Posted at 12:11 PM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This is the last installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans.
Hopefully you have a liaison
from the police department who works with your students. They are best able to command the respect of
the students. Whether it is staff or the
police officer, the students should be taught the following basics:
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
The
most dangerous situation is to have students, cars, and buses all mixing in the
same physical space. If possible, buses,
vehicles, and pedestrians should be segregated. The next best thing is to control the school grounds so only two of the
three modes can mix at a time. Developing a controlled procedure for student pick-ups and drop-offs is
a key element of the overall traffic safety plan. Every effort should be made to avoid having
kids entering a public street to enter or exit a school bus or a parent’s
car. These maneuvers should happen in
the low speed parking lot if at all possible. If the buses or vehicles need to park on a public street, they should
park so they are loaded from the school grounds. The students should not walk across the
street to get to the school bus door or passenger car door.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Trees, shrubs, fences, buses,
and parked vehicles should be limited in crossing areas so kids can be seen by
vehicles in time for the vehicles to stop for them. Obstructions should be removed within the
school grounds and along the school routes to school. This is most important at elementary schools
because the children are smaller. A
three foot high shrub would be a problem at an elementary school where it
wouldn’t be a problem at a high school.
When possible, students
should cross traffic in groups so they will be more visible. If there are concentrations of students who
walk or bicycle along the same route, a “walking school bus” or “bicycle train”
system can be developed. The students go
to their corner at a certain time and get “picked-up” by the group in the same
fashion a school bus operates. These
work best if an adult volunteer goes with the group, starting at the first
“stop.”
If adult crossing guards or
student patrols are used, they should have whistles to catch the attention of
motorists and/or students. They are also
required to wear high visibility apparel (per the Federal Highway
Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic
Control Devices). This apparel (safety vests)
should comply with ANSI 107-1999. AAA is a great resource for developing your
school patrol procedures.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
This area of your plan requires working with the city engineering department and possibly hiring a consultant traffic engineer. The plan will analyze the operations of your driveways onto the public street system and the nearby public street intersections. You will need to work with your city’s engineering department if your plan is looking at changing any physical features such as sidewalks, signs, or traffic signals. Possible outcomes of this analysis may be:
Posted at 08:26 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Minimizing the amount of time students mix with
vehicles is the low hanging fruit of the traffic safety plan. These measures typically don’t cost anything,
but they are usually specific to each school. You are trying to control where students come into the school and leave
the school so they don’t mix with a lot of vehicles. An example would be having parents drop off
their kids at a school entrance instead of letting them out on the street. Another example is loading students into
buses or vehicles in a tightly controlled manner: (1) no vehicles are allowed to move in the
loading area while students are being loaded, (2) an adult is in charge who signals
the vehicles or buses when all of the students are loaded, (3) the vehicles
leave in a single file line and (4) the next platoon of vehicles or buses are
loaded.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
The first step in any planning exercise should be determining your current situation. Then you can develop alternatives for changing the existing system. Here is a checklist for documenting your school's existing transportation system:
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Most schools
have developed plans to deal with many types of emergencies, most commonly the
fire drill. The same level of planning
should be applied to developing a traffic safety plan for the school. The strategies for improving traffic safety
within the school grounds can be developed solely by school staff, but we have
found parent involvement to be very helpful in creating and implementing the
plan. A sound traffic safety plan will
have the following components:
1. Documenting existing traffic conditions.
2. Strategies for minimizing the interaction between students and moving
vehicles.
3. Strategies for minimizing the traffic impacts of school generated
traffic on the local street system.
4. Strategies for increasing the visibility of students when they are
required to mix with vehicles.
5. Strategies for slowing down traffic when students are near vehicles.
6. Strategies for controlling the arrival and departure of students.
7. Educating students about traffic safety.
Future posts will flesh out each of these seven components of an effective school traffic safety plan.
Posted at 08:13 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

