The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper
Photograph by Robert Scheer
Bob Collins makes crossing the street safer for students at Stocklmeir School. But the city's traffice engineer and parents say more should be done to prevent traffic accidents around local schools.
City studies trafÞc at schools
City's engineer calls it an accident waiting to happen
By Lester Chang
The City of Sunnyvale wants parents to drop off and pick up their children from schools quickly and safely.
It also wants to investigate new projects--including using lime-green signs to attract the attention of motorists and installing more parking stalls by schools--to reach that goal before an accident does occur.
The City Council and city staffers voiced those desires at a meeting of the Bicycle Advisory Committee on May 13 at City Hall.
The council directed its staff to set up meetings with the Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Santa Clara school districts to determine their commitment to helping to ease the problems.
The City Council acted in response to complaints from parents last year, who worried about their children being hit by inattentive or speeding drivers as they departed from cars or walked near schools.
"I am not aware of any tragic accidents," said city Traffic Engineer Ray Williamson. "We have been lucky. It is only a matter of time until we aren't lucky."
Some parents also worried about their children being abducted.
Sunnyvale Elementary School District board member Nancy Kirkwood attended the meeting, but made no commitment to use school funds to help at this point.
She said she attended the meeting as a citizen and that any decision to commit funds would have to be made by the entire board. She personally welcomed the chance to continue working with the city to try to find solutions.
Her district already works with the city to implement traffic safety programs at Sunnyvale schools, she said.
The A Safe Way to School Program and the Bicycle Safety Program teach children how to ride bicycles and skateboard safely, to wear helmets and to avoid being abducted.
The city would like to do more, but can't because of limited funding and manpower, Williamson said.
There also aren't enough police officers to monitor traffic at Sunnyvale's nine schools, Public Safety Chief Regan Williams said.
City officials wondered whether the school district could use some of the $34 million in bond funds Sunnyvale residents approved last year for SESD.
The district has made no decision on whether to use any of those funds to ease the traffic problems.
Parents currently double-park their cars and drop off their children on both sides of the street, according to a study done by the city's Traffic Engineering Division and TJKM Consultants.
The traffic congestion also has worsened partly because of the elimination of school busing, Williamson said. As a result, more parents drive their children to school, he said.
A survey of parents showed that 70 percent of the students from kindergarten through middle school are driven to school, he said. The rest walk or ride to school.
The consultant and the city came up with 10 options they suggested could help relieve the problems.
Two proposals called for creating more parking spots and one-way streets by schools, both of which would help provide more safety for children, Williamson said.
Both are expensive but would give the city and the schools the "biggest bang for the buck," Williamson said.
The first option could cost from $10,000 and $50,000 per school, a city report said. The second option could cost from $5,000 to $20,000 at each school.
The other options include:
* Having teachers or older students escort children from cars to the classroom.
* Improving crosswalks.
* Creating school classes emphasizing pedestrian safety.
* Creating a "park and walk" program in which parents park their cars at a designated site and walk their children to school.
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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 21, 1997.
©1997 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.