PHOTOS & VIDEO: Officials from the BOE’s Transportation Department met with parents yesterday in an effort to solve the cul-de-sac issue and improve child safety at the same time.
The Director of the Transportation Department, Gus Kakovas, and the Chairman of the Committee Isaac Zlatkin, met with concerned parents of the County Line Manor development as they try to improve children’s safety by having school buses drive into developments and turn around inside the cul-de-sac, instead of having the buses wait on the main road.
“This is a two-fold issue”, says the Chairman Isaac Zlatkin. “When school buses refrain from entering a development, the children are put in danger by having to enter and exit the bus by walking onto a busy road, and it stops the flow of traffic. By having kids picked up on the main road, we slow all the other school buses traveling that road, which in turn creates longer and more costly routes.”
Zlatkin says children are sometimes forced to cross over Route 9 or County Line Road when the bus drivers stop on the wrong side of the road during pickup or drop-off.
“We heard from the parents that children as young as primary are sometimes forced to cross over County Line Road when the bus driver stops on the wrong side of the road during pickup or drop-off”, says Zlatkin. “This is clearly against the safety protocol set by the LPD which identifies all streets in Lakewood that a child is not allowed to cross. County Line Road is one of them”.
Currently, many bus drivers refrain from entering some of the developments because of the difficulty of having to maneuver the large buses in the sometimes-small cul-de-sacs.
“In order for a bus to make a turn around the cul-de-sac without tagging the mailboxes, the diameter of the circle within the cul-de-sac needs to be about 100 feet. A number of developments in Lakewood are built with diameter less than 85 feet”, Zlatkin says.
Mr. Kakovas however – who brought down a large school bus for a test-run, has already trained many bus drivers how to properly maneuver the buses in the cul-de-sac, which he hopes will ensure a safer and smoother bus run for both students and motorists. TLS.
The demonstration was fine when no cars are parked and the trash cans are up on the curb. In real life this will not happen. The BOE needs to tell the Township if future developments to make room for the school buses.
Route 9, and County Line Road are just 2 of the NON- CROSSABLE streets in this town, the children aren’t forced to cross, the bus driver is being lazy because they don’t want to have to go around the corner and drop off or pick-up safely. I also agree 100% with # 1, cul-de-sac’s are great if there aren’t any cars, trash cans, toys in the way.
We had the same issue here at Regency. Buses used to stop the traffic on Rt 9. Now the buses go in without any issues.
Thank you Gus and Zlatkin
The township zoning and planning needs to take this into consideration when approving developments instead of worrying about the builders getting upset. If they sell one less house in order to widen a cul-d-sac or street, it is much safer for the children. We need to attend meetings and push for safety
To #1 the solution to the parked cars is simply placing ‘no standing/no parking’ signs making it illegal to park on the street. It is in every parent’s best interest to have the busses turn around in the cul-de-sac. All need to share in the effort to have our cars parked in our driveways.
can you recommend this to Monsey bus drivers too? I wish they would enforce it here too. I live on a dead end where the bus has no problem driving in and they don’t come in anyway.
This will save lives.
I once drove by the Countly Line Manor and I saw a primary kid crossing County Line and a car not realizing the red lights of the bus almost run the over the kid.
Hey Gus maybe you would like to teach us “incompetent” drivers how to do it when those trash cans are in the street like they really would be, not on the sidewalk. How about you park a car in there and try that while you’re at it. Any properly trained bus operator can do that in a 42 foot bus under the ideal conditions you set up for your video but not even you can do that with cans or cars in the way without backing up. Further the Thomas Saf-T-Liner C2 in the video has improved turn radius compared to many of the older buses on the road. Try that in a 1999 IC or Blue Bird.
I live in a development where we painted the cul-de-sac with Yellow no parking lines. To our suprise people do not park there during school days and make sure not to put garbage cans.
Lakewood people are great.
the regency made it a no parking zone!
thank you meir grunhut
It would help congestion if the school busses wouldn’t stop on main roads! Traffic really backs up behind busses stopping on county line/rt9/Hope right before traffic lights. I can sometimes miss 2 lights because the bus makes several HOUSE stops on one block!! Let them turn down side streets and make ONE stop!
Ha! That was the funniest comment yet! Have you ever seen a development where the signs clearly state no parking on this side of the road and people obey???? Many DON’T listen. If police can ticket inside developments than you might make sense.
I Live in a cul de sac and I am very happy that no buses come down the street. My kids can walk to the corner, which is what they do. If buses would come down my cul de sac would be a lot more dangerous as there are always kids playing in the street. Does anyone remember the good ol’ days when we would walk all the way to school in the freezing snow (uphill both ways, of course). Why don’t we teach our kids to toughen up a little and walk the few feet to the corner, Maybe then there wouldn’t be so many overweight children coming off the buses with their soda cans and pure sugar noshes.
I agree with #11!!!!
LPD identifies all streets in Lakewood that a child is not allowed to cross. County Line Road is one of them…
Every road in Lakewood has been declared hazardous by the LPD, which is why there is a bus stop on every corner.
You really care for the safety of children and the flow of traffic? Look towards your Planning & Zoning Boards which approve these digustingly packed developments
while the planning board and developers should be more considerate and think of these things when planning a development, the bottom line rests with the consumers. why do people buy homes on streets that blatently ignore the saftey and comfort of its residents? if people would stop buying homes in these ridiculusly designed niegborhoods then you will see how quickly the developers would make sure to accomodate the needs of our families. As Sam Walton(founder of wal-mart) would say- “the most powerful individual in my company is the customer. He can fire everyone from the chairman of the board down by simply taking his buisness elsewhere” let us not be fooled by so called upgrades and landscape design and exibit some restraint when purchasing homes . let us demand from our developers quality and good planning before making our purchases. You cant blame them for doing whatever they can get away with.
Thanks to the Lakewood planning board for creating this nightmare!!! Lets keep on going!!! Hopefully they can create the most dysfunctional city in the US. That seems to be their goal.
I see a lot of busses only partial full, why not us smaller busses?
Thank you to Mr. C. Piotrikovsky for his endless & tireless work to ensure the best for our development. Yasher Koach!!
#16 – People need houses. They buy what is available. I waited to buy a house for two years and still didn’t get something out of a development. There is to buy what there is to buy. Not much else the consumer can do.
#11 has a great idea. Its so simple and a quick fix!
to # 8 – 1999 busses should be out of circulation- i think there is a 12 or 13 yr legal limit!
As a bus driver in lakewood as well as being a mother, I completely understand the concerns many parents have who live on or off a busy street. The only problem with this video is (as many have already mentioned) that there is not one cul de sac in lakewood that doesn’t have cars or garbage can parkded on the curb. It is illegal for any school bus to back up with any child on the bus. Unless the BOE can give a 100% guarantee that no cars will be parked in these cul de sac, a bus should not enter
There are laws for a reason. If the cul-de-sac is not wide enough for a bus to legally turn around, then they should not be entering the cul-de-sac. A bus trying to turn around in a cul-de-sac that is too small has to either back up OR go on the side walk. BOTH are dangerous when there are children around. Often, on a cul-de-sac, there are children playing in the street (wrong as it may be) with no mothers around watching. Since there are few cars coming down a cul-de-sac, kids play in the street which increases the potential for disaster when a bus comes down & has to back up.
Trying to prevent cars from parking in the cul-de-sac or people from putting their garbage cans there is unfair to the people who live there. Where should one put there garbage cans if not for the street in front of their house? Where should they park their 2 cars if they only have a one car driveway, if not for the street in front of their house?
If you choose to live in a cul-de-sac, that comes with the need to walk your kids – NOT SEND THEM ON THEIR OWN – to the bus stop at the end of the street !
Make the kids in the area all meet at one location at a set time for the bus to pick them all up at one time. Problem solved. Less stops less fuel used less stop time,faster the kids at school.
Hey #16:
When people buy houses they check for many things and many things they assume are correct, because they think the Township and planning Boards are doing their jobs to make sure that construction is correct. Seems that the planning board dripped the ball again by allowing cul-de-sac to be reduce in size from 100ft to 85 feet. I bet they can’t go back to the larger size because the builders will sue.
Why not just pick them up on the corner so you don’t have the bus on the cul-de-sac? it has worked for years on other blocks ..some kids will just have to walk to the corner of their block..a little sacrifice makes it a lot easier for bus transportation..rather than putting that 35′ bus on every block for door to door service
Maybe if people wouldn’t use the development streets as play grounds and teach there kids not to play in the streets we would feel more comfortable going in there
I had someone call the police on me for driving 10 miles an hour in to a development because she is claiming it is to quick there are kids playing in the street than they complain that we don’t want to come in
how can we finish our run and get to the next if we need to go in and are not allowed to drive should we go in to the first one and park there for life?
BY the way there were no children there
#8 it was changed to 15 years and by the way there are newer ones that need that space too
sorry that was for #22 commenting on #8