The longest commute day of the year: the first day of the school year at Sidwell Friends

[Anonymous]

Maybe if the residents of the affected communities didn't force schools into building expensive parking garages for students, the families would have to find alternatives (car pool/bus/metro etc) to get to school.

Instead, by making the collective schools, at least on that corridor: Cathedral/Sidwell/GDS, add hundreds of parking spots, it did nothing more but to add hundreds of cars to the streets.

I am sure there were well intentioned thoughts that by having garages, the neighborhood parking would be easier, but from my experience, all these actions do was to make it easier for employees at places like Safeway, Cafe DeLux or the US Post Office to park on the streets. They are still clogged with out of residence cars, but now, instead of being there from 8-3, they are there from 7 to 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:most of the people held up at GDS probably don't live in the immediate vicinity. They aren't "neighbors" per se. Therefore there is no unified community to complain and I doubt without it that anything will change soon. It really takes an angry mob to get these schools to see the light sometimes.

I'm not sure that it's any different at a neighborhood school. DS was a safety patrol at his local elementary school two years ago, with the job of keeping the entrance to the bus circle unblocked by cars. At the ripe old age of 10 he was cursed at, screamed at, and nearly run over by neighborhood residents who wanted to park in that space to drop/pick up their kids. It took the combined efforts of the principal and a police officer to get drivers to calm down and obey the rules.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember over the last few years a few children being hit by cars while walking to school in MoCO. I believe there were 2 students within a few weeks of each other who were Middle Schoolers at Tilden MS on Old Georgetown Road. I do not beleive there were crossing guards in either of these accidents - and I am sure their parents wish that there was an over-zealous guard there to protect their child.

I've got a lot of sympathy for those families. however, it sounds like what was needed was an effective crossing guard, not an over-zealous one. A quick internet search turns up several training manuals for crossing guards, all making the point that crossing guards are not meant to direct traffic, but rather to direct children about crossing safely with the walk signs. It looks like crossing guards are empowered to create a gap only if the natural flow of traffic has no gaps.

Page 2: http://www.saferoutesinfo.org/guide/crossing_guard/pdf/crossing_guard_guidelines_web.pdf
Page 11: http://www.wichita.gov/NR/rdonlyres/AC7941A2-4B88-4DC1-A34A-25A9DB4EB55E/0/ManualSchoolCrossingGuardHandbookKDOT.pdf
Page 2 & 4-5: http://www.dot.state.co.us/bikeped/Docs/SafeRoutes/SRTSCrossingGuardUtahManual.pdf

Don't get me wrong -- I have young kids, and I love effective crossing guards. I just want them to be aggressively protecting the kids, not aggressively demonstrating their power to block traffic. And aggressively protecting the kids means making them wait to cross at the WALK sign, not creating a potentially dangerous situation by blocking the normal flow of traffic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:most of the people held up at GDS probably don't live in the immediate vicinity. They aren't "neighbors" per se. Therefore there is no unified community to complain and I doubt without it that anything will change soon. It really takes an angry mob to get these schools to see the light sometimes.

I'm not sure that it's any different at a neighborhood school. DS was a safety patrol at his local elementary school two years ago, with the job of keeping the entrance to the bus circle unblocked by cars. At the ripe old age of 10 he was cursed at, screamed at, and nearly run over by neighborhood residents who wanted to park in that space to drop/pick up their kids. It took the combined efforts of the principal and a police officer to get drivers to calm down and obey the rules.

I am one of the posters who complianed about GDS - the lower school is on MacArthur and none of the kids are old enough to drive, its the parents.n And, yes, i am a neighbor. I live in the Palisades, a little further out on MacArthur, but in DC proper. I work downtown and take MacArthur to Canal. Because they shut Arizona access to Canal Road headed IN to DC from DC residnets in favor of Virginia and MD resiodents, those of us who live and work in the district have to take roads with lots of lights and traffic. That's fine. I have a decently short commute and love it. What I dont love is when a crosing guard at GDS stops all traffic in MacARthur in favor of letting cars into GDS to drop off students. That crossing guards makes all the commuters stop even as the light turns green and then red and then green again in order top let GDS cars in to the school. Its totally obnoxious. Yes, I too regularly try to take Foxhall down to Canal instead but lately some construction has it all backed up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I am one of the posters who complianed about GDS - the lower school is on MacArthur and none of the kids are old enough to drive, its the parents.n And, yes, i am a neighbor. I live in the Palisades, a little further out on MacArthur, but in DC proper. I work downtown and take MacArthur to Canal. Because they shut Arizona access to Canal Road headed IN to DC from DC residnets in favor of Virginia and MD resiodents, those of us who live and work in the district have to take roads with lots of lights and traffic. That's fine. I have a decently short commute and love it. What I dont love is when a crosing guard at GDS stops all traffic in MacARthur in favor of letting cars into GDS to drop off students. That crossing guards makes all the commuters stop even as the light turns green and then red and then green again in order top let GDS cars in to the school. Its totally obnoxious. Yes, I too regularly try to take Foxhall down to Canal instead but lately some construction has it all backed up.

Have you called GDS about this?

[Anonymous]

Remember, we live in a city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Remember, we live in a city.

Indeed we do. I am one of the GDS posters (although not the recent PP). But GDS's traffic gives, I think, too much preference to GDS families and not enough to the many people trying to get to work (or in my case trying to get my child to school on time and get to work). Not sure why they should have such priority. Seems like they need a better solution to their drop off process if it is going to inconvenience the neighbors to such a large extent.