As a South End neighborhood pleads with the city to keep school buses off its streets, the Concord Board of Education remains set on its original plan for the new middle school’s parent and bus traffic routes.
Once built, parents would access the school similar to how they do now. Buses would access the school on the opposite side, looping through Cypress and Noyes streets.
The bus route has been a strong source of concern for neighbors since the original plan was proposed. Residents have protested the route, putting up signs that read, ‘SAY NO TO BIG BUSES ON OUR SMALL STREETS.’ They first asked the board to reconsider, but have since taken their case to the city. They’ve asked the Concord City Council to close Noyes and Cypress streets to school bus and parent transport between the hours of 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., as well as between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on any day that Rundlett Middle School is in session. Committees will weigh in before any action is taken.
School Board members have reviewed and considered traffic alternatives, but so far, none have been deemed feasible, in no small part because the new school is already under construction. They also value the split traffic option because it helps prevent backups at the main entrance and gives buses and the kids entering and exiting them a place to line up away from parent traffic.
Rebecca Brown, a traffic engineer from Greenman-Pengineer working on the school project, presented several proposals submitted by abutters on Monday, citing a list of concerns for each one.
One neighbor suggested having parent traffic come in from South Street, loop around and exit back onto South Street. Bus traffic would also enter from South Street, but then come out onto Conant Drive.
The option requires cars to exit between the arriving parent and bus traffic. The parent loop would also cut into the Abbott-Downing School’s play area.
In another option, parents’ cars and buses would come in from South Street through the main entryway. Buses would drive into the pick-up and drop-off loop before both bus and parent traffic exit out to Conant Drive.
Brown said the option was previously reviewed and would not work because, as it does now, the line of vehicles would spill out into South Street, causing considerable congestion. Parent vehicles would also block buses from easily being able to enter the entryway. Further, since students would have to cross in front of the buses to get to their parents’ vehicles, a sidewalk between bus and parent traffic would need to be built.
A third option included parent and bus traffic coming in from South Street, traveling parallel to one another, and leaving onto Conant Drive. The option includes using a gate system to stagger when parents and buses would use the drop-off loop.
This option would keep buses out of the neighborhoods, but cars would spill out onto South Street and block buses from coming in. The system also assumes that parents only load in the pick-up loop, when in reality, parents load down the entire driveway.
The district’s plan has buses flowing into Noyes Street, looping around and exiting through Cypress Street. Residents pushed back on the plan, saying it would disturb the character of the neighborhood and pose safety risks to pedestrians, especially kids walking to school. They took their concerns to City Hall.
City administrators requested that the School Board consider using South Street as its entrance or find alternatives that would not use Noyes and Cypress streets for school bus circulation, after a report about resident concerns from the Transportation Policy Advisory Committee.
They also requested the construction of a sidewalk along Cypress and Noyes streets to safely guide pedestrians walking down to the school.
The district is entering talks with the city about adding sidewalks in the Cypress-Noyes area, according to Board President Pamela Walsh.
Brown presented one option that she said might serve as a good alternative if the district experiences difficulty with the original plan. The option, which has previously been presented to the board, reduces bus traffic in the neighborhoods but might cause conflicts with bus and parent traffic.
Parents would still enter at South Street, go into the pick-up loop, and exit onto Conant Drive. Buses would enter from Conant Drive, travel up through a service street around the perimeter of the school, enter the bus pick-up and drop-off area and exit through Cypress Street. Especially in the morning, Brown said, parents exiting to Conant Drive could conflict with buses coming in.
Brown said the option would not require any changes to entryways and would just introduce a different traffic flow.
One of the most vocal opponents of the district’s proposed bus routes, Don Brueggemann, is now challenging incumbent school board member Liz Boucher in the upcoming election.
