Highland and Magnolia Intersection Will Change to Pedestrians Only and Middle School Parking Will be Limited
The Highland and Magnolia Avenues intersection will become pedestrian between the Traffic Island and Veterans Hall.
On school days double parked cars and congested streets adjacent to Piedmont Middle School (PMS) have frustrated parents, the community and even the Piedmont police trying to access their parking slots at the Police Department.
On October 5, the Piedmont City Council approved a change to the traffic island area at the intersection of Highland and Magnolia Avenues in response to traffic and pedestrian hazards before and after school. The project was amended by the City Council at its December 7 meeting. New signs will be installed restricting the 30 minute parking zone in front of PMS to loading zone areas before and after school.
At the request of the Piedmont Unified School District, the City Council also approved a change to the 30 minute parking zone in front of Piedmont Middle School on Magnolia Avenue. This area will now be a student drop off and pickup zone from 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. each school day. The time for afternoon drop off and pickup will be 2:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday and 1:30 p.m. to 2:15 p.m. on Wednesdays. This change is being made to increase student safety in the drop off and pick up area.
This work is scheduled to be completed during the week of December 21st. 2015. On January 4, the first school day after the Winter Break, the new pedestrian area and parking restrictions will be in place. Police Officers will be present to remind drivers of the new parking restrictions.
Living in Piedmont and growing up from being the one being picked up from PUSD schools to the one doing the picking up, I am completely shocked as well as greatly annoyed that the City Council approved the shut down of the informal pick up area at the intersection of Highland and Magnolia.
There is only one street (and a one-way street at that) on which to pick up kids from the middle school as well as Millennium and Piedmont High Schools. So when all three schools are are being let out at the same time almost every school day, that makes it a one-way traffic nightmare for relatives and care-takers to pick up these kids. That intersection gives these kids the most space to sit and wait to be picked up and they should not have to truck halfway across town to wait around on the sidewalk that there is usually no room to pull over by because the high school students were forced to park further and further from PHS because you, the City Council, also took away their informal parking lot by the Community Hall when there is already no designated parking for students.
As much as you think that changing these areas will help everyone, it doesn’t. All of my siblings have gone through the PUSD schools and neither my parents or my siblings and I have ever had a problem with the way things are. Don’t fix what is not broken. Unless you intend to open up another pick up area for parents and students, then go ahead.