Jackson Bus Loop
At last night’s Board of Education meeting I presented a possible solution to the arrival and dismissal of buses at Jackson Avenue. I am concerned about the safety of children exiting and entering buses since the school is in such a busy area. The picture below is very elaborate and after last evenings comments I am already preparing some changes. I welcome your input.
Posted in Around the District 12 years, 8 months ago at 9:33 am. 8 comments
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I’d like to see the integrity of the Jackson Ave. School property preserved as much as possible. A bus loop running behind the school would be unsightly and unsafe. We have a very generous lawn and parking area running along the west side of the school, the Sayville side. This can be turned into a bus loop and/or the buses can park vertically in spots along this side, just as the cars do now. If we took the buses off Marcellus, parents could park there and that would help ease the end of the day backup along Sayville.
The safety of children is always a priority and I have no doubt that measures will be taken to keep them safe no matter what the busing situation is. Cutting a road in behind the school is a drastic and difficult-to-reverse measure that warrants much more community discussion.
Here is a quick photoshop of what I mean. Even if Sayville remains southbound and Jackson remains eastbound, this would work and the cost would be minimized.
http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c391/20andin/school/jacksonafter.gif
I strongly feel that the bus loop through the front increases the risk of accident to the walkers and is an unnecessary expense. Over the past few years I’ve attending many meetings discussing how we need to control costs. I was under the assumption that we were reconfiguring our Schools primarily to save money. We have not fully completed our reconfigurations and we’re talking about spending over $200,000 to put a road running down the grass of Jackson. As a resident of this neighborhood, I would prefer changing the direction of the street than the landscape.
Wow…this plan seems very elaborate to me. I don’t understand the need for such a huge change in order to add another couple of busses to our schedule. This is a time where we should be saving money & cutting back.
I feel that adding our bus traffic to the Saville Road side of the building is a huge mistake. Busses making left & rights off of Jericho Tpke onto Saville, present day, just with the Chaminade busses alone, causes congestion & traffic jams. Yes, this year we are on different start times, however, our start times for next year have not been posted yet. If Option 2 is chosen, you’ll be adding the Jackson busses + Chaminade to all go down one block together at the same time?
The exit for this bus loop onto Jackson does not seem safe to me at all as far as the walkers are concerned. Many walkers head home East & South causing them to cross over way too many traffic patterns. We’d also be taking away the “beautification” of Jackson Avenue School as I have heard Dr. Nagler say that he didn’t want to do.
My suggestion would be for the busses to travel South down Marcellus Rd & make the right onto Jackson Avenue. No construction would be needed…we would need approval from the Town to make Jackson Ave a one way West bound instead of the current East bound direction. If more bus parking spots are needed I was wondering about the brown shed on Marcellus Road…could that possibly be removed, have that paved for the busses to pull up & park diagonally? If the shed is in use, it would be much more affordable to rebuild one elsewhere on the property instead of the proposed plan of action. Dismissal, parking, playground, B-Ball court, all would stay as is.
Thank you.
Why can’t Jackson Ave just be made into a one way westbound, and the buses would be on the correct side? And any overflow of buses would be on Marcellus Rd like some are now.
Artie, as you know I am all for changing the one way direction of Jackson Avenue to Westbound. My concern about changing Saville to a northbound one way is that I highly doubt the village would give approval since it would cut off access from Jericho Tpke to Chaminade. That would also force Chaminade buses and drivers to pass Jackson rather then allowing them to continue using Saville.
To make Sayville two way you would need to eliminate parking on one side (Then enforce it).
I’m thinking of making Jackson Ave. a westbound one way from Marcellus to Emory and making Sayville a Northbound one way.
Now have the busses come up Jackson and enter the school property at Sayville. Facing north they could stage for pick up with the doors correctly facing the school. Buses could then proceed up the proposed roadway.on the school property and exit onto Sayville near Jericho.
The four or five lost parking spaces could be added by moving the current fence near the basketball courts a little further east. The basketball courts could remain as they are.
In the end, the only change would be adding a paved strip along the west side of the property parallel to Sayville
I’ve been thinking about this since last night….Is there room along Saville to have (east to west) a bus lane closest to the building, then a sidewalk for the kids to walk/wait, then a barrier (waist high), then space for cars to pull out of the parking spaces, the parking spaces and the fence. This way the spaces are inside the property line but the cars are not mixing with the kids and the buses? Also, as the buses come down the lane from north to south, can they be instructed to stop before the parking lot exit until there is room on the other side? This way they don’t block cars exiting the lot. Just a couple of thoughts… so we don’t lose the blacktop space for the kids, move the basketball court and have to repave or pave over green.