Do You call this Child Safety?
I just lost it this morning when I thought about the level of this stupidity! There is a gated community in the Pocono's that has it's security force to insure safety for the residents, I think they are Bozo's that have badges. It's still pretty dark when I drive my daughter to the bus stop in the morning around 6:30 AM, and the bus stop is like a protected area in the eyes of security. Not for the children, but for the crazy enforcement of a rule that you must drop your child off at a new larger bus parking lot. When you read that, it doesn't sound crazy right? Well, I want to explain where that "lot" is and the craziness.
The actual bus stop itself is located on a small road directly across the street from a lake and the small parking lot for the lake, this where we use to drop the kids off and pick them up. Picture this, you can pull into the lake parking lot and drop off your child, then they can cross the street which is about 50 ft wide and they are where the bus pulls in onto a circular driveway to pick them up. This circular driveway for the school bus is just on the opposite side of the road. It's also adjacent to the new larger parking lot they put in for people to drop off and pick up the kids. Well, that lake parking lot is now off limits for dropping off or picking up your child. Driving onto the circular driveway, the one the bus uses to get the kids is also off limits to discharge or pick up your children. But, you can drive on it when you picked up you children from the bus in the afternoon and you’re leaving the new larger parking lot.’
What they want you to do, is drive about 1/4 mile through the community down to another lake and then drive over a gravel road that leads to a new larger parking lot adjacent to the circular driveway the bus uses to pick up and drop off the children. By the way, from the circular driveway there is access directly into this new parking lot, but you can't drive on it! The only time you’re allowed on the circular driveway for the bus, is when you’re leaving the new parking lot that you have to drive down the gravel road to get to. I mean, if you could drive right into the bigger parking lot just like you're allow to drive out of it, it's no big deal. Then you don't have to drive 1/4 mile away, around past another lake and passing through other people streets and using that dreaded gravel road. I hate gravel roads, they chip the paint on your car and as well as destroy tires.
So here is what people do in the morning, they drop their kids off in the street before getting to the bus stop and the have them walk up the dark street to the bus stop. Meanwhile the security guards are in there car watching this happen sitting in the little parking lot for the lake, the larger parking lot with the gravel road or down one of the roads leading to the bus stop with their lights off waiting to catch you. Yes, I said laying in wait to nail you with a citation for $50 to $100 for not driving down the gravel road to the designated large parking lot. One security guard told me, “It is OK to do it if I don’t see you, but if I do I’ll ticket you”. So where is the safety feature for the children in that? That proves the concern issue for the children is not what is at issue here, it is making people drive to the new parking lot with the gravel road that’s the objective. My wife said, it just a way for them to make more money.
I heard the lines, it's for the children's safety, it's the rule, and my answer is it's totally ridiculous! The security people pick and choose who the lucky one is that gets the ticket. Not everyone is ticketed, some people even have parked next to security in the "lake parking lot", that forbidden zone. It's much safer to let the parents that just want to drop their child off, use the driveway the bus does and leave. Those parents that wish to wait until the bus comes can use the large parking lot, but they should be able to pull into it right from the circular drive just like they do when they leave. They shouldn't be made to go for the scenic drive through the community in the morning and afternoon and destroy their car on the gravel road.
I have tried to get a straight answer as to what idiot even came up with this whole layout and nobody knows anything. My opinion of this is a way for the community to raise money with these citations, and piss off everyone by doing it. Logical thinking has been cast aside; there is no reason for a security force to treat people like you’re an inmate in a correctional facility. What's the deal, you must curry favor with them or you're going to get a citation? NO, our dues pay your salary Jack! Truly, a badge on a bozo...is still a Bozo. There are Bozo’s in the Poconos. The Poconos are still a beautiful place to live even though there are some Bozo’s. If your moving to the Poconos which many people are, then here is a very good deal for you to save money!