PC’s Instructions Ignored! Students Drop Off/Pick Up near Schools Create Traffic Chaos

By
Alfie Dsouza, Team Mangalorean.
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PC’s Instructions Ignored! Students Drop Off/Pick Up near Schools Create Traffic Chaos

Even in spite of Police Commissioner T R Suresh having a meeting with the Officials of Education Institution and Heads of Schools on Saturday, 28 July instructing them to use their school inside spaces to drop off and pick up students during open and close of school timings-but this morning{Monday 30 July} there had been no changes, with everyone dropping off their children at the school gates, creating once again traffic chaos.

Mangaluru: With thousands of vehicles transporting over lakhs of children to and from school every morning and evening, areas around schools has become a traffic nightmare. Not just for motorists and pedestrians, but most importantly, for school-going children. Several schools in the city are in clusters and with crowds at the gates it often hampers the flow of regular traffic, especially on busy roads. The result: unmanned traffic, accidents, time wasted, traffic jams and huge risks to schoolchildren. The solution is to Ease traffic congestion around schools during opening and closing hours. Why is this important: It’s a growing problem that needs to be addressed, given that the number of vehicles is on a steady increase. Also, accidents involving school children are on the rise. Who are the culprits: Parents in four and two-wheelers, auto rickshaw drivers, maxi cabs, mini school buses, and private buses.

Unprecedented in scale, the city’s mounting traffic congestion has pushed every management strategy to the edge. But as the traffic police struggle, another mammoth crisis has hit Mangaluru roads magnifying the problem manifold: Crowding of vans and personal cars outside schools in the busy city streets. The extreme congestion sparked off by the inflow and outflow of school vehicles unleashes virtual gridlocks on many City roads including Bendore Road, and a dozen streets in the vicinity. Scurrying for clues to resolve this rising problem, many parents and citizens are asking school management to find parking for their vehicles within the campus. One parent said that an attempt after a meeting with managements met with only limited success, since many schools reported that they had no space within, even when there was a scope for it.

On Saturday, Police Commissioner T R Suresh had a meeting with the Officials of Education Institution and Heads of Schools on Saturday, 28 July instructing them to use their school inside spaces to drop off and pick up students during open and close of school timings-but unfortunately this morning {Monday 30 July} there had been no changes, with everyone dropping off their children at the school gates, once again creating traffic chaos. The Police Commissioner had said, ” Institutions having enough space inside their campus should be made useful for the drop-off and pick up of students during peak hours, which would definitely ease out traffic congestion outside the institution gates. When institution authorities lock their gates or instruct security personnel not to allow vehicles inside the campus, which leaves parents and other vehicle drivers with no other option but to park vehicles on footpath/roads side, thereby causing traffic snarls”.

“When parents or vehicle drivers take at least 5-10 minutes to drop or pick-up students, and with huge number of students at these schools will surely create traffic problems. Not only this will create traffic chaos, but it will also cause safety issues. We have also received complaints that drivers drop-off students, and disappear somewhere. We have also received complaints that school buses representatives not escorting children while crossing the road when they drop them off at their homes. Therefore I strictly advise you all to take full responsibilities that your children are safe when they go to school and when they return back from school” said T R Suresh.

During the meeting even a video was shown to the attendees in order to make an impact on the traffic issues created by school,vehicles, where many junctions in the city being affected by vehicles dropping off/picking up students near their institutions. The school officials/heads of schools even though they assured to take necessary measures by discussing with their respective management- but all in vain? This morning near St Agnes Institution and St Theresa School-Bendore, between 7.45 am-8.13 am there was traffic. There was one home-guard near St Agnes, who was busy chatting with the security guard-but on the other hand, St Theresa School even though they are doing a good job by having Safety Patrol to manage traffic, but many a times traffic jams still do occur. So the BEST WAY, allow vehicles inside to avoid all these inconveniences to the public. Period. Imagine on a busy NH, near Padua High School, traffic jam happening because of the same issue.

There is also traffic jam near Canara High School, Sharada Vidyalaya, but since these schools are not located on busy roads, there is not much inconveniences caused to commuters/motorists. But in the meantime, the ongoing traffic jam near these two schools on Bendore Road which have been going on for years- but still no one has come to a solution to end this problem. There is always a crowd at the school gate and vehicles all around. Most schools do not have provision for parking on premises and parents are expected to drop their wards off at the school gate.

Absence of traffic police personnel is also worsening the situation and reckless driving of private bus drivers cause uneasiness for parents. They demand permanent posting of police personnel outside the schools and also wanted the school grounds to be opened for parking vehicles after school hours. Sources reveal that a joint meeting was held between school management, parents, police authorities long ago-the initial response was encouraging, but over a year after the meeting, not much seems to have changed. Added to this, in spite of yet another meeting held on Saturday, has not shown any positive results yet? Try going through a school zone during peak school hours and you will see for yourself that chaos still reigns all around.

Various efforts made to solve traffic congestion have yielded little results. What do you think is a concrete solution? Is there anything the authorities, parents or the schools can do? If you have any suggestions or comments, write to info@mangalorean.com, and we will forward it to the concerned people or highlight it on our website.


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