We were asked to publicize the matter by our Reader. In an email to the editorial office, they wrote:
I am writing to you, as the parent of two young children, asking for your intervention regarding the closure (no-traffic sign) of the through road on Dolne Młyny Street, leading to II LO and exiting onto Konstytucji 3 Maja Street. At the beginning of the school year, a no-traffic sign was installed there. As a result, parents bringing their children to MZS No. 1 have to let them out of their cars directly onto Dolne Młyny Street—which is busy at that time of day—leading to many dangerous situations.
It is true that there is a large parking lot directly in front of the schools, which theoretically could be used to drive in and drop off the children. Unfortunately, before eight o’clock, that is almost impossible. The entire parking lot is “clogged” with parents’ cars as they try to enter, turn around and leave...
As I have already written, we then have to stop in the street, and our young children, while getting out—for example, when taking their schoolbags from the trunk—are at risk of being hit by other vehicles. Understandably, this also annoys drivers who use that road and are forced by us, the parents, to stop and wait until our children get out. There are two solutions, both very simple:
- Remove this pointless sign. I would like to point out that, as long as I can remember, it has never caused any collisions, accidents, etc. Instead of sign B-1, a D-3 sign (one-way road) could be installed on the Dolne Młyny side, together with a strict speed limit of, for example, 5 km/h, and additionally a B-35 sign (no stopping or parking for more than 1 minute); on the Konstytucji 3 Maja Street side, a B-2 sign (no entry from that direction).
- Create an exit from the large parking lot in front of the school toward Góralska Street.
Unfortunately, as can be seen, these simplest solutions are beyond the intellectual capabilities of the officials responsible for city road signage, or their imagination is failing them somewhat, exposing our children and us to unnecessary danger.
“The no-traffic signs were installed for a very simple reason. People who drove their children to school would drive right up to the high school, creating a danger for students who were walking,” explains Mirosław Sakowski, principal of II LO, which neighbors Miejski Zespół Szkół No. 1 (SP No. 5 and GS No. 4).
It was dangerous, especially since there is no sidewalk on the road to II LO and MZS No. 1 from the Konstytucji 3 Maja Street side. “Sometimes young people would drive up here, and not necessarily at the speed permitted by the regulations,” says Mirosław Sakowski. “The signs were installed to ensure that children and young people could safely get to school and return home. Both students’ parents and school employees asked me to do this.”
The situation was similar on the road to the school from the Dolne Młyny side. When there was no traffic ban, the entire sidewalk was blocked by cars, so children and young people once again had to walk in the roadway.
Moreover, as the principal emphasizes, there are at least five parking lots near the two schools (one in front of MZS No. 1, one in front of and one behind II LO, one on Konstytucji 3 Maja Street, and the newly renovated parking lot on Góralska Street). “At any of them, you can let your child out, and they will have only a few dozen meters to walk,” adds Mirosław Sakowski.
It should also be added that not all parents have taken the change in signage to heart. On Thursday, October 17, the principal and I stood outside II LO for about 10 minutes. During that time, the drivers of two cars committed offenses. And, the principal notes, the worst period is from 7:40 to 8:00. The municipal police have intervened here many times.
As a Bolesławiec City Councilor, Mirosław Sakowski promised to raise—at a meeting of the City Council’s Infrastructure, Spatial Planning and Construction Committee—the issue, suggested by the Reader, of creating an exit from the parking lot in front of MZS No. 1 toward Góralska Street.
We will return to this topic.
(information: ii)