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Date: 3/21/2023
LUDLOW — Since the beginning of the school year, Ludlow School parents have expressed their anger and concern for the drop-off and pick-up process in front of Ludlow High School and Harris Brook Elementary School.
Parents have expressed in letters to the Board of Selectmen and Planning Board along with social media that traffic on Chapin and Fuller streets has caused hours of backup, car crashes and plenty of road rage during school drop-off and pick-up times and have been begging for a solution.
According to Town Planner Douglas Stefancik, he has heard two potential solutions that are being discussed and possibly implemented soon.
The two proposed options right now are to institute a traffic plan through which parents enter though Fuller St. and go around the building and exit on Chapin Street or for the parents to park their cars in the parking lot and walk over to pick up their kids.
No official decision has been made yet, but Superintendent Frank Tiano said he came up with a few ideas with the police and have put together a draft plan. Tiano added that they need to go back over the plan with the police before anything is released.
Once they have a set plan, they will put it out to parents and give them time to adjust, according to Tiano.
Tiano said, “While dismissal has been smooth on the Harris Brook property, we realized that it needed to be looked at this spring due to some of the backup of parent vehicles on Chapin Street. We did not know that it was a concern of the Planning Board until we received a letter from them.”
He added, “However, with the letter, we moved up our timetable and within the last few weeks, I have met with the project manager and architect of the building project to review initial designs for traffic, as well as members of the Ludlow Police Department with Harris Brook administration to look at potential changes. We believe that we have a plan that will alleviate the issue and will continue working with police to refine it. If all goes well, we are looking at possible implementation the week before April Vacation (April 10).”
The Planning Board sent the Ludlow schools a letter expressing their concerns with the traffic and Tiano sent a letter back to the Planning Board that acknowledges their concern and they are working on a plan.
The board discussed it at its March 7 meeting.
Stefancik said that option one of changing the traffic pattern would be better because “the exit and entrances line up so you can do that easier and you would not need any additional approvals because of how it is designed.”
Planning Board Vice Chair Raymond Phoenix said, “I think there is a two-step piece of this puzzle. There is mitigating what is existing for this traffic and eliminating what is there for the traffic. This might be a step towards mitigation, but I think a way to eliminate it is creating an environment where parents don’t feel a need to drive all at the same time to get their kids.”
Phoenix added that he is a parent of children attending Ludlow Schools and will not put them on a bus based on the current way the buses are being run.
Phoenix added, “The traffic problem can be fixed by either have different dismissal times or having a bus contract where the bus company provides buses that run on time or buses where parents don’t have to give earplugs to their kids because the buses are too loud and unruly to be on.”
The current bus situation is something that the School Committee and Tiano have discussed in the past and would like to see improved.
According to Tiano, Lower Pioneer Valley Educational Collaborative (LPVEC) is the transportation provider and they are short drivers.
The lack of drivers has caused bus routes to take longer, forcing the kids to be late to school. This has made parents drive their kids to school themselves so that they are on time.
Back in November 2022 Tiano said, “LPVEC is down about 17 drivers. Between combining routes and buses showing up 45 minutes late for school, this is unacceptable.”
Tiano added that he has met with LPVEC to help advertise the need for more drivers to fix the problem and LPVEC plans to increase their efforts to recruit drivers.
The Planning Board would like to meet with either members from the school or Police Department to further discuss their plans to fix the traffic.