Challenge: 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. Many feared a child could be hit by a car under these conditions.
Solution: Engineers at U&R separated the parking and different types of traffic into different areas. For school buses, they constructed a long driveway in front of the school. And a separate driveway now takes parents’ cars to a circular drop-off zone previously used for buses.
Results: “We feel very pleased with the renewed safety,” says Franklin’s Principal Louise Persson. “It is far more orderly. I’ve heard a lot of positive comments from parents.” Now 30 to 40 cars at a time can move smoothly through the driveway and student drop-off zone. School staff keeps children behind a new low fence while allowing parents in three cars to pick up children. Five buses wait in a row in the “buses only” driveway. For the first time, they can legally tum left onto Tully.