Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutDTS-08-106 - J.W. Gerth Public School, Williamsburg Public School Pedestrian issuesREPORT Report To: Development and Technical Services Committee Date of Meeting: Submitted By: Prepared By: Ward(s~ Involved: Date of Report: Report No.: August 11, 2008 John McBride Ronald Schirm South June 20, 2008 DTS-08-106 Subject: J.W. Gerth Public School, Williamsburg Public School Pedestrian issues RECOMMENDATIONS: That a School Bus Loading Zone be established in the bus bay on Apple Ridge Drive from a point 60 metres south of Woodfield Street to a point 52 metres south thereof; and further, That an Adult Crossing Guard facility be established on Max Becker Drive at Commonwealth Street, effective September 2, 2008; and further, That the funds necessary to operate this facility be considered an over expenditure of the 2008 Operating Budget; and further, That the Uniform Traffic Bylaw be amended accordingly. I. J.W. GERTH PUBLIC SCHOOL BACKGROUND: The Waterloo Region District School Board will be opening a new elementary school on Apple Ridge Drive in the Doon South Subdivision. This school will be opening on September 2, 2008. Meetings with school officials in May and June to determine a strategy for student access to and from the school grounds before and after school yielded the following report. REPORT: In September 2008 J.W. Gerth Public School will be opening in the South Ward. The school features adequate onsite parking for staff and visitors, but not for student drop off or pick up by personal vehicles. At this point there will be three full size school busses serving the school on a 2 daily basis. All school bus activity will be accommodated on Apple Ridge Drive as opposed to on site. To facilitate this, a bus bay has been constructed on Apple Ridge Drive in front of the school. From an operational standpoint it is more effective to keep school bus activity in the right of way, where signs and regulations are enforceable by City By-law Officers. School Bus Loading Zone signs on site are not enforceable. There will be school zone no stopping anytime signs installed on the west side of Apple Ridge Drive along the frontage of the school from Tilt Drive to the northern limit of the school property. There will be school zone no stopping 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. signs installed on the east side of Apple Ridge Drive opposite the aforementioned no stopping anytime signs. Further, school zone no stopping signs will also be installed on both sides of Tilt Drive from Apple Ridge Drive to the cul-de-sac west of the intersection. It is felt that, given the behaviour of drivers at other elementary schools, allowing pick up and drop off on this portion of Tilt Drive will lead to unsafe conditions for walkers and students accessing vehicles. No parking signs will be installed at the walkway accesses to the school off of Woodfield Street. All of these signs are installed under the general provisions of the Traffic and Parking By-Law 2007-138. Parents and care-givers will be directed to use Woodfield Court and Woodfield Street, as well as Pine Valley Drive to pick up/drop off students. In discussion with school officials, it was agreed that a student safety patrol assisted school crossing would be appropriate at two locations near the school. One school crossing will be installed on the north leg of the intersection of Apple Ridge Drive and Pine Valley Drive. In addition another student safety patrol assisted school crossing will be established on Apple Ridge Drive at Woodfield Street. The school has agreed to provide the safety patrollers, the City will install and maintain the crossing and Waterloo Regional Police will provide the training. A safety audit was conducted with the Principal of the School, Susan Schaffner, other Board officials, staff from the Region of Waterloo Health Unit and Transportation Planning Staff on June 25. The Active and Safe Routes to School Committee, a Regional committee that has membership from Transportation Planning Staff, will also be available as a resource for the school to establish programs that encourage walking and cycling to and from the school. One such program is the walking school bus program. This program has had some excellent success at a few locations and is being considered at J.W. Gerth Public School. Two walking school bus routes are proposed. The first walking school bus route will start at the intersection of Apple Ridge Drive and Doon Mills Road, travelling along Apple Ridge Drive to the school. The second walking school bus route is along Pine Valley Drive from somewhere south of Doon Mills Road to a walkway to Ridgemere Court to Apple Ridge Drive. Initially there will be 3 full sized school busses serving the school. It is anticipated that with growth in the area this number will increase. A School Bus Loading Zone in the bus bay will allow school busses to load and unload passengers without flashing lights and displaying the stop arm that would stop traffic on Apple Ridge Drive. Further, the location of the bus bay is sufficiently distant from both planned school crossings so that school busses in the bus bay will not detrimentally affect the safety at the crossings. It is felt that with the stopping and parking prohibitions around the school, the school crossing installations and the proposed programming a higher percentage of students using active modes of transportation to and from the school will lessen the negative traffic impact of the school, help promote healthy lifestyles for the residents and enhance safety and walkability in the neighbourhood. 3 II. WILLIAMSBURG PUBLIC SCHOOL BACKGROUND: Since the opening of Williamsburg Public School on Commonwealth Crescent in the South Ward in September 2007 Transportation Planning staff has worked with staff at the school to address various access issues that have developed over the School Year. REPORT: Williamsburg Public School is located on Commonwealth Crescent in the South Ward. Transportation Planning staff have worked with staff at the school and parent council members to address the many issues that have developed over the schools first year of operation. There were three specific areas of concern that were identified at various meetings. Because the area is still under development several portions of sidewalk and walkways are yet to be built. The developers have been requested to install the missing links before the start of the 2008-09 School Year. Several missing links have already been installed. Community Services Design and Development Staff have been requested to complete the trail link into the back of the school from Commonwealth Crescent as well. The second area of concern is with regards to two intersections, Commonwealth Street at Commonwealth Crescent, and Commonwealth Crescent at Isabella Street. No parking signs have been installed in order to move parked vehicles from the intersections. Further, the school has agreed to supply safety patrols for both locations, which will include school crossing signs, pavement markings and replacing the no parking signs with no stopping signs within 30 metres on all sides of both locations. The no stopping signs are installed under the general provisions of the Traffic and Parking By-Law 2007-138. This will greatly enhance safety for all walkers to and from the school. Thirdly, there is a request for the installation of an adult crossing guard at the intersection of Max Becker Drive and Commonwealth Street. The intersection is controlled by an all-way stop, installed in 2004 as per DTS Report 04-122. Max Becker Drive is classified as a Major Collector Road and traffic volumes are indicative of this road classification. The A.A.D.T. (annual average daily traffic) on Max Becker Drive in this area was approximately 3500 in June 2006. This amount of traffic is expected to increase as development continues in the area. Commonwealth Street is a Minor Collector Road and is an access for the neighbourhood to Bleams Road. Speed is not an issue in this instance due to the all-way stop. Site lines for pedestrians vis a vis motorists is excellent in all directions. Missing sections of sidewalk on the south side of Commonwealth Street east of the intersection have been installed. Remaining sidewalk and walkway connections are expected to be completed by the start of the new School Year. Many parents are using Commonwealth Street west of Max Becker Drive for pick up/drop off by car. This is a suitable location as it is well away from the school, is safe for of the school pedestrians who originate from that area as well as the children who are exitinglaccessing vehicles. This, with the students that need to cross Max Becker Drive and Commonwealth Street when walking to school, has increased pedestrian traffic at bell times significantly. This volume of pedestrians is expected to continue to rise. The placement of an adult crossing guard at this location will also encourage increased pedestrian use. 4 A Gap Study, conducted in June 2008, indicate that an adult crossing guard is warranted. There are four 5 minute periods where there are less than 4 adequate gaps in traffic for school pedestrian crossing, which indicates the need for an adult crossing guard. The proposed adult crossing guard facility will operate on the south and east legs of the intersection. Crosswalk lines have been installed on all four legs of the intersection. School crossing signs are not warranted at this location as they should not be installed at stop locations or traffic signals. There will be no noon hour crossing guard coverage as Williamsburg School features a balanced school day. It has been the experience of crossing guard facilities elsewhere that schools with a balanced school day experience minimal lunch time pedestrian traffic. Gap Study Date: June 17, 2008 Location: Max Becker Drive and Commonwealth Street Time Period Required Gaps Recorded Gaps Children: South Children: West Children: North Children: east No, of Vehicles 8 :25 a. m. 5 7 0 1 0 0 19 8 :30 a. m. 5 5 0 0 0 0 33 8 :35 a. m. 5 8 4 0 0 0 34 8 :40 a. m. 5 7 2 0 0 0 32 8 :45 a. m. 5 3 18 2 0 6 40 8 :50 a. m. 5 3 14 0 3 3 31 8 :55 a. m. 5 3 3 0 0 0 36 9 :00 a. m. 5 5 4 0 2 3 46 Total a.m.: 40 41 45 3 5 12 271 3 :20 p. m. 5 6 18 1 2 0 30 3 :25 . m. 5 3 24 2 0 2 33 3:30 .m. 5 12 7 0 0 0 28 3:35 .m. 5 5 1 1 0 0 38 3:40 p.m. 5 4 0 0 0 0 35 3 :45 p. m. 5 7 0 0 0 0 34 Total p.m.: 30 37 50 4 2 2 198 N.B. shaded areas indicate need for crossing assistance Crossing Guard Schedule on Max Becker Drive at Commonwealth Street will be as follows: Crossing Guard Duty Times Max Becker Drive & Commonwealth Street 8 :20 a. m . - 9 :00 a. m . 3:20 .m.-3:50 .m. This is co-ordinated with the bell times at the school, is the same as at the Isabella Street and Max Becker Drive adult crossing guard facility and represents the same level of service as is provided at all adult crossing guard facilities City-wide. SCHOOL ROUTE MAPS: At the start of every new School Year Transportation Planning develops and distributes more than 20,000 school route maps to each elementary school aged child in the City. The maps feature a street map, walkways and trails, all adult crossing guard locations, crossing guard duty times, student safety patrol locations and traffic signals. These maps also feature information regarding safe travel to and from school, and some environmental information. Transportation Planning has worked in conjunction with Information Technology staff to develop an online version of these maps. The online versions are in colour, feature more information, including all sidewalks, as well as graphics showing approximately how long it takes to walk from general locations to the school, etc. There is also a scale so that students who are involved with the mapping component at their school can use this map in their studies. The on-line map will also allow for continuous facility and crossing guard duty time updating by staff. Transportation Planning has liaised with both the Waterloo District School Board and the Waterloo Catholic District School Board in order to provide web based links for each individual elementary school on their internet webpage. Further to this, staff, with members of the Active and Safe Routes to School Committee, is developing information pages for this initiative that will promote and provide information for active transportation to and from schools, deal with safety issues in a constructive, positive manner as a replacement for what is presently on the School Board websites. The on-line school route maps and active transportation to school information will be housed on the City's Internet site as well. Completion of this project is expected to be at the end of August 2008. FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS: The cost of the installation two school bus loading zone signs is $300. The cost of installing the no stopping and no parking signs will be approximately $1000. The cost of the installation of four school crossings, including line painting, will be approximately $2000. All sign installation costs will be drawn from the sign installation account. One concrete pad will need to be installed, plus two sidewalk intersection improvements will need to be undertaken, at a total cost of $1000, which will be drawn from the sidewalk repair account. The cost of the proposed Adult Crossing Guard facility on Max Becker Drive at Commonwealth Street for the remainder of 2008 will be $2500 and will be represented as over-expenditure in the 2008 Operating Budget C~M~UNICATIQNS: The Planning Department at the Waterloo District School Board and Susan Schaffner, Principal of J.W. Gerth Public School are aware of this proposed installation and in agreement as to how it is intended to operate. Parents and students of J.W. Gerth Public School will be notified, 6 pending Council approval, of this regulation and their responsibilities at an open house at the school late in August. As well, By-law enforcement staff will be on hand during the first week of school to inform parents as to the signed regulations and where alternatives exist for parents who are driving students to and from school. Staff and members of the Parent Council at Williamsburg Public School are aware of the plans and proposed adult crossing guard location. They completely support this endeavour and are intending to fulfill their responsibilities. Residents affected by the installation of no stopping and no parking signs will be informed via letter as to the installations. The Enforcement Division has been consulted and with Transportation Planning, will be co- ordinating enforcement of all new stopping and parking regulations. As is usually the case, violators of new signed regulations will be warned initially, informed as to where they should be stopping and parking, and be issued parking infraction notices (PIN} on subsequent occasions. Finally, contained within the School Route Maps for J.W. Gerth Public School, which will be distributed to each student at the start of the School Year, will be information regarding where vehicular drop off/pick up is permitted. CONCLUSION: In an effort to promote active transportation at J.W. Gerth Public School it is felt that the measures that will be undertaken will still adequately accommodate drivers while providing safe and convenient access to the school by walkers, cyclists, etc. The sign installations and establishment of the school crossings will enhance safety for all students attending G.W. Gerth Public School. Further, the installed bus bay in front of J.W. Gerth Public School is intended for school bus and board related transportation only. In order to ensure that this facility is kept free for its intended purpose a School Bus Loading Zone is necessary. The changes proposed at Williamsburg Public School, including the installation of two student safety patrol school crossings, one adult crossing guard facility and all relevant signs, stopping regulations and crosswalk lines, will greatly enhance student safety at this location and further encourage active transportation to and from this school. Ronald K. Schirm, Supervisor Crossing Guards Transportation Planning RKS Attach. John P. McBride, Director Transportation Planning