What is the solution to traffic jam in front of school gates at dismissal time?

(Baonghean.vn) -In recent years, in Vinh city, there have been frequent scenes of chaos and local traffic jams in front of school gates, especially kindergartens and primary schools during rush hour.

Dinh Cong Trang Street (Le Mao Ward) is short and narrow but is the gathering place of three schools: Le Mao Kindergarten, Primary School and Secondary School. Every day from 4:30 pm to 5:00 pm, parents stand crowded on the sidewalk, spilling out onto the street. Especially when all three schools finish school at the same time. There are days when it causes traffic jams for more than 30 minutes.

Mr. Nguyen Van Tai (a parent of Doi Cung ward) said: except for holidays, almost every day, this road section is congested, the main reason is that people picking up and dropping off their children jostle each other to park their cars close to the school gate, arbitrarily turning their cars around, sometimes parking in 2 or 3 lanes, and junior high school students still ride their bikes in 2 or 3 rows on their way home from school. Although the ward and school authorities have coordinated with the city's traffic police to take measures to clear congestion and handle violations, it seems that everything has not been effective.

Parents pick up their children in front of Le Mao Primary School gate

According to teacher Nguyen Thi Quyen - Vice Principal of Le Mao Primary School, this is a very difficult problem to solve for all schools in the city, partly due to the location of the schools in densely populated areas, narrow streets, partly due to the psychology of parents, everyone wants to pick up their children quickly, creating a phenomenon of crowding. The school has now taken measures such as: dividing students into 2 shifts, each shift is 15 minutes apart; mobilizing the red flag team and the school's union members to do reminder and propaganda work in front of the school gate at the end of school hours. During the morning and after-school activities, the school also made efforts to remind students about the Traffic Safety Law, thanks to which the problem of congestion at the school gate has also changed but not very effectively. Ms. Quyen also said that on hot or rainy days, there are a lot of cars, making it difficult to maintain order, traffic jams are extremely stressful, many parents have to leave their cars a kilometer away from the school gate to walk to pick up their children or stay at school for a long time before leaving.

Not only on Dinh Cong Trang Street, but also on most of the streets with schools in the city, the problem of chaos and traffic congestion also occurs frequently, causing loss of urban beauty and potential risks to security and traffic safety. Le Hong Phong Street, in front of Hoa Sen Kindergarten gate, is also often congested. This route is also where a number of schools such as Huynh Thuc Khang High School and Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted are concentrated. Ms. Nguyen Hong Van - Vice Principal of Hoa Sen Kindergarten said: The school has 620 students, at the end of school, each child has at least one parent to pick up and drop off, so the situation of congestion and chaos is inevitable. The school has also tried to strengthen security at the end of school hours, organized to remind parents to follow the regulations, but the situation has not improved. She also requested that the traffic force need to thoroughly handle the situation of turning around and parking near the school gate.

Parents wait for their children to finish school in front of Quang Trung Primary School gate.

Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Duy Ha - Head of the Traffic Police Team, Vinh City Police, said: The work of resolving traffic jams in front of school gates in the area is facing many difficulties due to insufficient personnel and the complexity of the area. Besides, it is impossible to handle violations on the spot during traffic jams. The city's traffic police have coordinated with schools to pay attention to propaganda work in schools as well as on-site propaganda for people. In addition, the City has placed signs prohibiting U-turns and parking on roads with schools, along with placing additional signs regulating fines for breaking the law so that people know. However, this is not effective because the traffic volume is too large, the city and schools do not have a place for parents to wait to pick up their children. Many parents are also aware of stopping, parking, and making illegal U-turns, but due to the hasty mentality when picking up their children, they still deliberately break the law. In many cases, it is impossible to impose strict fines because the traffic ahead is blocked, they cannot reverse, and they have nowhere else to stop and park.

In addition, Vinh City Police are also proposing a plan to divide some streets into one-way streets, but this will lead to a number of other problems arising related to the daily life and business of the residents of that street.

Traffic jams in front of school gates at the end of school hours are also a difficult problem for many other cities. Some schools in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City have organized to pick up and drop off students by certain means of transport and charge a fee. This has been effective in reducing the number of vehicles causing traffic jams at schools. Some schools have partnered with businesses to use dozens of buses to pick up and drop off students at hundreds of pick-up and drop-off points, with a fee of about 300,000 VND/student/month. Some kindergartens and primary schools even hire high-end taxi services to pick up and drop off children at home when families need it.

In addition, in our opinion, the city needs to install signs prohibiting parking in front of school gates with prescribed distances (at least 50 to 100m on both sides), schools also need to coordinate many solutions such as dividing shifts into different school dismissal times, or arranging for students to line up to go home to facilitate people picking up their children, traffic police also need to remind and clear out households and sidewalk businesses nearby, and at the same time strictly handle cases of cars parking illegally, parking in multiple lanes, making U-turns...

Thus, to find a way to overcome this situation, it requires departments and authorities to conduct research and discuss with schools and parents' associations to reach consensus on feasible solutions in the near future.