If Nancy Strawinski wants to pluck the prime parking spot at her sons’ school, she knows exactly what she has to do.
“You have to get here about 20 minutes before the bell,” she says.
It’s only during winter that Strawinski sees parking overflow problems at the school, but those problems can get serious – in one case, she’s even seen snowplows forced to wait 10 to 15 minutes for the traffic to clear.
Strawinski’s two sons attend Sandhills Public School in Kitchener’s northwest, but it’s the same story across town at J.W. Gerth Public School.
“It’s really hard to get a parking spot,” says parent Brooke Allen.
“There’s traffic all up and down the street. It makes it tough for the children trying to cross the street.”
It makes it tough for drivers, too – and for neighbours of the school, who often find their driveways blocked for a few minutes by families conducting pick-ups or drop-offs.
Coun. Bil Ioannidis has heard similar complaints of congested school zones from parents at a number of schools.
He says it’s not a problem unique to Kitchener, and wants the city, working with the public and Catholic school boards, to look at what ideas have been tried elsewhere.
“Maybe we can implement them here, if they make sense,” he says.
