Traffic on various important city roads is negatively affected during the closing hours of major schools in the city by the vehicles used to ferry school children.
In the afternoon when the schools close for the day, traffic congestion, disorder and increased noise pollution are common sights outside many major schools in the State capital.Vehicles parked outside prominent schools which are located on main roads like St Joseph’s Academy on Rajpur Road, St Thomas College near Clock Tower, Marshall’s and Convent of Jesus and Mary on East Canal Road continue to cause problems for the citizens especially as the school authorities have continued to ignore the problems being caused by the vehicles used to ferry their students.
When asked about the problem, a security guard at St Joseph’s Academy said that the school is trying its best to facilitate traffic management in the area. The school has designated a parking area for the vehicles of teachers, students and parents who come to pick up their wards. In spite of the parking space provided by the school administration, the problem of traffic disorder on the roads outside the school campus continues to cause public inconvenience and the main cause for this is the non-cooperation of the parents of the students.
He said, “Some parents come in large cars to pick up their only child, whereas using a car-pool or a two-wheeler for the purpose would cause lesser disruption to traffic. Parents of primary school students are supposed to park outside gate numbers three and four on Subhash Road but few parents seem to do so.
Some drivers reach the school an hour early to collect the students which only leads to vehicles occupying the road for longer duration,” he added. The police stress that citizens must use traffic and civic sense apart from cooperating with the traffic police to prevent problems in traffic regulation which cause major inconvenience to the public.