More regulations may be coming to school drop zones after ongoing issues with traffic and safety concerns

CONNOR LUCZKA, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

After years of school drop zones being increasingly more chaotic, Stratford may be instituting more regulations – or more enforcement.

After a Nov. 20 presentation by Const. Darren Fischer, community resource and media relations officer with the Stratford Police Service (SPS), and Amy Pascual, deputy clerk with the City of Stratford, the Stratford Police Service Board agreed there needs to be changes to the areas around certain schools in relation to drop-offs and pick-ups.

The engineering department and clerk’s office will be investigating, in partnership with police, and Mayor Martin Ritsma suggested they specifically look into signage and bring a report forward for council’s consideration.

There are four areas of concern the presentation brought to the board’s attention: the streets surrounding Bedford Public School, Avon Public School, Shakespeare Public School and the Huntingdon Avenue and Hibernia Street intersection near St. Aloysius Catholic Elementary School.

Most of that is due to chaotic behaviour – vehicles parked in no-park zones, vehicles double-parked, children being dropped off and walking across roads without a caregiver, for example – but there has also been a concerning rise of aggression during these pivotal times.

“For the last two years, I would say there's been an increase of aggression from caregivers dropping students off at schools,” Fischer said. “On a number of occasions, they've had aggressive confrontations with the parking-enforcement officers, leading them to feel unsafe in attending those areas. … Last year, one of our parking-enforcement officers, it was a minor assault, but he was assaulted by a parent who was upset in an area as he was trying to provide some education.

“It becomes difficult to attend those areas on a regular basis; there’s calls for service and the lack of safety for parking-enforcement officers.”

Fischer said there is also an issue with vehicles legally parked or idling on streets that allow double parking, but it is still making areas unsafe and difficult for emergency vehicles to get through. He suggested a few changes to the on-street parking around certain schools may be sufficient in alleviating pressures faced during drop-off and pick-up times.

Additionally, drivers of illegally parked vehicles are often able to drive off before a ticket can be issued.

According to Pascual, there are four parking officers contracted to work for the city. They currently work on a complaint basis but have a rotating schedule for patrolling hotspot schools. This year, there have been over 140 complaints.

Complaints come from neighbours and school staff, she said, either in regard to the safety of children running or people parked in front of driveways, blocking access.

Fischer also highlighted the importance of reporting people that are blowing through school-bus stop signs, blocking traffic and creeping into crosswalks. The service is anecdotally aware of traffic infractions being prevalent, but actual reporting is scarce, which makes it difficult for policy makers and leadership to properly address known issues.

In their presentation, Pascual also presented what other municipalities do for parking enforcement, such as the City of Kitchener’s use of an AI license plate recognition system wherein fleet vehicles drive down streets, take photos of vehicles that are in contravention and then send a ticket by mail.

The current strategy is education, but that may change. Safety is the number-one priority, the board and staff agreed, and it will take a collective change of behaviour to promote safety.

“It’s one of those things. How do you motivate people to change their beliefs?” Ritsma asked, before board member Dave Gaffney succinctly answered.

“A ticket.”

No motion was made by the board, but as Ritsma said, it will be addressed by staff and changes may be brought forward at a later date.