An Underwood & Rosenblum surveyor observes school traffic.

By Frank Rosenblum, PE, PLS
with Lucille Friedland, M.S.

Tragically, too often we hear news about a child being hit by a car in a school drop-off zone. Each year in California, cars kill about 20 child pedestrians during school commute times, according to statistics from the California Association of School Transportation Officials. Many times more are seriously hurt. This is not too surprising, as disorganized traffic jams in front of schools often waste the time of frustrated parents and other drivers.

I am president and principal engineer of Underwood & Rosenblum, Inc. civil engineers and surveyors (U&R). Serving over 50 school districts in California has given me the insight to develop a new planning system for dramatically reducing accidents. National School Transportation News and other publications have featured my "9-Step School Traffic Safety Solution," which this article briefly summarizes. Your organization can request my more detailed presentation. (See contact information at the end of this article).

Before addressing the issue, school districts first need to understand the factors that contribute to school pedestrian accidents and challenges in finding solutions. A nine-step process for developing a successful plan needs to include the input of parents, school administrators and city representatives.

Causes of Pedestrian Crashes
Certain factors increase the likelihood of child pedestrian crashes at California's schools:

	Students who walk to school must often go through parking lots, drop-off zones, inadequate sidewalks, and other dangers to arrive on campus.
	Most schools were designed and built over 30 years ago, when far fewer students were enrolled per school.
	Schools were originally designed with the 1950's concept that young children will walk to school with their moms, while older children walk alone or with friends.
	Parents today typically drive their children to school, since most parents work outside the home and are concerned about "stranger danger" crime issues.
	Typically, school drop-off zones, parking lots, sidewalks and other features make it dangerous for children to walk to school or be dropped off from a car by adults.
	Schools are often located on narrow neighborhood streets not designed for a large flow of traffic.
	Parents' busy lives lead them to rush when dropping off and picking up their children.

"We need to change the school infrastructure to adapt to society," says Director of Facilities Management Therese Gain of California's Fremont Unified School District.

	President Frank Rosenblum of Underwood & Rosenblum, Inc. civil engineers and surveyors, points to a multi-colored map for planning for school traffic safety improvements. Such visual aids help parents and school administrators participate in planning.

Challenges in Finding Solutions
Parents, school administrators and city representatives want to prevent these school traffic safety problems. Yet each might propose different, sometimes even conflicting, solutions. Coming to consensus about plans that will work often takes them years. Blueprints or technical drawings showing proposed solutions can make the process even more confusing for non-engineers and non-architects. Each site has its own existing layout, amount of land that can be used for school traffic safety developments, distance between school buildings and the streets and neighborhood, placement of trees, and other unique features. Therefore, each 9-step traffic safety solution must be designed specifically for each school.

Quick and easy answers cannot solve school traffic safety issues. Many complex factors need to be considered to create a real solution.

9-Step School Traffic Safety Solution
The nine-step solution for developing school traffic plans helps increase children's safety when they arrive at and depart from school. It also makes it much safer on campus for students who walk from home. It is the only planning process led by a civil engineering and surveying firm that has years of expertise in school redesign and creative solutions for school drop-off zones. It generates consensus and develops budgets for school districts. This solution involves parents, school administrators and city planners. It works to meet each group's needs.

According to Gain, who used the "9-Step Solution" in the Fremont School District, this is an "…excellent model and approach. It enabled us to get very quickly through analysis and input to solutions. U&R obtained the quantitative information we needed about the extent of the problem. Having parents be part of the discussion is very important."

To create full school traffic safety, better traffic design engineering is mandatory. By hiring civil engineering consultants who are experts in this field, school districts and architectural firms can help protect lives.

Learn More from Our Presentation
Request an easy-to-understand presentation for your organization or conference on "New Developments in Re-engineering School Drop-Off Zones to Keep Student Pedestrians Safer, Improve Traffic Flow." Meeting at your site, I will explain the "9-Step School Traffic Safety Solution" and show examples of actual projects. This will help your group gain a greater understanding of the topic and process. We will reserve time at the end to answer your questions. For a presentation outline, speaker biography, request form, and other information, please visit the "School Traffic Safety" section of www.UandR.com. Organizations which would benefit most from our presentations include, but are not limited to, the following in the nine greater Bay Area counties:

	Conferences relevant to groups listed below
	Architectural firms that serve schools
	School boards
	School superintendents
	School district transportation and facilities directors
	Traffic and walking policy organizations
	School traffic safety organizations

About the Authors
	Frank Rosenblum, PE, PLS is Principal Engineer and President of Underwood & Rosenblum, Inc., civil engineers and surveyors. Headquartered in San Jose, California, this firm specializes in providing creative solutions for school and other mid-sized projects. U&R has provided services to over 50 school districts with thousands of school projects. For more information, please visit www.UandR.com. To schedule a presentation of the 9-Step School Traffic Safety Solution, contact the following:
	Lucille Friedland, M.S. is Principal of Friedland Marketing & Communications. U&R is one of her clients. She can be reached at (408) 226-5755 or Lucille@FriedlandCommunications.com.

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For more information, article text and photos please contact the following:

Lucille Friedland, Principal of Friedland Marketing & Communications at
(408) 226-5755 or Lucille@FriedlandCommunications.com

An additional resource for information is the following:

President Frank Rosenblum of Underwood & Rosenblum, Inc., civil engineers and surveyors at
(408) 453-1222 or frank@uandr.com