[LasVegasPlayer]

My daughter goes to an elementary school in Summerlin. We walk her to and from each day.

The dismissal time has become extremely unsafe. There are about 200 illegally parked cars after school each day. These drivers block travel lanes, bike lanes, bike/handicap curb cuts, crosswalks, basically anywhere they can shove a car. Some park too close to intersections and make turns impossible without having to go into reverse.

Many of these drivers ignore crossing guards and enter crosswalks when pedestrians are in them. It is a serious accident waiting to happen.

My daughter was injured a few months ago by one of these drivers. The car did not make contact. She was injured falling to the road getting out of the way of the car as it came too close bullying through as we crossed and it scared her. She was scraped and bruised but otherwise fine.

Today, a driver was playing with his cell phone and did not see me and I had to run out of the intersection he blew through. He went on to block a curb cut intended for park bicycle access so he could hurry to pick up his kid from school. These are a few examples of recent incidents but entering crosswalks with children in them is a daily occurrence.

After the incident with my daughter, CCSD police came out to patrol the school zone for several days. I noticed that they were not writing tickets so I asked why. I was told Summerlin residents were too affluent and the fines from parking tickets, using cell phones in school zone, disregarding the crossing guards etc were not high enough to discourage the behavior. I was speechless.

A crossing guard that got fed up starting confronting the most egregious offenders that drive through the crosswalk against the signal or parked obstructing it. He was transferred after parents complained about his attitude. His supervisor came out and told me the school zone was one of the most dangerous school zones but had no solution within the powers of the office.

The principal refuses to change the dismissal pattern or encourage parents to change their ways through phone calls or admonishing the worst offenders.

CCSD tells me this is not their problem. An unsafe school zone is the responsibility of Clark County, according to CCSD. Metro did come out once but there were only two officers, while appreciated, it is a massive task for that number.

I Google mapped the attendance zone. Most people live within a 10 minute walk of the school and there are buses for the edges. Even for those too lazy to walk that far, there is a park with 100 spaces in it 500 feet from the school entrance. People still park in the road, even in front of this park. Many of these cars are from neighborhoods right across from the school. It is baffling.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to find the right person to help put an end to this situation?

[ddrhazy]

Start taking video of the issue? Post it online, maybe LVRJ will pick it up as a story.

[LasVegasPlayer]

Originally Posted by ddrhazy

Start taking video of the issue? Post it online, maybe LVRJ will pick it up as a story.

I have taken a bunch of pictures but no video yet. It is hard because when all of this is going on I am walking with my daughter trying to make sure we don't get run over.

I did contact Fox 5 but it was probably after their business hours. I was going to contact others if they didn't want it. I figured they have the most hours of local news each day.

[lvoc]

I know of at least 3 schools with that problem. I suspect there are dozens. I first ran into it at a Summerlin School 10 or 11 years ago.

They have never been able to find a long term solution. Move in school police or metro and it clears up for a week then back to it. There have been some parent groups that have limited it by harassing the bad violators at a couple of schools. And there use to be a Principal who personally harassed the situation into something livable. I don't think CCSD likes either of those fixes.

So tough...good luck.

[Everdeen]

This has a problem for years even at the middle and high school areas.

I used to drive my kids to middle school and would pull off to the side of the road so that my children could safely exit the car. I would be stuck there because of idiotic parents who stopped one at a time to let their kids out. If one car stopped to let their child(ren) out, you would think that cars behind would follow suit. But no. The other cars had to wait, pull up five feet, and then let their kids out as close as possible to the school driveway.

As a teacher, god forbid I showed up to school by the time that parents were dropping off their kids. Parents of middle schoolers had to, just had to, drive into the staff parking lot and let the moronic dropping off of the kids, one car at at time as close as possible to the school's front doors.


Rant over.

I've worked at a couple of schools where kids where hit by cars. Besides the inconvenience to others, it's dangerous. I'd don't see why they cannot have a designated drop off area for parents who must drop off their kids as close as possible to the entry. They could they have large fines for loading and unloading kids in the middle of the street.

[LasVegasPlayer]

Originally Posted by Everdeen

I'd don't see why they cannot have a designated drop off area for parents who must drop off their kids as close as possible to the entry. They could they have large fines for loading and unloading kids in the middle of the street.

The mornings are not really an issue. This school has a well organized kiss/go and most parents obey the rules.

Dismissal time does not have any pickup line. Instead, parents are asked to park and get kids from the playgrounds. The school parking lot is blocked off about 5 minutes before the bell rings so these parents, that for the most part should have walked the 5-10 minutes to get their kids or at least gotten to the school 5 minutes before the bell rings, park all over the school zone blocking the roads.

An afternoon pickup line that imitates the morning dropoff is the obvious solution. If 200 cars were forced to wait in line one by one to pick up those kids the car numbers would drop fast and parents would start walking to get their kids or make them take the bus, especially since so many are driving because the school zone has become so unsafe. School admin refuses to go this route even though I have read this is done at many other schools.

It has snowballed into an unmanageable situation because nobody did anything when it was a small problem. It seems to me the only way to fix it is to start making a big deal about it publicly and hope the right person sees it. I am happy to work with anyone that is willing to break these bad habits.

Originally Posted by lvoc

I know of at least 3 schools with that problem.

This one is Ober. Is that on your list?

Out of curiosity I have checked out other elementary schools that border it and none have even a tiny fraction of the problems this school has at dismissal. I think that furthers my opinion that this is more of a behavior that was allowed to get out of control than something that is widespread across the district, however, my sample size is very small.

[jtjtjtjt]

Originally Posted by Everdeen

This has a problem for years even at the middle and high school areas.

I used to drive my kids to middle school and would pull off to the side of the road so that my children could safely exit the car. I would be stuck there because of idiotic parents who stopped one at a time to let their kids out. If one car stopped to let their child(ren) out, you would think that cars behind would follow suit. But no. The other cars had to wait, pull up five feet, and then let their kids out as close as possible to the school driveway.

As a teacher, god forbid I showed up to school by the time that parents were dropping off their kids. Parents of middle schoolers had to, just had to, drive into the staff parking lot and let the moronic dropping off of the kids, one car at at time as close as possible to the school's front doors.


Rant over.

I've worked at a couple of schools where kids where hit by cars. Besides the inconvenience to others, it's dangerous. I'd don't see why they cannot have a designated drop off area for parents who must drop off their kids as close as possible to the entry. They could they have large fines for loading and unloading kids in the middle of the street.

They do it well at the Vegas airport. They have a stretch of road and curb and have 8 or 10 taxis pull up, stop, load passengers, and take off. One employee manages the whole thing. Load 10 taxis at a time instead of 1 at a time.

A similar setup would work for schools for loading and unloading. But you would need a school employee to manage it, a suitable length of road/curb, training and attitude adjustment for parents and kids. And most likely a redesign of school parking and entry roads to allow waiting until it was your turn to drop off or pickup.

School designers and architects messed up on this one. Or maybe drop off/pickup everyone is a new thing, it use to be that all kids either rode the bus or walked to school.

[winter-rabbit]

My kids will be attending Summerlin elementary.

I think a good solution is to park half mile away and walk the kids to and from.

[Prosze]

I sent an email to LVMPD once about chronic red light runners at a certain intersection and a week later they had officers in the area pulling people over. Try sending them an email with what you posted here and see if they respond. Or try one of the news station complaint forms.

[Everdeen]

Originally Posted by jtjtjtjt

They do it well at the Vegas airport. They have a stretch of road and curb and have 8 or 10 taxis pull up, stop, load passengers, and take off. One employee manages the whole thing. Load 10 taxis at a time instead of 1 at a time.

A similar setup would work for schools for loading and unloading. But you would need a school employee to manage it, a suitable length of road/curb, training and attitude adjustment for parents and kids. And most likely a redesign of school parking and entry roads to allow waiting until it was your turn to drop off or pickup.

School designers and architects messed up on this one. Or maybe drop off/pickup everyone is a new thing, it use to be that all kids either rode the bus or walked to school.

Okay, I have not had this experience at the airport. I white knuckle it every time I have to drop someone off. I think, though, we are talking about two different parts of the airport.