Saline parents will find new traffic patterns, drop-off procedures at Heritage, Woodland Meadows schools
Parents driving students to Woodland Meadows and Heritage elementary schools in Saline might be surprised to find new drop-off areas and traffic patterns at the schools when classes begin this fall. In previous years, parents dropped off their children in the front parking lot, which is accessible from Woodland Drive. Assistant Superintendent Steve Laatsch said the lot is not set up well to handle the volume of traffic in the morning, so now parents will be directed to drop their children off behind the schools by using the service drive. The front parking lot will still be used for bus traffic.
Parents will find a new drop-off traffic pattern at Heritage School in Saline this fall. The changes will also affect Woodland Meadows students.
“We don’t think it’s going to make it faster. People when they get onto the campus are still going to be slow in dropping off their kids because there will be a lot of volume,” Laatsch said. “But our goal is to get it off the main road quicker.”
Traffic tends to move slowly on the campus because most parents wait until about 10 minutes before school starts to drop their children off, Laatsch said. To avoid that, “we do encourage parents to drop their kids off earlier,” he said.
Although the district has notified parents of the change via e-mail, Laatsch predicts that many parents will still be surprised. “We are concerned that the first couple of days will be interesting because a lot of parents will not know that they’re not supposed to enter the front parking lot. It could be kind of wild,” he said.
The schools will have someone out front directing cars until parents get used to the change in traffic.
Comments
g-man
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 11:56 a.m.
Not hating on the parents... certainly their choice. Just don't complain about the access/traffic and what should be done if you are choosing to be part of the problem.
g-man
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 11:54 a.m.
mlivesaline - I thought the same thing about the new island shortening the left turn lane. Maybe all the bus routes will now come from the west and turn right into the school. momoffive - I'm with you being able to get out of Wildwood now. I also agree on kids riding the bus would solve the problem.
mlivesaline
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 11:52 a.m.
Wow, stop hating on parents who want to take their kids to school. Doesn't matter the reason, those parents are just trying to what they think is best. The other thing not mentioned here is that previously there was high school and middle school traffic on Woodland at the same time. This will not occur now since those schools start earlier than Woodland and Heritage. So when you're going to work it should only be HS/MS traffic you're dealing with as Woodland/Heritage will start an hour later.
momoffive
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 11:19 a.m.
The new drop-off area at the back of the schools will be a welcome change. I might actually be able to get out of my neighborhood to get to work in the morning. Another idea to reduce the traffic would be for the kids to actually take the bus to school!
mlivesaline
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 11:15 a.m.
Way overdue on the change to have drop off in the back. But now they've created another potential bottleneck. They've built a crosswalk just East of the front driveway that busses will be using. But they've drastically shortened the left turn lane for them. Time will tell if the busses will now need to queue up and begin to block the west bound Woodland Dr. traffic. I suspect they will at some point. Just building this cross walk west of the drive eliminates this issue. Time will tell.
g-man
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 9:06 a.m.
1/4 mile? Really? That's only 2 blocks. My point exactly on kids being spoiled and catered to. If safety is a concern, why don't you just walk to the stop with them instead of driving them to it? Overcrowding on the bus I understand and can accept that condition... but complaining that the bus does not stop right at your driveway and having to go 2 blocks to a stop? And we wonder why they call our younger generation the 'entitlement' generation.
Jeannie
Wed, Aug 25, 2010 : 8:52 a.m.
Here's a thought: maybe if our kids didn't have to walk 1/4 mile to get to the bus stop only to have the bus then drive right back by our house, we parents wouldn't feel the need to drive our kids to school. Since I have to drive my kindergartener or first grader to the bus stop for safety, I may as well drive to the darn school! "Welcome to Saline schools: The answer is NO, now what was your question?"
Holy Cow
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 2:33 p.m.
I think that the drop off/pick up procedure at the Saline Middle School also needs to be looked at. I have witnessed many near accidents there. In the morning, parents who have dropped off their kids and are trying to turn left onto Maple take chances when they turn since it is very difficult because of all of the traffic. Also, people that are turning left into the school take risks, because the people who are turning right into the school do not want to let them in. Afternoon pick up poses its own problems because traffic backs up on Maple (headed southbound) and cars use the left turn lane to go around them. I would suggest not allowing people to turn left onto Maple from the middle school in the morning just like they had that restriction at Heritage/Woodland Meadows. In the afternoon I would have someone out on Maple not allowing the traffic to back up and force those parents to park in the lot and wait for their child. These two ideas are what Steve Laatsch did when he was principal at Heritage and they worked very well. I agree that it is a shame that so many people are driving their kids. I swore I would never do this until my daughter was on a bus where it was expected there would be 3 kids to a seat including kids that were carrying large band instruments. Sometimes kids would not move over and my daughter would have to sit on the floor of the bus - that is when I started driving her. We also endured many problems with special needs kids on the bus including one child who would disrobe and throw his underwear at kids.
Happy Puppy
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 8:34 a.m.
I have heard from many Saline parents that once their kids are in MS/HS they drive them because the buses come too early and if they drive them they can sleep in. BTW I will attest that the drop off at the MS is a breeze, nothing like the mess at Heritage.
g-man
Tue, Aug 24, 2010 : 7:58 a.m.
I drive this road every morning and it puzzles me the volume of parents that drop kids off and why. Have we spoiled kids so much that they won't ride the bus anymore and have to be chauffeured to school every morning? Are these kids that are all within walking distance but won't walk? Do parents think buses are not safe? This seems to be a phenomenon of the last 5 yrs or so.
ybecuz
Mon, Aug 23, 2010 : 11:19 p.m.
To avoid that, we do encourage parents to drop their kids off earlier, They neglect to mention that your child will be standing outside in the snow and rain. Maybe they're training our children for the postal service.
Fat Bill
Mon, Aug 23, 2010 : 10:17 p.m.
I think the signs serve a purpose in reminding parents not to dawdle. Nobody is sitting around with a stop watch, but when you have hundreds of kids being dropped off, every little bit helps. A more efficient way to deliver the kids would be to utilize school bussing when available, as these mighty yellow coaches can drop off up to 78 kids at one pass... and of course this takes 60 plus cars away from the traffic jam per loaded bus.
AlwaysLate
Mon, Aug 23, 2010 : 2:50 p.m.
No mention of those silly "7 Second Drop Zone" signs though! Since no one obeys them...and no one enforces them...they should be removed.