Re: Queue Lane. Reminder Number 1 of 5,976
MIS/HPMS Principal Laurie Norton with Peace, Love, & Safety coordinator Fiona Richards.
I had the good fortune of arriving at the MIS queue lane after most parents had dropped their kids off. Principal Laurie Norton said changes to the queue lane on the Granada Avenue side of the school should help move traffic along and discourage parents from dropping kids off outside of the designated lane.
“It becomes a problem when parents stop in the queue lane,” Norton said, adding that having kids ready to exit the vehicle upon pulling into the queue lane will help expedite traffic. “We want everyone to continue to follow the plan,” she said.
Norton was joined by Fiona Richards, a parent and head of Peace, Love, & Safety, who was one of the many volunteers in bright yellow shirts designed by Bradfield Elementary student Jake Moock, 8.
“We have a lot of support from the administration, and the parents support [the queue lane rules],” Richards said. “Parents will be out enforcing the queue lane rules every day,” she said. “We’ll probably do this about once a month this year, later on,” to make sure people are using the queue lane appropriately, Richards added.
This morning, I was reminded of how much I dislike driving around MIS/HPMS. I pulled into the queue lane to drop my daughter off as I believe that is what you are supposed to do. However, there was a long line of cars in the next lane over, full of parents dropping kids off next to the sign that says no dropping off in this lane. I find it very frustrating because I had to spend 20 minutes trying to get away from the school after my daughter exited the vehicle while the parents who didn’t follow the rules can just turn down one of the streets or alleys and make a quick escape. I also find that these same drivers are very rude and unaccommodating about letting those of us in the queue lane out of it. I had other things to do this morning too!
I also overheard one of the parent volunteer monitors saying that she can’t do much about parents dropping off in the second lane over because she didn’t want to embarrass the child. While I totally understand her sentiment, at some point, they may need to rethink that policy because some parents will not comply until you really play hardball with them and make the child get back into the car.
I experienced the same thing too! Left early for school to get my 7th grader there and got in the queue lane on High School Avenue which was backed up to Normandy. I expected that. What I didn’t expect was the sheer volume of parents who were pulling up in the “traffic” lane and letting their precious children out where they clearly were not supposed to. I watched a UP police officer and numerous parents watch this happen over and over. I think they are going to have to start ticketing to get parents to pay attention. Of course, I had to wait for at least 5 cars on my left to pass before they finally let me out of the queue lane – so frustrating!
I was in the line going south on High School to turn onto Granada. A car at the stop sign was waived into the lane away from the curb by the crossing guard. I don’t know if this was to get a child or not, but the car looked to be waiting to get in the que and the driver looked confused when told to pull in the other lane. Maybe it is the cross walk guards that are causing some of the issues today??
That shirt looks very green, not yellow.
The crossing guard at High School and Granada is terrible and is at least a contributing factor to the huge back up of traffic on High School. He should either be replaced, retrained or moved to a less crucial location. I don’t know what the purpose of a police officer at that corner was this morning, but it didn’t look like he was doing anything. The traffic flow (or lack thereof) at that intersection needs to be addressed.
I totally agree with mainzer. Until the poor flow of thru traffic on High School is fixed, that queue line is not going to get any better, regardless of whether or not parents are breaking the rules by letting their kids out of the car from that thru traffic lane or not. If there was a better balance of thru traffic actually allowed “through” I think it would improve things for the queue, but that would mean children would have to wait for two or three minutes before crossing almost instantly when even one kid comes up on the crosswalk.
Another advantage to having the kids wait until there is a group to cross and letting the cars through is that they will have practice in a more normal crossing situation when there is a guard present to make sure they behave in a safe manner. It has always bothered me that the guards let the kids cross first no matter what when that is not realistic and could get them killed in other locations.
TH…good idea… what about a walk/no walk signal. That is more like a real life crossing.
all the streets should be one/way .
Is there a crossing guard union?
The same issue exists at Armstrong, where the crossing guard stops cars for free-flow of kids instead of managing both. The problem gets aggravated when vehicles waiting in line shoo their kids out of the car before they enter the queue. The kids run down the street and slow the vehicle line down more.
Although the lady at High School and Asbury is really really nice, she never pays any attention to the back up of cars on Asbury. The stream of children crossing in the afternoon goes on and on and on. The parents get antsy and frustrated as they wait to get through the stop sign. That’s where they child was hit by a car last year.