As mentioned in Part One, the concept of ‘school safety’ took up a good portion of Town Council’s Zoom meeting this past Tuesday. Some of our readers may have noticed that the Town staff has been installing new informational signage around town, under the leadership of our Public Works Director Martin Schmidt, and with some financial and logistical support from the Pagosa Springs Area Tourism Board.
The staff decided to add some new ‘School Zone’ signage to warn motorists when they were driving in an area where school children might be walking. (As I’ve mentioned before, many of our historic downtown streets still have no sidewalks, 109 years after the Town was incorporated, so children are forced to walk in the roadway. Surely, a safety concern worth addressing at some point?)
The ordinance approved by the Town Council last Tuesday basically gives the Town staff the power to create ‘School Zones’ with whatever boundaries the staff feels are appropriate, and to post signs in the street or highway rights-of-way, warning motorists that they can obtain a super-sized speeding ticket if they are caught speeding within the school zones… during certain hours.
Even though we have at least nine operational schools in the community — if you include “preschools” in that count — we currently have no ‘School Zone’ signage in Pagosa Springs to help control traffic… as far as I can tell.
The Council did not adopt any particular zone boundaries, nor did the Council set any particular hours during which the increased fines would apply. But the Council did view some possible zone boundaries for seven of the nine schools. Here, again, is one of the suggested zones surrounding the Pagosa Springs High School, shown in a green overlay. I’ve highlighted, in white, three school locations on the map — Pagosa Springs High School, and nearby two preschools, Headstart and Seeds of Learning. A fairly large and comprehensive speed zone, it would appear.
The general idea, as I understand it, is to post ‘School Crossing’ signs at the boundary edges, threatening any motorists (who might be thinking about exceeding the 25MPH speed limits) with “Fines Doubled” warnings.
Beside the three schools shown in the map above, we have four additional public school locations within the Town limits, and at least one private school, and at least one additional preschool, that could possibly have signage posted at the boundaries of their ‘School Zones’ as well. As we see in the map shown above, the Town staff decided to enlarge the High School’s school zone beyond what might be considered reasonable, so that the boundaries could potentially create ‘safety’ zones around Seeds of Learning and Headstart.
Below is the proposed ‘School Zone’ for Pagosa Springs Middle School, located in the 300 block of Main Street, aka Highway 160. (The small building at the northeast corner is actually the district administration building, but even administrators deserve to cross the street safely, I should think.)
And here is the proposed Zone around Pagosa Springs Elementary School, which is also adjacent to Highway 160.
These two school locations pose a bit of a problem, in my humble opinion… if the Town is planning to post ‘School Crossing’ signs along Highway 160.
The report provided to the Town Council on Tuesday noted the problem of ‘visual clutter’. This challenge — the avoidance of ‘visual clutter’ — has more than one problematic aspect. For one thing, too many ‘signs’ can make a community look visually unattractive. Additionally, a clutter of signs can result in this sign blocking the view of that sign, or even blocking the view of buildings, or landscapes.
Finally, we have the problem motorists getting visually anesthetized, especially if they are presented with the same sign message over and over again. Too many examples of the same sign, and you might just stop noticing them?
I took a drive on Saturday along Highway 160, westbound through downtown Pagosa Springs. Between the Malt Shoppe at the First Street bridge, and the SONOCO gas station at 7th Street — about six blocks — I counted twenty-one warning signs that include images of pedestrians crossing the street. The main ‘Pedestrian Crossing’ signs often showing what looked like two children walking to school, but were sometimes hard to notice, because they were immediately preceded by another ‘State Law’ sign that warned you about the upcoming pedestrian crossing sign.
Nearly all the pedestrian crossings had a small flexible sign placed squarely in the middle of the highway, also alerting you to the same pedestrian crossing.
It’s possible that some of our Daily Post readers did not realized they were being shown twenty-one ‘Pedestrian Crossing’ signs as they drove the six blocks from 1st Street to 7th Street. If that is the case, you may have suffered from the anesthetizing effect of too many versions of the same sign, in a short stretch of highway.
What effect, exactly, the addition of some ‘School Zone’ signs — with the exact same colors and design, along the same stretch of highway — might have on a motorist’s attention, I’m not sure. Perhaps the Town staff is wondering as well.
There are two other schools being considered for ‘School Zone’ signage. One is a private school, the Valor Academy, which meets in the Restoration Fellowship Church on Village Drive. The large white roof just south of the green school zone is City Market.
The fifth proposed zone surrounds Pagosa Peak Open School, the public K-8 charter school authorized by the Archuleta School District. Pagosa Peak — often designated as PPOS — is also adjacent to, but not directly accessible from, Highway 160. But the main street in the Aspen Village subdivision, Aspen Village Drive, runs past the school entrance, and is fairly busy, since it accesses the Walmart store. (You can see part of the Walmart parking lot in the bottom left corner.)
(Disclosure: I currently serve on the PPOS Board of Directors.)
I can imagine the occasional motorist, on a frantic trip to Walmart, might exceed the speed limit on Aspen Village Drive. But as you will notice from the Town staff drawing, the “Fines Doubled” zone on Aspen Drive is only about 100 feet wide. Perhaps a slightly larger school zone along Aspen Village Drive would be appropriate? Considering, for example, the enormous size of the High School’s proposed zone?
The Town staff might be considering the same idea.
Finally, we have GOAL Academy — an online high school with an office in the City Market Shopping Center — and Wings Preschool, near the airport, neither of which were mentioned in the Tuesday presentation.