Need and Challenges:
Arriving to pick up their children, parent drivers regularly clogged the parking lot at Franklin Elementary School in San Jose. Their cars--and school buses--backed up in long lines onto the dangerously busy Tully Road. More students are driven to school at Franklin than any other school in the district.

Making traffic worse, a valued new Head Start building added more students to the school. And bus drivers for the entire Franklin McKinley School District (FMSD) needed to travel through this traffic jam to enter the district bus lot behind the school property. Many feared a child could easily be hit by a car under these conditions.

Solution:
Fortunately, FMSD officials called in Underwood & Rosenblum, Inc. to provide its school traffic safety solution services.

U&R separated the parking and different types of traffic into different areas. They created a long, separate driveway for buses in front of the school. It meets with the existing traffic signal. Another long driveway took parents' cars back to a circular drop-off zone previously used for buses. A short fence was built on the sidewalk to separate children from the cars. These separate, defined areas are vaguely similar to those one sees at an international airport.

According to Franklin's Principal Louise Persson, "We feel very pleased with the renewed safety. It is far more orderly and organized than we were able to provide previously. I've heard a lot of positive comments from parents about it. They quickly learned the new system for dropping off and picking up their children."

Results:
Most important, the likelihood that a child will be run over is dramatically reduced. Today 30 to 40 cars can move smoothly through the driveway and student drop-off zone at any given time. School staff members keep children behind a low fence, while allowing parents in three cars to pick up their children simultaneously. Five buses wait in a row in their "buses only" driveway for Franklin students. For the first time, these buses can legally turn left onto Tully Road.

More Information:
U&R has successfully implemented its "9-Step Solution" in a variety of school districts throughout the Greater Bay Area and California. If your group would like to hear a presentation from U&R's President on "Keeping Student Pedestrians Safer by Re-engineering School Drop-Off Zones," please phone Lucille Friedland at (408) 226-5755. For more U&R success stories, click below.

 

Success Stories:
Tak Fudenna Stadium | Cadence CorporateDriveway | Mission SJ H.S. Tennis Courts
Cadence Tutoring Ctr./Dorsa | Franklin Elementary