Trumbull officials to study school drop-off traffic

TRUMBULL — Parents seeking to protect their school-aged children from one potential danger may inadvertently be contributing to another, according to town officials.

“As a result of COVID-19, many parents did not feel comfortable having their children on a bus with a lot of other people,” said Public Works Director George Estrada. “So parents began dropping their children off and picking them up in the afternoon because many of them were working from home at that point. Some of that habit has lingered and there are many more students being dropped off by a car than there were preCOVID.”

But the increase in traffic across the schools has become an issue itself, and as a result officials are looking into ways to address traffic and potential safety issues at town schools. The problem is especially pronounced at Daniels Farm, Booth Hill and Middlebrook elementary schools.

“Those three elementary schools have significant morning and afternoon vehicular traffic issues and that can result in some concerns about pedestrian safety also, because you have that much congestion,” Estrada said. “So we will be studying those three schools in partnership with the Board of Education and the outcome of that will be a study that will identify for the town corrective measures to alleviate some of those concerns.”

The study, in which the town’s engineering department will deploy a drone to study traffic, is scheduled to begin in April and continue through the remainder of the school year.

“The very first step in anything like this is capturing data and you want to capture data and observe the patterns that are at the schools when it’s peak time,” he said. “So obviously it’s not something you do after schools let out, you need to do it now going into the spring.”

The study will entail observing traffic patterns in the morning at drop-off and pick-up times along with a drone flyover to see where the traffic is coming from and where people are going, according to town engineer William Maurer.

First Selectman Vicki Tesoro said the traffic is not only an issue in the school parking lots, but also affects traffic on Daniels Farm Road because the drop-off line backs up onto the road, hindering traffic around the 8:20 to 8:35 morning drop off.

She added that these traffic issues worsened after the pandemic.

“Children are not riding buses to school,” she said. “We believe it is leftover from COVID-19 days when putting children on a crowded bus was not desirable. Now, the situation is under review for possible remediation.”

Maurer added that street parking is also an issue on Daniels Farm Road, with cars on both sides of the street making it difficult for emergency vehicles to make their way through if necessary.

Estrada said he was not aware of any incidents on Daniels Farm Road from the traffic build up, but said identifying potential problem areas would be a good preventative measure.

“The town takes very seriously all safety concerns and providing a safe environment for the children attending school, both vehicular and pedestrian, is a priority,” he said.