Schools

Preliminary Cross Street Traffic Findings Announced

Final report due some time in May.

Preliminary findings from a  to study the feasibility of were released Wednesday night during the Mineola Board of Education’s meeting in the  cafeteria.

Superintendent Dr. Michael Nagler described the presentation as a “preliminary overview” of the findings and an “update to the board,” which would be followed by additional observations by the firm at the school.

“It is not a report,” Nagler emphasized, “and it is not final.”

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A final report is not expected to be completed until sometime in May, possibly two or three weeks away. The Williston Park Village Board has also commissioned their own traffic report on the school, which has puzzled school administrators. That report may be presented to that board at their May 16 meeting.

Along with a team of traffic engineers, Robert Eschbacher of Hauppague-based VHB Engineering, a firm specializing in traffic studies, has conducted a “series of observations” in and around Cross Street, St. Aidan’s and the surrounding neighborhood since being commissioned at the March 24 meeting of the board of education.

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The observations include documenting bus movements, parent drop offs and pick up behavior, pedestrian activity and parking utilization. The team has also taken an inventory of traffic signs and regulations and parking regulations.

Due to the recent spring break/ Easter vacation at the schools, Eschbacher said that additional site visits are planned at the schools to observe the schools under “typical conditions” during a regular day of classes.

“We’re trying to do this properly and not rush it,” he said of the report.

Eschbacher stated that remaining goals include evaluating both the existing and future conditions of the  if it were to be occupied by  and all its activities, which include extracurricular activities.

Recommendations would be made in the report on how to enhance the traffic safety for the students, parents and residents, and to minimize impacts to the traffic flow for local residents, businesses, residents, etc.

“I’m trying to develop recommendations which are more operational in nature and ideally which would not involve changes to the existing traffic flow patterns or parking regulations,” Eschbacher said, explaining he wanted to provide recommendations which could be adapted to suit possible changing conditions in the future.

As part of his preliminary findings, Eschbacher noted three issues which would need to be resolved.

First, that the arrival and dismissal times for Cross St. and St. Aidan’s do not overlap. “Solomon Schechter Day Schools should arrange its schedules accordingly to maintain this separation of arrival and dismissal times,” Eschbacher said, noting that most of the pick up and dismissal activity “generally” takes place within a 15 minute window.

“There’s pretty much a clear separation in time which helps the two to coexist in a reasonable amount and we’d like to keep that,” he said.

Board vice-president Christine Napolitano asked for a sense of the dismissal behavior currently being displayed at the building. Eschbacher hesitated when asked if he would describe it as “orderly,” saying that “parents can sometimes be a little more anxious to get in and drop the kids off and leave.” He stated that he sees behavior  which “would not be as desirable” around a school, including U-turns being made on Cross Street.

When questioned as to when such behavior might become dangerous, Eschbacher said he was “not sure,” but “ideally” U-turns should not be made in a situation where school buses and children exist.  He said that additional signage may be required to be placed to prevent such behavior.

The second issue deals with the amount of buses for Solomon Schechter. Eschbacher recommended that the afternoon departure of Solomon Schechter “should be controlled” so that all the buses are not dismissed at the same time. A staggered dismissal is thought to “spread out the dismissal onto the local streets,” as Eschbacker said that dismissal en masse would result in “some backups on the streets as they’re trying to get out of there.”

The final issue involves student parking in the planned expanded parking lot off Meagher Place on the south side of the school. It was Eschbacher’s view that even with the expansion, due to the use of the lot and use as a drop-off site for smaller buses, that and an off-site student parking location should be secured. Approximately 10 spaces were planned to be set aside to accommodate students who drive to the school.

One of the next steps for the study Eschbacher said would be to observe if any undesirable patterns exist at Solomon Schechter’s Glen Cove site, if they would be replicated at Cross Street and if they could be addressed in any way.


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