Pittsfield Officials Seek Solution to PHS Traffic Issues

The Police Advisory Committee met with representatives from the School Department on Monday to discuss solutions to traffic problems at PHS.

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Fencing on the median on East Street is eyed to be one step in combating traffic issues at Pittsfield High School.

The area gets jammed up when students are released from school or on lunch with parents lining no-parking areas, double parking, buses trying to maneuver traffic, backups at lights and students crossing the road when they shouldn't be.

On Monday, school and city officials met with the Police Advisory Committee to brainstorm ways to alleviate the issues.

At lunch times, the biggest issue is students crossing the road when they aren't signaled — which includes vehicles stopping for them to cross against the light. The city is hoping to corral the students into crosswalks by re-engineering the medians to include fencing similar to South Street.

"It's been an issue for years and years," said Mayor Daniel Bianchi. "We can certainly look at the fencing and get some cost estimates."

School officials say the students typically walk in crosswalks at lunch but not always at the proper light. After school, however, they are seeing students jaywalking.

After school, the sheer amount of traffic causes most problems. Principal Matt Bishop said he and his staff will look into ways to stagger dismissal — such as keeping students who are getting picked up by parents until after the buses leave. Bishop also said he will ask the students to weigh in on possible solutions.

Currently, cars line Appleton Avenue and East Street (in front of no-parking signs) to wait. Police Chief Michael Wynn says parents will argue with officers and accept the fine rather than move vehicles from the no-parking areas. Parents are known to arrive early and wait outside of the school because there is limited parking.

Additionally, staff parks on Appleton contributing to the traffic. Both roads — East and Appleton — have congested traffic at about 2:30 p.m.

"This isn't about PHS. This is about our driving culture. Our schools were not designed for this type of motor vehicle traffic," Wynn said. "This is a driving issue, not a school issue."

Valentine Road near Taconic High School experiences a similar backup during at the end of the school day. But, there is more land to handle the traffic. But PHS is right on the main road through the city and space is limited.

PHS was built as an urban school with the idea that most students would walk or be bused. But, now more and more students are being picked up by parents or driving themselves.

Mayor Daniel Bianchi said he will get cost estimates on adding fences to the median on East Street to keep people in the crosswalks.

Superintendent of Schools Jason McCandless says PHS's traffic issues are the most difficult of any of the city schools. The solutions have to be multifaceted and could be expensive, he said.

He offered the suggestion of possibly increasing the number of students bused by offering free busing to more. Currently students who live within two miles of the school are not bused for free.

"These are all expensive solutions," McCandless said. "If we can bus more children at no expense to the parents, that would cut down on cars."

He added that the school would have to look further into that option to analyze the cost and effectiveness. The school officials were asked if there were extra staff they could use to help move traffic but Bishop said all available staff are being used.

Meanwhile, Wynn said he simply doesn't have the staffing to monitor traffic all around the school. If an officer is placed at one side of the school, it just moves the traffic to another side, he said. Additionally, he doesn't want to pull officers out of other assignments in the city to help with traffic.

"We are not going to ticket our way out of this problem," Wynn said, adding that the best solutions will require engineering.

But, he said if the school and the city can take steps to narrow the areas and subsequently raise the fine structure for violations, then the police can do their part to help with ticketing.

The discussion also included having locations away from the school designated for either pick up or drop off, reconfiguring the school's parking lot situations, timing crosswalk signals better as to not back up traffic while still allowing students to cross quickly, to decreasing the number of students who leave campus at lunch. None, however, seemed to be viable solutions.

Monday's discussion was the first with the Police Advisory Committee and was headed by committee member Alan Righi. Righi presented information on the peak times and photos of backed up traffic, students illegally crossing the road and double parking. Each of the representatives — police, school and city — said they would continue consider ways to address the issue.

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