As life begins to return to normal, there are things that one remembers about pre-pandemic life that we wish we could forget.
One such thing is the morning and afternoon traffic jams around each of the schools. The queues that form to drop kids off and to pick them up are really getting out of hand. The Lane School traffic is so bad it has cars overflowing into side streets.
With the problem getting worse it was decided that something must be done. A task force was created to explore different solutions to the ongoing problem. Several ideas have been talked about, from adding traffic lights, to widening access roads, to tunnels, to a heliport, to a rotary circle. There was some discussion about possibly staggering start times as an attempt to reduce traffic.
The leading idea at this point is to have some sort of carpool system set up. The idea would be to have predetermined stops throughout town where kids could be picked up and transported to school. It is thought that by having these predetermined routes the students could be delivered to school in an efficient manner. Knowing the number of students in Bedford it is thought several SUVs would be needed to successfully accomplish the goal. If the SUV is too small they may look into larger capacity vehicles. One task member mentioned how important safety would be to parents. They are looking into hiring professional drivers, as opposed to volunteers. Also someone else mentioned it might be useful to have these vehicles brightly colored for visibility purposes.
The task force will present their recommendations to the Select board over the summer.
In terms of paying for this new system it was mentioned that maybe the town could sell off the old yellow school buses.
Editor’s Note: The Scallion is a lighthearted attempt to poke gentle fun at ourselves. It’s satire and not to be taken too seriously.
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