The longer schooldays for Kindergartners started this week, so there'll be twenty more cars in the pick-up lane Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and forty more on Wednesday afternoons. The deteriorating weather will also push more children into cars. So it's more important than ever to move through the pick-up and drop-off lane quickly. Can you all please help?
The loading zone can only hold twelve cars at a time: if each one takes two minutes to drive up, pick up charges and exit, that's 24 minutes for those 140 cars on Wednesday. I would like all drivers to keep in mind the driver of the last car in line, waiting for all others to move on. Don't waste his or her time.
In the morning, about one hundred cars have to get through the loading zone: please unload quickly for school starts and nobody wants any children to be late.
So please always pull forward as far as you can, don't stop and leave open space for it keeps other parents from entering the loading zone. I hope it is clear that parking in the loading zone is absolutely out of the question.
Always stay in your car, be ready to pull forward when cars in front of you move, and be ready to load or unload and move on. Don't put backpacks etc. in the trunk of your car for it takes too much time. The loading zone is also not the right place for hugs and long goodbyes.
If your student passengers are not in the pick-up waiting area, either park in designated parking or exit and circle through again.
When cars form two lines after the office crosswalk it will allow a few more cars into the loading zone, every little bit helps. Merge back at the MP Room turn.
It occasionally happens that the line of waiting cars blocks the Hoover exit into Charleston. Try to leave that space open.
Pedestrians have to do their part by waiting patiently to let groups of leaving cars pass.
Also, if a few of you would like to do traffic safety patrols, pointing out the rules to errant parents and work on your popularity, you're welcome to the clipboard.
Marco Schuffelen, Traffic Safety Coordinator, sipma@stanford.edu
The math:
According to the Walk-to-School Day classroom survey 61% of students
usually come in by family car, so I took 60% of 250 families = 140 and
13% use car pool, that's 13% of 350 = 40, assuming just two per car
that's 20 cars, 140+20=160; 40 to Kindergarten, 20 parking leaves 100.
100 cars divided by twelve spaces times 1.5 minute per car equals 12
(minutes); 140 divided by twelve times 2 equals 24.
Hoover Elementary Traffic Safety Issues