Parents are sounding the alarm about a dangerous mix of children and traffic around an unregulated pick-up and drop-off area outside a school in northeast London.
Twice a day in front of St. Anne Catholic Elementary School, parents are stopping their cars along the unpaved shoulder, or crossing the busy traffic lanes to reach the sidewalk along the south side of Huron Street.
“It’s very dangerous,” worried Tomas Solaka as he waited in his car.
“Parents cross the street and it can be very dicey at times,” said Vicky Rutherford who was walking to pick up her two children from school.
The school parking lot is only large enough to accommodate teachers, and there is a “no parking” zone along the shoulder, so parents sent a petition to the city calling for safety improvements.
“There are near misses,” explained Debbie Corrigan. “It’s just very dangerous and it’s not good for anybody, traffic or pedestrians.”
“We are looking at different possible alternatives,” said Coun. Peter Cuddy, who explained he has met with city engineers to find solutions. “One is changing this area from no parking into a limited parking area for two hours in the morning for drop-off and two hours in the afternoon.”
Cuddy said reducing the speed limit in front of the school to 40 km/h is also being considered.
However, installing a pedestrian crosswalk in front of the school is complicated by the close proximity of a pair of signalled intersections where Huron Street crosses Highbury Avenue and Webster Street.
Cuddy said the improvements outside St. Anne Catholic Elementary School are currently being evaluated by city engineers for traffic and safety impacts.
He believes longer-term solutions for schools experiencing similar problems is to create safe active transportation routes as detailed in The London Plan.
“We are looking at better cycling routes, we are looking at better ways to get kids to school, and pedestrian crossings,” he said.
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