Hey all, another update.
Patricia, Robert and I met at JRE Wednesday with AISD CFO, Construction Manager and Police Chief plus ESD1 Fire Marshal and Denton County Fire Marshal. They stated that the driveways were not constructed wide enough to permit double stacking the car line. While they physically could, they need additional clearance for an emergency vehicle. None of their 3 driveways have that, including the entrance driveway. So they stated that JRE’s old way would have needed to stop anyway. And they’re putting a stop to it at AWE too.
So the fundamental problem is that AISD’s contingency plan for high car volume (page 31 of the study/plan) which involved double stacking the car line was never actually executable since they didn’t construct the driveways wide enough to permit it.
So we started Thursday with no double stacking. It did not go well. Vehicles exiting the school turned left and got stopped at the CG & 17th intersection. Once that backed up to the school exit it became gridlock. The dropoff line didn’t move so the cars trying to get into the school didn’t move. Kids were late. Not good. We discussed over email as a group and decided to try directing traffic ‘right turn only’ out of the school for afternoon pickup.
Below are my notes I sent the AISD team plus Robert and Patricia:
Pickup seemed to go rather smoothly.
Some observations:
-At 2:25pm the queue had filled to capacity and began spilling over onto Cleveland Gibbs.
-By 2:37pm the queue reached the intersection of Cleveland Gibbs and 17th.
-By 2:50pm the queue had spread beyond the 17th & CG intersection (2 cars on eastbound 17th, 5 cars on Cleveland Gibbs northbound, 15 cars on 17th westbound.
-At dismissal we had grown beyond the 17th & CG intersection to 10 cars on CG Northbound and 17 on 17th westbound.
-Notably, by dismissal time only 3 cars had come eastbound on 17th to try to enter the car line.
Every time a batch of cars was released it relieved almost the entire length of Cleveland Gibbs between 19th and 17th.
This did highlight that even at peak traffic backup (2:55pm) the original traffic flow plan of double stacking the queue if needed to keep things self contained would have worked as intended. Every car would have fit on property.
Lauren was indeed directing all vehicles to do a right turn only upon exit. That kept the exit from ever backing up due to the CG & 17th intersection aside from when the busses exited. And that wasn’t for long.
The 17th & Cleveland Gibbs intersection needed active traffic control from AISD police. He was very conscious of which direction of travel to relieve at any given time. This one is probably too much to ask of a teacher or staff member.
I will note that there were multiple instances where Cleveland Gibbs between 19th and 17th was entirely empty yet we still had vehicles backed up onto residential 17th and northbound CG in part because of walker volume. But I think falling into a rhythm there will happen.
So I ultimately think the right turn only change solved a major contributor to the morning gridlock.
I would still like to request that Lee Engineering or RLK Engineering send someone out to observe morning arrival and afternoon dismissal like we are doing. We don’t need the expense of a traffic study. But I think we do need them to look at their plan, look at reality, and then make recommendations. It’s their playbook that’s not quite working. What is optimal based on actual volume and behavior? I’m hearing requests to allow entry from 19th. Does that help or hurt? I think there’s significant value in having the firm that did the plan/study, someone who is a licensed traffic engineer, to make and endorse any modifications. We’re all making semi-educated guesses. But they do this for a living.
I spoke with Lauren (Principal) and Gabby (police) for over an hour after everything was done. They were optimistic these changes would help and strategized traffic direction at 17th & CG. Reports from this morning seemed to be positive. We had a pretty large backup on 17th Street before school opened but that was likely because folks were scared of what happened yesterday and tried to get there early. Next week traffic should be less front loaded as they realize they won’t be stuck.
Ultimately, unless AISD widens some/all of their entrance queue, we will have queue spillover onto our roadways. Whether that’s CG northbound and 17th westbound today or north and south CG once CG opens. Their queue plan would have worked and been fully self contained at peak had they constructed the driveway to standard.
I’ll keep you updated.