A Relatively Incident Free Friday Queue Lane
One of the most clever things about the new queue lane arrangement at the HPMS/MIS campus is the fifth-grade-only lane, which sidles up to Granada. Things went pretty smoothly this morning, with the exception of a few parents who didn’t pull all the way up in a vacant queue lane to let their children out.
I think, though, that the HPMS/MIS campus might be one of the only schools with a full-service queue lane, manned by none other than New Jersey native and lifelong Cowboys fan, Scott Scheffler.
It’s a pity that all PCP’s focus is on the Granada and High School queue lanes. What about those of us that use the Binkley Ave/Key St queue. This morning there were traffic cones at the T-section of Binkley and Key forcing drivers in the left-turn-only left lane (clearly marked on the pavement as so) of Binkley to make the left turn instead of turning right (which is illegal but the parents are obviously teaching their children that it’s okay to break the law as long as no one is looking and you are justified by being in a hurry). Last year on occasion a UP vehicle would be there and would correct the drivers but when the police weren’t there the parents would revert back to their immoral ways.
I’m liking their attempts but sometimes you need to “lead cattle to water” and this helps. They need to do more. The issues are (1) the parents immediately exit the queue lane after turning right off Binkley into the parking lot and cut in front of others. Granted, most are driving (albeit at 15+ MPH in a parking lot) to the band hall area for drop off but the queue has been drawn all the way to that area. I hate going through the traffic too but when the kids are walking across the lot and in between parked cars, it’s just dangerous. Which leads to issue 2. The parents are dropping off the kids on the curb area of Key St between the entrance and “exit” of the parking lot. These kids now walk across the lot. There have been near misses from those exiting the queue or those using the 2nd parking lot entrance and speeding through to an area they’ve decided is good drop-off spot.
Alas, the best remedy for me is to make sure I drop the kids off no later than 7:40am (and that’s pushing it) because the later it is the more ridiculous the parents are in their haste to drop off their kids because they are “running late.” Get up earlier, duh!
Now, I would love to volunteer and help remedy the situations but my work schedule does not allow me to volunteer during the more effective times of drop-off. I would enthusiastically help properly educate the self-centered parents on queue lane and driving etiquette and safety but it usually occurs after 7:45am and I’m almost already at work by then. One day though…one day…