In an effort to ease traffic congestion during drop-off and pick-up at Orchard Park School in Oakley, the City of Oakley has completed its striping and installation of new signs.
The city worked during spring break to place new parking signs, road striping, a dedicated left turn lane into the school and installed around 20-parrallell parking spots at the school on Live Oak Road. There is also no “left turn” out of the school parking lot where parents now have to go towards Main Street.
Parents can no longer make a left turn coming out of the school
Although the school is in the Antioch Unified School District, the City of Oakley Police and Public Works Departments, along with the Traffic consulting team and the Orchard Park School representatives have been working on concepts to improve the safety for pedestrians and motorists on Live Oak Avenue in front of the school.
Some parents, have suggested the plan will cause greater backups to the school on Live Oak and Oakley Road and appears to favor commercial traffic while failing to address student safety.
Kevin Rohani, City of Oakley Public Works Director/City Planner, offered the following explanation on March 23, 2016:
The traffic safety issue on Live Oak Road at Orchard Park School has been a concern for the community and last year City of Oakley secured a grant to analyze and study this issue and come up with solutions. Result of the work by traffic consultants, Police and Public Works staff, school representatives is to implement signing and striping changes on Live Oak Road along frontage of Orchard Park School to improve the public safety. This is not cheapest solution as you indicated, but the practical solution taking all the site constraints into consideration.
The current parking that is done in front of school (perpendicular to the curb) is illegal and unsafe. The new striping that is planned will create parallel parking along the school curb that is legal and safe. There is parking lot inside school property that should be used for parents picking up their children. I realize that what has been done in the past with the cars parking perpendicular to the curb was convenient to parents; however we have to consider safety for all who use public infrastructure in the community, specially students at school sites. In addition a new left turn lane is being created to provide better direct access to the school parking lot from Live Oak Road. During the implementation of this work, school representatives will be on-site to assist in traffic circulation inside the school parking lot.
City of Oakley does not have the Right of Way for widening Live Oak Road on the vineyard side of the road or to the north and south side of school site. This is an issue we face in many parts of the City and as result you see sections of roadways in different lane configurations. An Example is Laurel Road which has sections fully widened and improved and some parts by various vineyards narrow and without any improvements. The widening of these roads, constructing sidewalks, including Live Oak Road will take time to accomplish as such work is dependent of Right of way acquisition and development of private lands along the roads.
We are taking all steps to improve the traffic safety of the streets in Oakley and will continue to monitor and make further modifications towards this goal.
Regards,
Kevin Rohani, P.E.
2 comments
Another failure by the City of Oakley planning department. This is going to make traffic much worse and where the hell do they want us to park????
#firstworldproblems
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