We have already posted a notice to the joint Claremont City Council-Unified School District meeting tonight, November 5. The staff report on the traffic congestion at Claremont High School caught our eye. (Click the "Connect" button to get through to the document)
It's a little unclear from the recommendations if this 100-page report cost $20K, or if the next one will cost that. (The City Engineer is not hired for his ability to write coherent English) What is clear that traffic consultants did what traffic consultants do: they find traffic management solutions to traffic congestion.
Cutting through all the verbiage, the problem is that too many students have their own personal taxi services to and from high school. The family SUV makes the trek to the high school in the morning, then back home; in the afternoon it's back to CHS and then return. Did the traffic study address this issue? Nope.
Here are the consultant's $20,000 recommendations:
2. Adding a 0 and 7th period.
3. Do nothing
4. Eliminate on-street parking on Indian Hill Boulevard and direct all drop-off activities to occur at the Youth Activity Center.
Is it really necessary that nearly every student have a personal chauffeur? (We know this is an overstatement; save the emails) Isn't walking good exercise? Where is Ellen "Juvenile Diabetes" Taylor in this discussion? As a matter of fact, the Insider will go out on a limb and assert that requiring students living, say, within a mile and a half of CHS to walk to school would be the single most helpful step that could be taken to make them healthier. And when all is said and done, we don't think it would add too significantly to the student "commute" time. A little, yes, but not much.
And wouldn't that be a lot more sustainable than having hundreds of SUVs idling on Indian Hill every a.m. and p.m.? Or do we need to wait for the blue ribbon committee now being formed to figure that one out?
We are certain that the recommendation above to include a 0 period or 7th period to smooth out the peak came from the school district. But of course, there is no analysis as to whether that will mitigate the problem or just make it last twice as long in the mornings and afternoon.
The solution numbered (1), for on-site drop-offs has the very real potential, as admitted deep in the consultant's report, to funnel traffic through the high school and into the neighborhood at Oxford Avenue. It's a little hard to visualize how moving drop-offs to the Youth Activity Center (option 4) would do anything but snarl Scripps Drive, and the consultant ignores that probable effect in his report. Rather, he spends page 15 of his report outfitting certain select students (proctors) in haute-dork attire of reflective vests and stop paddles.
While we would hope that there will be thoughtful people at the joint meeting this evening (Monday, November 5, Hughes Center, 1700 Danbury Rd, 6 p.m.) to implore the council and the board to take effective action, we are not going to hold our breath. Instead, if history is any guide, it will be the Hallelujah chorus giving staff a pat on the back for yet another insightful analysis.
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