and Maritime Services may surprise motorists who have driven along the Princes Highway entrance to the school.
During drop-offs and pick-ups, traffic in the left lane of the highway can back up past the Mt Keira Road intersection.
It’s a queue made of parents looking to turn into the school but also those heading further south who have been caught in a one-lane traffic jam.
Drivers have expressed their frustration at the daily occurrence, but an RMS spokeswoman said parents were doing nothing illegal.
“It is not an offence for motorists to queue to use an access as long as motorists continue to move with traffic as space becomes available,” the spokeswoman said.
READ MORE: The struggle of the school run
She also said RMS had not received “any recent reports” relating to the line-up of cars outside the school.
There had been no recorded crashes outside the school in the five years to June 30 last year, the spokeswoman said.
This could be put down to the school zone in operation and the presence of a speed camera.
“The 40km/h school zone has activated flashing lights to improve protection for drivers when queuing occurs, by increasing the effective time for drivers to slow down,” the spokeswoman said.
“The speed camera at this site also encourages compliance with the school zone speed limit.”
TIGS acting principal Judi Nealy said the school was “very conscious” of minimising the impact of its traffic flow.
She said the Princes Highway entrance had been “developed, engineered and tested and is considered best practice”.
Ms Nealy said they staggered dismissal times through the “intentional planning of extra-curricular and co-curricular activities each afternoon” to spread out the flow of students leaving the school at the end of the day.