This really isn't anything new at all. During the recent joint council/school board meeting(you know the one where the SB came off as looking really childish), this was all discussed, or was attempted to be discussed. Why it is appearing in the paper weeks after the meeting is beyond us.
From the BCCT:
Morrisville seeks answers to school traffic problems
By: MANASEE WAGH
Bucks County Courier Times
The traffic situation has become so snarled that one parent set up a Facebook site to collect complaints.
Parents have complained for more than a year.
And now, the borough and the Morrisville School Board are closer to finding fixes for school traffic safety concerns.
"This issue encompasses something we can mutually solve," borough council President Nancy Sherlock said recently.
Making the roads more secure for the district's roughly 1,000 students has been an ongoing topic of discussion, but new problems came to the forefront after M.R. Reiter Elementary School closed after a December 2008 furnace explosion.
Now Reiter students in grades four and five attend classes at Morrisville Middle/High School and the younger children all attend Grandview, increasing both vehicular and pedestrian traffic during school start and dismissal times.
Outside Grandview, the one-way street can get chaotic as parents and children in pre-kindergarten through third grade vie for space with vehicles.
The situation became so frustrating that parent Wanda Kartal started a "Petition for Safety" Facebook group last year to call attention to the problem of "near misses" she said she saw frequently from her home near the elementary school. The group has 77 members.
One member says she can't get out of her driveway sometimes and that traffic hardly moves down Melvin Avenue near the school. Another says, "We have a child of our very own at Grandview and I also pick up a friend's child who attends the IntermediateMiddleSenior High School. I can confirm that since the reconfiguration of grades after the MR Reiter explosion, (starting last spring), the traffic and safety issues have dramatically worsened."
Grades four and five enter and exit by the back door of the high school, near the administrative offices, but many children and adults still have to cross busy Palmer Avenue in front of the building, where cars clog the road every morning and afternoon.
Existing safety measures haven't been enough to alleviate traffic congestion and careless driving, say some parents.
Grandview parent Christine Phillips sees cars driving in the correct direction on the one-way road outside the elementary school, but many are still going too fast, she said Wednesday.
"People who aren't stopping to pick up kids aren't following 15 mile per hour rules. Sometimes, I come out of the school with my kids and see cars zipping up the street," she said.
The board would like to see the following additional solutions put in place, said board member Marlys Mihok:
n Flashing yellow lights to indicate a school zone in front of Morrisville High School.
n Reflective lines or flashing lights to send people in the correct direction out of Grandview Elementary School.
n More crossing guards at both schools.
Other options may include no parking on one side of the Melvin Avenue and Grandview Avenue intersection, to give the Grandview Elementary crossing guard better visibility, said Sherlock.
Paul DeAngelo, the school district's business administrator, is researching options for safety solutions, including cost estimates for the flashing school zone sign and options such as using a cheaper solar-powered sign.
"We'd work with the borough to make sure they're OK with whatever we pursue," he said.
