Pub. 3 2013-2014 Issue 2

27 The AM peak is the higher traffic period which is an operational concern because the school traffic and the passing highway traffic are both high. Therefore, get- ting in and out of the school is more of the issue, but the vehicles are typically on campus for a short time period. The afternoon condition creates a larger concern for queu- ing as parents wait for their students to be released from school. This queuing often begins 15-20 minutes before the release of school. While not statistically valid, the re- cent findings from four different Charter School locations indicate that the queue length is related to the student population at a rate of about 10%. This implies that if the student population is 500, then queue space for about 50 vehicles should be planned as that is the likely number of parent that will queue up prior to the release of school. A standard 25 feet should be applied for each vehicle per national guidelines from the Federal Highways Adminis- tration. Therefore, a 500 student school should plan for a 1,250 foot queue at pick-up time. In addition, a bypass lane is critical so that the queued vehicles can leave once they have picked up their child. Without a bypass lane, if someone enters the parking lot, they are restricted from leaving until the entire queue in front of them has cleared. This promotes drivers to avoid the pick-up area. Often, the on-site circulation can be managed by per- sonnel monitors and / or coning to maintain a continuous flow without creating the crossing conflict points. Often there will be multiple access points to the school but dur- ing pick-up time, these redundant accesses may promote conflict points and create congestion. By restricting these accesses during pick-up, the traffic will flow smoother without eliminating emergency access. Figure 1 shows a possible plan to limit access during pick-up by simply con- ing the redundant accesses. Figure 1: Recommended Coning Locations All schools are congested during drop off and pick up. There should be an expected 20-30 minute period in the AM and afternoon period where congestion will occur due to queuing and school traffic circulation. This is a com- mon problem at schools and Charter and Private schools typically have twice the problem on a per student basis than public (districts) schools. However, proper planning can minimize these concerns. As a site is developed, some thought on the following issues can help minimize the transportation concerns: • Plan for the appropriate traffic levels. Traffic is di- rectly related to the student population. • Think of a one-way circulation without the traffic paths crossing each other, i.e. enter on one street, circulate on campus and exit on an adjacent street. Sometimes this can be accomplished with coning secondary accesses that may be appropriate during non-peak times. • Ideally, the school site should ensure sufficient on-site queuing to minimize potential queue backing onto streets. • Bypass lanes are critical or drivers will avoid entering the circulation route if there is a possibility of being trapped behind a parent waiting for a child that is delayed. • The circulation direction should consider drop off side of the vehicles but also likely arrival and depar- ture direction of the majority of traffic. Questions that can be asked as the school is being developed include: • Consider the off-site parking and possible secondary pick-up areas. Are they appropriate or not? Is there a need to restrict those areas with striping and signing. It should be noted that signing and striping are typi- cally violated by parents picking up students because they remain with the vehicles and therefore feel this does not apply for short term durations. • Where is off-site parking going to be allowed and how will it be accommodated and or limited? • How much monitoring by the school is there regard- ing driver pick-up points and pedestrian crossing of the roadways? • How will spillage onto adjacent streets be addressed and should it occur? • What pedestrian connections and improvements are planned to accommodate the small number of off-site pedestrian activities that will occur. Afternoon Queue backing up in a drive isle forcing it to a one-way section for the businesses, Draper, UT