Alex Sconziano, Reporter
@ASconzCourant
This fall, the 2020 school year kicked off with many different changes. Students are required to wear masks, sit apart in desks, and learn with the school split into two seperate groups. Aside from the new hybrid learning schedule at school, another variation to the start of the school year is the new traffic pattern outside school, and the new access road going through Waveny Park.
Traffic tends to be a large problem in the morning, and difficult to solve, as NCHS and Saxe are across the street from one another and share the same start times. In hopes of fixing this problem, drop off and pick up at NCHS has moved to a one-way system in the morning. Cars enter the main entrance of the lot before 7:30 AM and either take a left (onto a street that previously could not be entered) for drop off, or keep straight for student parking. This is allowed until 9:02, as for the rest of the day cars entering the lot for pickup will have to circle around and come up to the front as usual. Similarly to previous years, however, at the beginning and end of each school day, traffic guards and faculty are needed in directing cars through the hectic parking lot.
The new traffic pattern is not related to the COVID virus or the new hybrid schedule at all. The town has discussed plans for the new access road for years, but only now put into action. Principal Bill Egan looks forward to improving the community with this new road. “It was more about better serving the town, we knew around school time at departure and arrival there was a lot of traffic. So how could we help ease the traffic? One of the ways was this road,” Principal Egan said. So far, the new system with the road has appeared to work very well, by flowing the traffic out, as opposed to looping it back around.
Principal Egan also explained that this was not a minor project. The school had to meet with Tiger Mann, who works for the roads department in town, John Howe, The Parks Superintendent, several engineers, the police department, and all of the vice principals. The main goal was to identify the problem at hand with traffic and how to solve it. Principal Egan added that the new traffic pattern and access road has already served NCHS greatly.
The catch is that with our new hybrid schedule, the school is operating at half capacity. The new schedule designed to maintain the virus for this school year has performed in two separate groups, meaning only half of the total student population is actually in school while the other half is remote. Given this, many more students are arriving at school earlier because they are not allowed into school until 7:10, and have to stay outside.
Given this, the real test of the new traffic system will come when school is back at full capacity. Since our new system is one way, there could be a lot less congestion in the parking lot.
Vice-Principal Kristi Carriero spoke on this, saying “I think there is still going to be a significant improvement with the new road and our one-way traffic pattern, I think it’s going to help tremendously,” she said. “We already see it with half but I think we are going to see a significant benefit at full capacity.”
With the new traffic pattern and access road, there has been a significant decrease in backup traffic on Farm Road. This simplifies morning routines for families dropping students off at both NCHS as well as Saxe. The new access road and one-way traffic has the majority of cars coming out of Waveny and taking a left on South Avenue. However, South Avenue does not just hold school traffic. So although the backup problem on Farm Road has been solved, there is a possibility the problem could rise again with an overload of cars on South Avenue. Only time will tell how the new access road holds up as the school year continues. “Granted we’re at half capacity, the real test is going to be when everybody comes back, but I do think no matter what it’s going to serve traffic,” said Principal Egan.
