Saratoga News
News
Cars, kids don't mix, especially in front of school
By Chris Vongsarath
When it comes right down to it, cars and kids are not a good mix.
Several parents of children attending Saratoga Elementary School stressed that sentiment at the Nov. 7 Saratoga City Council meeting in an effort to encourage funding for a project to provide safer pedestrian pathways to and from the school.
The call comes in response to years of congested traffic, pedestrian hazards and overall safety concerns for parents and children during the morning drop-off and afternoon pickup rush at the school on Oak Street and Komina Avenue.
Because the issue was on the agenda only as part of the capital improvement plan's project list, council members could vote only to approve funding for the project and not actually provide direction on a solution to the problem. Nonetheless, concerned parents and community members were present to testify on the severity of the problem, which has been an ongoing issue for several years.
"Normally, we do not get people to come in at this point," said Sarah Okuno, traffic coordinator for the Parent Teacher Association at the school. "As a result of us going in there, we raise their awareness that there is something going on."
The combination of undeveloped pedestrian pathways, narrow corridors around the school and a high volume of vehicles have culminated into a kind of perfect storm. Compounding the problem is the lack of viable solutions.
One of the ideas being tossed around is developing Forest Hills Drive as an access on the back side of the school property, making it a possible second drop-off zone to alleviate some of the congestion in front of the school.
However, Brigitte Ballingall, chairwoman of the traffic safety commission, found several problems with that option. She said the traffic along Forest Hills Drive would eventually flow through the front parking lot and merge onto Oak Street, creating more congestion.
She said the best idea would be to develop a safe pedestrian pathway on Komina Avenue.
"The solution is to just have less cars at the same time," she said. "We have to encourage people to walk to school. It's a downtown community school, but with the traffic, people are afraid to walk."
Ballingall has been a liaison between concerned citizens and the commission, which has its own traffic engineer. The big concern right now is the number of parents and children forced to walk onto the street on Komina Avenue.
"There's no safe place to walk on Komina," she said. "We don't want vehicles and pedestrians interacting with each other."
Okuno, who, as the school's traffic coordinator, has also heard various possible solutions from parents, agrees with Ballingall on the development of Komina Avenue.
But because Komina Avenue is so narrow, the only way to expand the street and provide a pedestrian pathway would be to develop farther into the school, which would take away playground space. Moreover, obstructing objects such as trees would also affect the walkway's path.
"Once you alleviate the Komina challenge, it benefits everyone," she said. "For me, the important thing is to expedite the whole thing. There's a need there, and working together we can make it happen sooner."
Councilwoman Kathleen King said finding a solution is difficult at this point because there is nothing definite. She added that the project can move forward only when the city, school and traffic commission have come up with something concrete and have provided funding for it.
Councilman Chuck Page said the council will revisit the project when it gets the necessary funding. He noted that there are many people actively involved with the issue who want to be part of the project.
"Although we don't have the full solution, we have to make sure that all the parties are educated and participate in the solution when we do have it," he said.
