Town officials say the best way for New Canaan High School to ensure the safety of students who now must cross a bustling main access road through the campus in the mornings might be to have the teens and teachers swap parking areas.
Students crossing the main access road at the New Canaan High School parking lot on the morning of Oc.t 28, 2014. Credit: Michael Dinan
As it is now, most students park in the long lot that runs up alongside the track, then cross the accessway to get into the school, while teachers who have arrived earlier are parking in lots closer to the building itself, according to members of the Police Commission.
Based on a suggestion from a working group that oversees traffic calming in New Canaan, the Police Commission on Wednesday opened the possibility of recommending that the district try out the swap.
Students crossing the main access road at the New Canaan High School parking lot on the morning of Oc.t 28, 2014. Credit: Michael Dinan
“I like the idea of swapping, because if teachers are coming at 7 o’clock and the kids are coming at 7:30, get the teachers out by the track and let them walk,” Commissioner Paul Foley said during the group’s meeting, held in the Training Room at the New Canaan Police Department.
Ultimately it will be the school’s own decision how to address what Police Chief Leon Krolikowski flagged as a pedestrian safety hazard at the high school.
Students crossing the main access road at the New Canaan High School parking lot on the morning of Oc.t 28, 2014. Credit: Michael Dinan
One difficulty is that there’s no single spot along the access route where students cross toward the school. District officials have entertained the idea of a crosswalk—say, at the flagpole—while noting that it’s not natural now for the students to make their way to that area from their parking area prior to heading across.
From about 7 to 7:30 a.m., the high school parking lot is bustling with activity. School and safety officials in neon vests are positioned both at the Farm Road intersection and then, within the campus, on the nearer side of the access road loop.
Passenger cars, many of them SUVs and with the newly licensed teens at the wheel as well as parents dropping off their kids, travel nonstop in both directions during the half-hour period with no break.
“It is a poorly designed parking lot for its purpose,” Police Capt. John DiFederico said at the commission’s meeting.
Teachers “probably would be more likely to adhere to a crosswalk” than students, he said.
Capt. Vincent DeMaio said the problem may be numbers—there are far fewer teacher spots available in the parking areas nearest the high school than in the areas where students now park.
Police Commission Chair Stuart Sawabini said the group may propose that the high school try the swap out on a trail basis and see what happens.
DiFederico said he’d work on getting an exact count on the number of spaces nearest the school versus those that require crossing the main access road to get to the building.
Glad that the Police Commission is looking at solutions to a very dangerous parking situation at NCHS but the swap out idea just does not seem workable.
One thing that the commission did not seem to take into account were the cars that line up for afternoon pick up in current teachers lot. Since teachers are leaving later, few cars are trying to back out as pick up line moves forward. If this were to become student lot, a lot of cars would backing out at same time as pick ups are going on and a huge log jam would result. Scenario might even be a more dangerous situation than the current.
What about the morning traffic congestion? There are kids leaving their houses before 7am and still arriving to class late.
Living 10 minutes away from the school shouldn’t result in 30 minutes of travel time. We always talk about the issue of kids getting up at the crack of dawn and this is part of the problem. NCHS literally has one exit and getting out of the school is not much easier than entering it.
As a student of NCHS for the last 3 years, the frustration is still mounting. We have an entrance solely dedicated to buses, even though they are going in and out for a total of half an hour of the day (7:10-7:25), (2:10-2:25).
Personally, I have no issues crossing in the morning. I understand it’s dangerous and have had and seen my fair share of close calls but the congestion should be at the forefront of major problems. I have seen nothing to have it changed either.