Which Areas Have the Most Collisions at School Run Times?
We looked at every town and city in England and Wales with at least 25 schools and found the average number of collisions per school over the last five years.
Central London is in a category of its own. There were 15,473 collisions recorded near its 1,678 schools during school run hours over the five years. That’s an average of 9.22 per school compared with 1.95 across the rest of England and Wales.
Much of that is likely due to density. Central London schools are far more likely to sit on a main road, a bus route or a junction, and kerbside space is scarcer, which is likely to push more parents into stopping where they conflict with moving traffic.
Further out, where London areas have their own postcodes, Croydon is highest at 7.79 collisions per school, followed by Southall (6.32), Enfield (6.27) and Ilford (6.16).
The 10 Locations With the Most Collisions Near Schools During the School Run Window:
| Rank | Town or City | Region | Schools | Collisions 2021-2025 | Collisions Per School |
| 1 | Central London | London | 1,678 | 15,473 | 9.22 |
| 2 | Croydon | London | 62 | 483 | 7.79 |
| 3 | Southall | London | 25 | 158 | 6.32 |
| 4 | Enfield | London | 49 | 307 | 6.27 |
| 5 | Ilford | London | 56 | 345 | 6.16 |
| 6 | Portsmouth | South East | 51 | 284 | 5.57 |
| 7 | Brighton | South East | 55 | 306 | 5.56 |
| 8 | Hounslow | London | 29 | 156 | 5.38 |
| 9 | Dagenham | London | 43 | 214 | 4.98 |
| 10 | Chatham | South East | 33 | 153 | 4.64 |
Since the top five locations were all within Greater London, we set the capital aside to see which towns and cities elsewhere in England and Wales come out worst.
Portsmouth comes top outside of London at 5.57 collisions per school, nearly three times the average for England and Wales outside London. Geography is likely a factor – the city sits on Portsea Island and its traffic funnels through a handful of crossings, so residential streets carry more through-traffic than they otherwise would. Brighton is narrowly behind at 5.56, where narrow Victorian terraces and steep gradients leave very little room for drop-off traffic.
The top four are all in the South East. Chatham is third at 4.64, and three more north Kent towns sit just outside the top ten: Gravesend (3.55), Gillingham (3.44) and Rochester (3.40). Four adjacent towns ranking this high points to something structural about the road network rather than a problem at any one school.
Blackpool (4.17) is the highest in the North West, ahead of much larger cities. Birmingham, the biggest area in the study with 481 schools, ranks sixth at 4.10.
The 10 Locations With the Most Collisions Near Schools During the School Run Window, Excluding London:
| Rank | Town or City | Region | Schools | Collisions 2021-2025 | Collisions Per School |
| 1 | Portsmouth | South East | 51 | 284 | 5.57 |
| 2 | Brighton | South East | 55 | 306 | 5.56 |
| 3 | Chatham | South East | 33 | 153 | 4.64 |
| 4 | Worthing | South East | 37 | 158 | 4.27 |
| 5 | Blackpool | North West | 47 | 196 | 4.17 |
| 6 | Birmingham | West Midlands | 481 | 1,972 | 4.10 |
| 7 | Hull | Yorkshire and the Humber | 116 | 455 | 3.92 |
| 8 | Bradford | Yorkshire and the Humber | 155 | 567 | 3.66 |
| 9 | Grimsby | Yorkshire and the Humber | 49 | 179 | 3.65 |
| 10 | Bournemouth | South West | 48 | 171 | 3.56 |
What these locations have in common is the mix on the road at that time of day. Hundreds of children on foot, hundreds of cars, and drivers stopping, reversing and pulling out of spaces in a ten-minute window. Visibility is poor because the road is full and everyone is doing it in a hurry. That is the environment collisions can come out of.
It is also some of the hardest driving your car does all week. Stop-start traffic wears brakes and tyres far faster than motorway miles, and worn pads or low tread cost you the extra metre or two of stopping distance you need when a child steps out between two parked cars. If your car is overdue a check, then don’t delay if you regularly do the school run.
Which Areas Have the Fewest Collisions at School Run Times?
On the flip side, the safest school gates in the country when it comes to traffic collisions are in Gwynedd, Wales. Its 89 schools recorded 26 collisions between them across the whole five years, or 0.29 collisions per school.
Six of the ten lowest are in Wales with Pembrokeshire, Monmouthshire, Conwy and Ceredigion all coming in under 0.6 collisions per school. Welsh schools are recorded by county in the government register rather than by town, so these cover more ground than the English towns they sit alongside.
In England, Woodbridge in Suffolk is lowest at 0.42, then Lichfield at 0.46, with Matlock and Penrith level at 0.59 collisions per school.
What these places have in common is room to move. There is less traffic, there is usually somewhere to leave the car, and journeys are short enough that plenty of children walk or cycle instead. The school gate is a pinch point everywhere but it is a far smaller one when forty cars turn up rather than four hundred.
The 10 Locations With the Fewest Collisions Near Schools During the School Run:
| Rank | Location | Region | Schools | Collisions 2021-2025 | Collisions Per School |
| 1 | Gwynedd | Wales | 89 | 26 | 0.29 |
| 2 | Pembrokeshire | Wales | 47 | 17 | 0.36 |
| 3 | Woodbridge | East of England | 26 | 11 | 0.42 |
| 4 | Monmouthshire | Wales | 28 | 12 | 0.43 |
| 5 | Lichfield | West Midlands | 26 | 12 | 0.46 |
| 6 | Conwy | Wales | 39 | 20 | 0.51 |
| 7 | Ceredigion | Wales | 33 | 18 | 0.55 |
| 8 | Matlock | East Midlands | 27 | 16 | 0.59 |
| 8 | Penrith | North West | 29 | 17 | 0.59 |
| 10 | Rhondda, Cynon, Taf | Wales | 32 | 20 | 0.62 |
How Are the School Run Affected by Congestion?
Collisions show where the risk sits but they don’t show queues and congestion. So we took the worst-affected school in each of the 30 worst towns for collisions and measured how much longer it takes to drive down the road outside it at school run times, against the same stretch when the roads are clear.
We found that the journey can take up to three times longer. This is the case for the road outside Bury Park Educational Institute in Luton, which takes 202% longer during drop-off and pick-up than it does when the roads are clear. Botwell House Catholic Primary School in Hayes is second with the journey taking way more than twice as long (130%), then Harris Invictus Academy Croydon and King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham, both at just over twice as long (116%). At Radnor House in Twickenham the journey takes exactly twice as long.
Across all 30 schools, the road outside takes more than half (53%) as long at school run times, on average.
According to our data, congestion doesn’t necessarily correlate with collisions, though. Three schools showed no slowdown at all, including two in Chatham and Worthing, which rank third and fourth outside London for collisions nearby.
Traffic that’s barely moving is frustrating, but it rarely hurts anyone. It’s the clear roads that are usually the bigger worry. Where nothing is in the way, drivers get up to speed past a gate full of children and nobody feels the need to be careful.
Speed is a part of what decides how a collision ends. At 20mph most pedestrians walk away. At 30mph a lot of them don’t, and your stopping distance is roughly double. Check the limit outside your school, because plenty of these roads are 20mph now, and make sure to drive under it whether the road is clear or not.
Parents being distracted behind the wheel is another hazard. A recent study we conducted looked at how far people could be driving without their eyes on the road while interacting with the touchscreen interface in their car. It found that even at 30mph, drivers could be driving the lengths of up to 4.5 football pitches with their eyes off the road.
How Much Longer the Road Outside Each School Takes To Complete at School Run Times:
| Rank | School | Town | Extra Time |
| 1 | Bury Park Educational Institute | Luton | 202% |
| 2 | Botwell House Catholic Primary School | Hayes | 130% |
| 3 | Harris Invictus Academy Croydon | Croydon | 116% |
| 3 | King Edward VI Handsworth Grammar School for Boys | Birmingham | 116% |
| 5 | Radnor House | Twickenham | 100% |
| 6 | Spring School | Kingston upon Thames | 83% |
| 7 | Kings Brighton | Brighton | 74% |
| 8 | Winston Way Academy | Ilford | 73% |
| 9 | Pegasus Academy | Dudley | 65% |
| 10 | Southwood Primary School | Dagenham | 63% |
How Do Parents Feel About The School Run?
Alongside the collision and congestion data, we asked 1,000 parents who drive their children to school at least once a week what the reality of doing the school run is like and how it makes them feel.
Feeling rushed came back more than any other feeling. More than 6 in 10 parents (61%) picked it, ahead of stressed (43%), frustrated (40%) and anxious (37%). Across a typical week, almost 6 in 10 (59%) said the school run is at least somewhat stressful.
Mothers report more of the negative feelings than fathers. Half of mothers (51%) feel stressed during the run itself against a third of fathers (34%), the widest gap between the two parents. The likeliest reading is that mothers are doing more of the run and more of what sits either side of it.
How Parents Feel During the School Run:
| Feeling | All Parents | Mothers | Fathers |
| Rushed | 61% | 69% | 52% |
| Happy | 45% | 42% | 48% |
| Stressed | 43% | 51% | 34% |
| Frustrated | 40% | 43% | 37% |
| Anxious | 37% | 42% | 31% |
| Relaxed | 33% | 28% | 40% |
What Goes Wrong on the School Run?
Almost half of parents (49%) have had at least one incident on the school run in the past 12 months, whether that’s a confrontation, a parking ticket or a collision.
Arguments are the most common. More than 1 in 5 (22%) have had a confrontation with another driver and almost 1 in 5 (18%) with another parent, while around 1 in 10 have fallen out with a traffic warden (11%) and a similar number with a teacher or member of school staff (11%). One in eight (12%) have picked up a parking ticket.
More seriously, 1 in 13 parents (8%) say they have been in a collision on the school run in the past year, however minor. Although it might sound small, that is one in every thirteen, in a single year, on a journey most of them make ten times a week.
Thankfully though, another study we conducted looked at the UK’s most confident drivers, and found that the 35-44 age group (peak parent age), feel the most confident on the road.
Delays are the most common complaint according to the parents surveyed. Only 18% said they never hit traffic at drop-off or pick-up, while more than half (55%) do at least occasionally and around 1 in 6 (16%) do most days or every day. Almost a quarter (23%) said they spend more than an hour on the round trip at least occasionally.
Five Ways to Take the Stress Out of Your School Run
To help stressed and anxious parents in a rush, we’ve put together five tips to make the school run a bit easier:
- Give yourself plenty of extra time: Our survey found parents arrive with about seven minutes to spare, which is not much when the kerb is already full. Leaving a bit earlier takes the pressure off the whole journey, so you’re less likely to take a risk at a junction or stop somewhere you shouldn’t, and calmer by the time you reach the gate.
- Park further away and walk the last bit: A street two streets back from the school is usually empty when the road outside the gate is gridlocked, and the walk takes less time than waiting for a space.
- Check whether your school has a School Street zone: If it does, the road outside the gate is closed to through-traffic at drop-off and pick-up, and driving into it can earn you a fine. Your council’s website will list the zones and the hours they run. If it doesn’t have one, the school or your local councillor is the place to ask.
- Agree a fixed pick-up spot: A meeting point a short walk from the gate removes the crawl past the entrance entirely, and older children can manage it on their own.
- Check your car maintenance basics monthly: Tyres, brakes, lights and screenwash take five minutes and matter most on exactly the kind of low-speed, high-pedestrian roads the school run puts you on.
Almost every bit of school run stress comes back to time. Give yourself more of it and the whole experience will be better and everyone will be safer as a result. But if part of the reason why you dread the school run is because of the condition of the car you’re doing it in, no amount of planning can fix that. A car you can’t fully trust on a road full of children is not one to keep patching up.
Once the repair bill has passed what the car is actually worth, keeping it on the road for ten school runs a week stops making sense and can be potentially dangerous. If you’ve reached that point, you can scrap your car with us and we’ll compare quotes from our nationwide network to find you the best price.
Methodology
Collision data:
We analysed the Department for Transport’s reported road collision statistics for 2021 to 2025, matched against the government register of educational establishments in England and Wales, and counted every collision recorded within 250 metres of a school during school run hours.
Schools within 100 metres of each other were grouped into a single site so no collision was counted twice, giving 25,749 schools across 24,568 sites. Universities, colleges, sixth form centres, nurseries and specialist institutions were excluded. Towns were grouped by the town and region recorded in the register, and only those with at least 25 schools were included, giving 241 locations.
Congestion data:
For each of the 30 towns with the most collisions per school, we took the school with the most collisions recorded nearby and measured journey times along the road outside it using live and historic traffic data from Google Maps. Times at drop-off and pick-up were compared against the same stretch of road under free-flowing conditions, and the difference is shown as the percentage of extra time added.
Survey data:
The research was conducted by Censuswide, using a sample of 1,000 UK parents/guardians aged 18+ with at least one child of school age (4-18) living in their household, who personally drive their child(ren) to and/or from school at least occasionally (i.e. 1 day a week or a few times a month). The data was collected between 13.08.2026 – 18.08.2026. Censuswide is a member of the Market Research Society (MRS) and the British Polling Council (BPC), and a signatory of the Global Data Quality Pledge. They adhere to the MRS Code of Conduct and ESOMAR principles.
All data correct as of September 2026.
