As more and more parents choose to drop their kids off at school in the morning and pick them up in the afternoon, roadways and carpool lanes become increasingly crowded. While there are some minor scheduling issues that can crop up as a result of the long lines of cars and ever-inflating wait times, there are also some serious hazards in play. Can carpooling stop the insanity of school drop-offs and pick-ups?
School Traffic: Hazards and Headaches
Whether it’s due to a lack of traditional school bus transport or a family scheduling preference, more than 30 million kids are riding to and from school with a parent every day. Most schools aren’t designed for this kind of traffic, and the result is long wait times, wasted gas, outraged neighbors, and kids at risk from the pollution and hazards resulting from such a large volume of cars packed around the school. School officials are stressed, parents are annoyed and kids are bored.
In response to the growing crisis, some schools are designing traffic flow patterns by blocking off-road access in certain places and creating a specialized carpool lane that is only available to parents during certain hours. This can help reduce wait times for some parents, but when parents are heading to the school from the “wrong” direction of the way the traffic flow is arranged, it creates additional headaches. Ultimately, this solution is not a perfect fix.
The fact is that the sheer volume of cars during pick-up and drop-off poses a hazard. It just takes one impatient adult behind the wheel to create a tragedy. School officials across the nation are doing what they can, but parents need to be more proactive to really bring about an acceptable resolution to the nightmare of school traffic. Parents are the ones creating the traffic, ignoring posted signs and suggestions, and driving the cars. They can also be the ones to reduce the traffic and get their kids to school safely, promptly, and with minimal stress.
How to Help Your School
1) Address the Issue at PTA Meetings
The first step to solving any problem is to acknowledge and discuss it. Be a leader in your community and bring the traffic issue at your school to the table at a PTA meeting. See what other parents are thinking and find out if the school has any plans to address the problem. If not, you’ll need to start a movement.
2) Work With Organizations Like Safe Routes to Schools
Handling a problem this large on your own isn’t easy, but if you partner with Safe Routes to School or another transportation-focused organization in your area, you can get professional help in promoting alternatives to school drop-offs and pick-ups by car. Biking and walking are the best and healthiest ways to get your kids to school, but not all schools are equipped to handle this kind of transportation. Safe Routes can work with your school to set up walking safety procedures, bike racks, and other features that will make alternative transportation easier.
3) Create a Carpooling System
Carpooling is unquestionably the best way to reduce car traffic, and it should be part of any solution to school pick-up and drop-off problem-solving. If neighbors get together and share drop-off and pick-up duties, there will automatically be fewer cars on the road and a smaller volume of parents trying to get in and out of the school parking lot every day. Studies have shown that carpooling can reduce traffic congestion by half, and it has a major positive impact on the environment, too.
GoKid makes carpooling simple and easy, providing a mobile, flexible solution to carpooling program setup.
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Parents can download the app and use it to invite other parents to a carpool using text and email features within the app itself. You can set up a rotating schedule using GoKid, and parents will receive push notifications to remind them when it’s their turn to drive. When it’s not your turn, you get to stay at home and send your kid off with a trusted friend or neighbor in your community. If you collaborate with just two other parents on your block, you’ll have two fewer cars per day in your drop-off and pick-up lanes. Get a few dozen other parents from your school to participate and you’ll have a real solution to the problem at hand.
