NCSD wants to go with the flow

Woodrow Wilson Elementary School and Berg Middle School should consider making changes to signs, request new parking restrictions from the city and provide other measures to ensure traffic flows better at both campuses during student drop-offs and pickups, according to a recent traffic study.

Engineers from Bolton & Menk were hired by the Newton Community School District to observe the arrival and dismissal times of students at the two buildings. Prior to the school board’s approval of the study, the district wanted to make changes to traffic flow at its campuses but wanted further input.

Observations at Woodrow Wilson:

Jennifer McCoy, senior traffic engineer at Bolton & Menk, recommended new “No Left Turn” signs be installed near the exit of Woodrow Wilson’s parking lot, which flows into West Seventh Street South. She also suggested the district update all signage to meet Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) standards.

Times on signs should also correspond with arrival and dismissal periods. McCoy said stalls and walkway could be re-striped in the small staff lot. Woodrow Wilson should also consider a part-time one way street on southbound West Seventh Street South. Currently, parking is allowed on the east side of the street.

“I would propose that we move the parking restriction to the east side of the street and allow parking on the west side,” McCoy said. “What that will do is parents that do choose to park along West Seventh Street will no longer have to cross the road to get back and forth from their cars.”

It would also coincide well with the part-time one way southbound street. This would be up to the district and the city to determine if the street could be part-time one way during the school day. McCoy said it could also be implemented during dismissal times only.

Bolton & Menk also proposed the street inset on West Ninth Street South leave 100 feet for buses but sign the remaining space for passenger loading. Some parents are using it aways and it may lessen queues, McCoy said. According to the engineers’ observations, few buses were using the inset.

Students in kindergarten through second grade at Woodrow Wilson are picked up and dropped off at the lot in the south side of the school; likewise, students in third grade and fourth grade are picked up by school buses on the west side of the building near West Ninth Street South, where a bus inset is.

Parents often line up along the south side of South Ninth Avenue West, which is a designated school queue zone to enter the south side parking lot, McCoy said. From what Bolton & Menk observed, there was some queuing on South Ninth Avenue West, up to about 300 feet in length.

Some parents were turning left out of the south side parking lot, even though there is a sign instructing them not to. Bolton & Menk also saw some students walking from the west that had no clear way to get into the front doors of the school during arrival periods because of the way the lot is currently striped.

“The parking spaces actually extend across the sidewalk connection into the main doors of the school,” McCoy said. “Especially in the morning there was a car parked there, so students were kind of just walking through the lot … We also saw some parents do use the bus inset on West Ninth Street South.”

The most buses Bolton & Menk engineers ever saw in the morning was three, but no more than two at a time. The inset itself is about 250 feet in length on the west side of the school. Overall, McCoy said arrivals worked “fairly well” at Woodrow Wilson. However, dismissals seemed to be a “tough time.”

During dismissals, parents were seen queuing out of the parking lot all along South Ninth Avenue West and past West Sixth Street South. Parents were also seen in parked vehicles on the east side of West Seventh Street South, which led to conflicts. McCoy said northbound vehicles would meet eastbound vehicles.

“Almost head to head, because you had the parents queued up along the curb on the north side of South Ninth Avenue, and then you would have another car coming through. And then you would have another coming east, another car coming west. And there’s really only enough room for, you know, two cars.”

When some parents parked on the east side of West Seventh Street South, those that didn’t go north made U-turns in the middle of the street or used people’s driveways to turn around to head south. It also led to some parents crossing with their students mid-block while vehicles were exiting the lot.

On the west side of the school, dismissals worked out “pretty good, for the most part.” Bolton & Menk did see some stretching back to the south and east ends of the bus inset area and parent pickup. Engineers also saw four buses use the inset, but no more than two at a time were seen using that, McCoy said.

Observations at Berg Middle School:

Bolton & Menk provided two types of recommendations for Berg Middle School: staffing and infrastructure. McCoy said three staff members could be needed in the mornings on the east drive; and then two others in the afternoon for the west drive and/or North Fifth Avenue East/East 19th Street North.

“They’re not directing traffic,” McCoy clarified. “Someone could maybe have a stop pedal or a yellow vest, and they can just assist kids crossing that north drive leg just to give some extra awareness for parents to yield.”

Berg Middle School was told it could stripe and sign the west exit drive for right and left turn. McCoy also recommended the district add a speed table for entering traffic and add a one way sign on the entrance drive for consistency purposes.

McCoy said the middle school could also restrict parking on south side of North Fifth Avenue East, east of East 19th Street. A sidewalk could be added on the west side of East 19th Street North from school signal to North Fifth Avenue East.

It should be noted that the north side of the school parking lot is reserved for bus transportation and some staff parking.

Two churches reside near Berg Middle School near the intersection of North Fifth Avenue East and East 19th Street North (Our Savior Lutheran Church and St. Luke United Methodist Church). Some parents have even parked in the lots of these churches. Traffic eventually backs up, but not as much in the mornings.

However, students were also seen running across the road in the area of the west exit drive, which McCoy said can be problematic because there could be visibility issues for approaching vehicles.

Parent pickup and drop-off — and where most of the foot traffic culminates — takes place in the south side lot of the school, which is a one way drive. Traffic tends to flow in a counterclockwise fashion. McCoy said it works well. There are existing signs that tell parents to pull up when space permits.

When the new Berg Middle School was constructed, the district built nice additions to help traffic flow and safety, McCoy said. During parent drop-offs, engineers noticed there was a peak 15-minute period where the eastbound queue at the east driveway locks vehicles exiting the west drive.

“So it just backed up to the point where the traffic at the east drive entrance was actually blocking back into the west drive entrance,” McCoy said. “… The other thing we noticed, too, was at the west drive vehicles exiting wanting to go right would also be queued up because of the traffic queued up at the intersection.”

Some parents entered that east drive at what appeared to be a fairly fast pace, although McCoy mentioned she did not take speed measurements. She also say that parents did yield to students walking on the sideway when they attempted to cross the north leg, which is the only leg not controlled by a stop sign.

The north lot worked great, McCoy added. Buses came and went without issue in the morning. A few parents used that north lot to drop off their kids. Some students were spotted walking using the pedestrian signal on East 19th Street North in the morning.

About 15 minutes before the bell rings in the afternoons, vehicles are already extending out of the pickup lane. People are already backing out of the east drive onto North Fifth Avenue East. Many parents parked on the north side of North Fifth Avenue East but didn’t pull in to the school drive in area.

“They just stayed parked and the kids walked, basically, across the lawn and got into those cars,” McCoy said.

Contact Christopher Braunschweig at 641-792-3121 ext. 6560 or cbraunschweig@newtondailynews.com