Crowded schools congesting roads

Chuck Coel was pulled over and ticketed recently by a Belmont traffic officer for crossing a double-yellow line in his dump truck on the way home. Coel crossed the double-yellow line because parents clog the street in the mornings and afternoons to pick up their children from school.

Parents essentially park their cars in the street as they wait for their children, causing some who get stuck in the queue to drive around the parked cars such as Coel did last Thursday.

The Belmont Police Department monitors the area closely and will occasionally ticket those parents who may double park or stop traffic on the street to pick up their kids.

"Safety is the key issue,” said police Capt. Dan DeSmidt. Coel was probably ticketed because there is a blind crosswalk on Middle Road and his crossing over the double-yellow line may have put students at risk, DeSmidt said. "It’s not a new problem,” he said. "It’s been going on for years.”

Part of the problem near the school is that there are no sidewalks, the road is narrow and on a hill. Parents do pull over as far as they can to let traffic by but passing motorists simply must cross the double-yellow line to avoid long waits.

Coel, 53, remembers when students used to walk to school.

"The problem is the school is over capacity since another school closed and there are no buses,” Coel said. "Parents are driving from far parts of the city to drop off and pick up there kids here.”

He suggests the school either open up its playing fields for more parking, build another school or have police stop handing out tickets.

It is an issue Councilwoman Coralin Feierbach has brought up numerous times at council meetings and Coel reached out to her for help. Coel also made a visit to the Belmont Police Department to make a formal complaint.

The facility was designed to be a neighborhood school, DeSmidt said, when children walked to school.

"It’s not unique to Central school. It is a problem that virtually every city is facing,” DeSmidt said.

Parking problems and congested streets at Foster City’s three elementary schools, especially at Brewer Island Elementary, are routinely used as reasons to justify the construction of a fourth elementary school in that city.

Neighborhood groups in San Mateo have also made school parking and traffic an issue at Sunnybrae Elementary School as the city eyes high-density housing along Delaware Street. Traffic on Delaware routinely backs up as school lets out.

Belmont is trying to take a long-term look at the issue to develop solutions and does not want to make enforcement, or handing out tickets, the primary way to deal with the problem.

Some residents who live near Central have taken to putting out orange cones in front of their properties to discourage parents from parking as they wait for their children.

"We are trying to keep both sides accountable,” DeSmidt said. "On occasion, we have to cite parents who simply park in a lane and wait for their youngster to come out.”

Coel is expecting his ticket to be in the hundreds of dollars and anticipates it may affect his car insurance rate.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.