Traffic Change: Highland and Magnolia Avenues at Excedra
The City is making changes to the turn around point in front of the Police Department and Excedra at Highland and Magnolia Avenues. Pick up and drop off of students will be impacted.
PRESS RELEASE:
The City of Piedmont will make changes to the intersection of Highland and Magnolia Avenues to improve public safety and reduce traffic congestion. The changes will involve closing to all vehicular traffic the paved area between the traffic island in front of the Exedra and the Veterans’ Hall which is currently used as a drop off point and turn around. These changes were approved by the City Council at its regular meeting of October 5, 2015.
As currently configured, this intersection is hazardous to pedestrians and drivers, especially during the drop off and pick up times for Piedmont High School and Piedmont Middle School. Residents often turn in to this area from both directions of Highland Avenue to drop students off for school, resulting in a traffic backup on both Highland and Magnolia Avenues. This makes pedestrian crossings dangerous at the Exedra and at the corner of Highland and Vista Avenues.
When the activity level is high, a long queue can develop causing backups onto both directions of Highland Avenue in front of the Veterans’ Hall. The traffic created by these queues hampers the ability of police cars, which park on Highland Avenue adjacent to this area, to respond in a timely manner to emergencies and other calls for service. In addition, the congestion is multiplied when there are students using the various pedestrian crosswalks that lead to this area, and cars appropriately stop to allow the pedestrians to cross.
Once the change is made, the closed area will be painted and signed to reflect the change in use. The City recognizes this change will require some parents and students to change their drop off routine, but in this case, the public safety benefits outweigh the inconvenience that residents will have to face.
This work is scheduled to be completed during the week of November 23, 2015.
For more information, contact City Clerk John Tulloch at 420-3040.
Any improvements will be welcome, and of course it would be helpful to motorists if the students would be more careful when they cross the streets. “Look both ways before crossing” is an alien concept to them. Also, the white markings that designate the parking spaces on Highland Way desperately need repainting. Many are completely missing.
Thank you for the opportunity to respond.
SJL