SWAMPSCOTT — The proposed new combined Swampscott elementary school would route parent drop-off and pick-up traffic in on Whitman Road and out through the Unitarian Universalist Church parking lot next door, onto Forest Avenue.
In a Tuesday night virtual community meeting, the School Building Committee presented the traffic plan for the new school, which would place all elementary students into one building.
“When we first looked into doing this job, we knew right off that traffic was a huge concern for Swampscott,” said Leigh Sherwood, an architect on the project. “When we came here and drove around your streets, we saw it more firsthand.”
Rebecca Brown, a traffic consultant from engineering consulting firm Greenman-Pedersen, Inc., explained that the site of the current Stanley School, which was selected as the location for the new school building, is ideal for mitigating traffic, because it gives as many students as possible the option to walk to school.
“It’s close to a large portion of the student population,” Brown said. “The neighborhoods around it are all safe as well, and there are no high crash locations in the area.”
The site also includes a large amount of space for parents’ cars to queue, Brown explained, keeping them off of the surrounding streets as they wait to drop off or pick up their students. When parents arrive in the morning or afternoon, the line will enter from Whitman Street, wrap around a one-way loop in front of the building, and exit through the parking lot of the church and out onto Forest Avenue. During the day and outside of regular school hours, a gate will block off the road through the church and the loop will become two-way, allowing cars to exit onto Whitman.
The traffic plan also includes formalizing a one-way traffic pattern around Orchard Circle and Orchard Road that is already used by parents during peak traffic hours.
Brown also explained that in order to keep the queue length to a minimum, the district should begin offering bus service to all students who live outside of one-mile radius of the school (currently, bus service is offered to students outside of a two-mile radius). She estimated this would result in a 33 percent decrease in the number of vehicles arriving at the school during pick up and drop off, and the buses could also be used for students at the nearby middle school, for a 33 percent decrease in traffic there as well. This would require five new buses for the district.
Assistant Superintendent Martha Raymond said the operating cost for the plan is about $350 per day per bus, but that it could be an important investment.
“I think that having our students get to school safely and mitigating the traffic issues in the town are very important,” Raymond said.
Some neighbors who participated in the meeting had concerns about traffic interfering with their daily lives.
“It’s impossible to drive out Nason Road and down Forest Avenue (at dismissal time). If I’m out, I’m stuck, and there’s no way to get home,” said Gail Brock, who said she lives on the corner of Forest and Laurel Road. “We need a commitment from the town and the police department that your parking ideas are going to be enforced by somebody, because currently, the parents do whatever seems appropriate to them.”
Robyn Mintzer, who also lives nearby, agreed.
“I can tell you right now, it’s going to be a nightmare,” Mintzer said. “I’m fearful for the kids, and I’m fearful for the potential for a great number of accidents, because people just come flying around that corner at Laurel. Even though there’s a stop sign, they just ignore it.”
Brown said that the design team would take neighbors’ concerns into consideration when planning road improvements such as adding signage, narrowing roads, widening sidewalks and installing flashing beacons at pedestrian crossings.
Trea Lavery can be reached at [email protected].
