Just a couple of weeks into a new school year, Woolwich is dealing with the chronic issue of traffic and parking complaints around some Elmira schools. The latest change involves no-stopping zones around Riverside Public School.
Meeting this week, councillors agreed two areas currently signed as “no parking” will be designated “no stopping,” with that restriction extended to cover a section on the north side of William Street east of the current bus-loading zone. The extension deals with cars blocking a private laneway on the east side of the school.
The goal is to have fewer cars jockeying around the front of the school as parents rush to drop off their kids in the morning and then pick them up in the afternoon, explained deputy clerk Val Hummel.
Councillors also discussed recent complaints about cars turning around and blocking driveways around Park Manor PS in Elmira.
Coun. Mark Bauman said the school and other parents should discourage the practice of using people’s driveways, perhaps stigmatizing the behaviour. He called the practice unsafe given the dangers of cars backing up where students are converging on the school.
“This is not an acceptable practice,” he said, suggesting it would be beneficial to “make parents feel guilty” about it.
These latest issues join a longstanding problem with traffic around John Mahood PS on First Street. There, the township has enacted a number of changes to on-street parking and the parking lot in Gibson Park. As well, bylaw enforcement has been routinely stepped up, all at the township’s expense.
In a later interview, Hummel said the township has had a number of conversations with the Waterloo Region District School Board about the parking concerns, but to little effect.
“For the most part, they have taken no action,” she said, noting the municipality can’t force the board to provide more parking on school property or to pay for extra costs associated with the measures undertaken by Woolwich. “We have no authority to do that.”
The township has, however, pointed out the benefits of a solution adopted by St. Teresa school, just down the road from John Mahood. Faced with similar traffic issues, when prohibition and control measures failed, the school built a kiss-and-drop location for parents and their children.
WRDSB trustee Harold Paisley said some additional parking at the rear of John Mahood, part of an expansion to accommodate full-day kindergarten, has provided some relief, adding he’s had fewer complaints so far this year.
He also credits cooperation from nearby Emmanuel Evangelical Missionary Church, which has made its parking lot available, for helping the situation.
“That has really taken the pressure off.”
While there is land available for a kiss-and-drop solution at John Mahood, thus far there’s been no progress despite pressure from the township and parents, he admits.
At Riverside PS, the problem is more difficult given the lack of available space at the landlocked parcel.
“I don’t see an easy and immediate solution there,” said Paisley, adding that plans to replace the school in two years may end up being the best way to resolve the parking problem.
The board intends to build a new Riverside PS in the subdivision now underway on the west side of town.
Parents and the township should keep on top of the board to ensure the new school accommodates their concerns, Paisley suggested.
“I do trust that they’re able to get an appropriate drop-off and parking area.”
The parking and traffic issues aren’t unique to Elmira, he noted. The board and its counterparts elsewhere in the province see the same problems, particularly at schools in built-up areas.
At Park Manor, the principal and parent council have been trying to discourage some of the driving behaviours around the school, but rely on parents to take the advice to heart.
“It makes me scratch my head what people do when dropping off their kids,” said Paisley.
In keeping with board policy, he suggested kids walk to school rather than being ferried right to the door.
“It really is safe for kids to walk to school. For most kids who attend schools in Elmira, they really are quite walkable,” said Paisley.
At the very least, parents can drop off their kids a block or two from the school to reduce congestion, suggested Bauman at Tuesday night’s meeting.
“It won’t hurt any kids to walk an extra block to school.”
