Vista Academy-CS110826 Page 1 of 1
George Marshall - Vista Academy - Traffic
From: George Marshall
To: Marcie Diamond
Date: 8/26/2011 9:15 AM
Subject: Vista Academy - Traffic
Marcie,
I performed a visual survey of the Vista Academy yesterday afternoon & this morning (8 -25 -11 & 8- 26 -11). At
2:45 p.m. 8 -25 there were approximately 92 vehicles that exited the facility in 30 min. Several vehicles parked on
the west side of Heartz to then cross the road (not via a crosswalk) to pickup their child. (Also noticed that the
principal talked with each of these parents). At one point there were 3 -4 vehicles backed up in the southbound
direction due to one or more cars trying to turn left into the Vista parking lot. This backup was due to a heavier
flow of traffic in the northbound direction from both exiting vehicles and through traffic. One parent walking
their child home was noticed.
This morning I started the survey at 7:30 a.m. and in 45 min there was 135 vehicles that exited the facility. I also
noticed a motorcycle officer present. On several occasions there were 4 -5 vehicles backed up in the southbound
direction due to the same reasons as above. No parents parking on the west side were noticed.
Several issues that I noticed but should only be listed as possible future problems:
- many cars don't travel the whole distance through the pickup /dropoff zone, they take the first turn into the
porte - cochere this could lead to cars backing up into Heartz. A solution would be to shift some of the cones in
the straight segments of the storage area and utilize them to block vehicles from making this turn.
- Parents parking and dropping off their children utilize the first 8 +/- spaces near the north entrance. When they
back up and leave they backup into entering traffic & utilize both the left and right side of the north drive isle. It
would be best to utilize this north drive as an entrance only at all times and the middle drive as the exit only.
Also, reducing the storage under the porte - cochere to one lane will allow other vehicles to exit without much
delay. Since the old bus loop that Manera built is not being used for busses, there is additional area outside the
striped fire -lane to provide parking for parents that want to walk their child into the school and not use the
parking spaces on the north drive isle.
- The exit out of the porte - cochere could be reduced to one lane due to vehicles in either left or right wanting to
turn in either direction. Along the same lines, but not something we can prevent, several vehicles exited this area
without stopping and cut northbound traffic off.
There appears to be plenty of storage onsite for vehicles and at no time was there a backup onto Heartz because
of this.
Thank You, George
George Marshall, PE
City of Coppell
Engineering
972 - 304 -3562
file: / /C:\ Users \gmarshall \AppData \Local \Temp \XPgrpwise \4E576430City_of CoppellTo... 8/31/2011