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Relieving school<br>traffic problems

For parents dropping off and picking up children at Grand Canyon School, the congestion can easily be seen. Parents of lower-elementary students park their cars along Boulder Street, approaching the school in different directions. In the back near the middle-school building, school buses loading and unloading students get into jams with vehicles.

If a proposal by Grand Canyon School to make Boulder Street one-way would be approved by the National Park Service, vehicles such as the one above would be unable to approach the school in that direction. The proposal is intended to create safer and less congested conditions for dropping off and picking up students.

Grand Canyon School officials have been looking at ways to relieve the stress found each morning and afternoon. One school employee even said she’s nearly been run down by cars while crossing Boulder Street on her way to work.

Is there an accident waiting to happen? Andrew Aldaz, who coordinates the school’s transportation department, doesn’t go that far when talking about changes he’d like to see. But safety is definitely a concern for Aldaz, who has been part of the school for nearly two decades.

"One of the parts of our proposal is to make Boulder a one-way street," Aldaz said. "There’s a lot of congestion, and if we can make Boulder a one-way street, that could help."

The proposal referred to by Aldaz is included in a collection of ideas to be presented to the National Park Service. The solutions also include proposals for crosswalk changes and a new designated bus stop at Trailer Village.

Aldaz said the congestion has been bad at times in the back where parents of middle-school students like to drop off their kids. There have been times when school buses get into traffic jams because of the situation.

In front on Boulder Street, parents ignore the dropoff and pickup lane and park diagonally. Many of those, however, are parents who want to walk their kindergarten students to class.

The school’s proposal would make Boulder Street one-way from its intersection with Albright (at the corner where the El Cristo Rey chapel is located) to Center Road. Besides helping with the loading and unloading of students, the proposal states that it would solve problems that exist with crosswalks on Boulder Street.

If made a one-way route, Aldaz said there would be parking space created in front of the elementary building for parents who want to park and walk children to class. There would be two zones created — one for school buses and another for vehicles.

The one-way street is just one proposal to be presented to the NPS. The school would also like the NPS to consider several changes involving crosswalks. The proposal includes moving lights farther away from crosswalks to give motorists more of a warning.

Ray Vernon, school superintendent, said that while looking over the crosswalk area recently with Aldaz, he noticed most vehicles slowing down had out-of-state license plates. But vehicles approaching the zone too fast had resident stickers on their windshields.

Aldaz expressed concern with a light located south of the Boulder crosswalk. That particular light is located on a curve and creates visibility concerns.

Another part of the proposal involves combining crosswalks across Albright Avenue. Currently, there is a pedestrian crosswalk, not a school crosswalk, across the road at Mohave Street. The crosswalk is used by not only students, but also rec center and day-care center patrons. There is a school crosswalk further on down the road to serve Pinon Park students.

Aldaz said he’d like to see a new trail be constructed to connect to a crosswalk to be located about midway between the two current crossings. The proposal also calls for a flashing light to be installed at either the Pinon Park crosswalk or at the new combination crossing.

Finally, a fourth part of the proposal involves a new designated bus stop at Trailer Village. The bus stop would be located on a dirt road to the right, located about 100 yards up from the entrance station.

"If this could be paved, there would be enough turnaround for the school bus," the proposal reads. "A shelter should also be constructed for the students at this location. The students would not have to walk as far and guests and residents would not be disturbed by students walking through their sites."


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