Markham traffic chaos fuels student safety action plan

'We’ve been doing this for 4 years now and we’re not done,' says school council chair Peter Triantafillakis

Yorkregion.com
Sept. 19, 2019
Heidi Riedner

A back-to-school blitz at Markham District High School was just the tip of the iceberg for a group of dedicated parents tackling student safety in the face of increased traffic in and around school zones.

“We’ve been doing this for four years now and we’re not done,” said school council chair Peter Triantafillakis.

Ongoing "refreshers" encouraging parents and students to consider active forms of commuting and public transportation are just one aspect of a concerted effort to keep the school's roughly 1,600 student body safe.

“The focus in the general public is always on the younger kids in elementary school, which is understandable, but high school students face a number of hazards as well -- from proper drop-offs, jaywalking to major congestion in parking lots and surrounding roadways.”

Working with school officials, the City of Markham and York Region District School Board for the past four years, the school council has been able to carry out a number of initiatives to address the fact that the school and surrounding infrastructure were not designed to support the current volume of vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

The action plan developed also reflects recommendations brought forward by the traffic engineering firm WSP, which was hired by the school board to assess and consult on the safety concerns at MDHS, Triantafillakis explained.

“Schools are designed as if the big yellow buses are still rolling in, but the reality is, they aren’t.”

Mitigation measures instituted so far include getting an all-way stop at Church and Elm streets, bouncing garbage pickup on Church from the morning rush hour, no-stopping signs posted on Russell Stover Court across from MDHS, enforced Pick-Up-Drop-Off (PUDO) by restricting exit through parking aisles, relining the west parking lot exit to include two exit lanes and Presto sales during Grade 9 orientation day.

With an 8:10 a.m. start time, about half of the student body in the music program and about 40 per cent of students within a five-kilometre radius, Triantafillakis said walking just isn’t feasible for the majority.

“These kids are carting heavy backpacks, instrument cases and fighting morning rush hour, so we see about 40 per cent of them being driven to and from school.”

While a lot has been completed in the past four years, there are still a number of items on the council’s safety plan wish list.

They include widening the entrance/exit of the west driveway to better facilitate a safer two-lane exit and one-lane entry, installing no-stopping signs on the south side of Church from Elm Street to Jack Court, a signalized crosswalk between Elm Street and Bramble Way, and moving the current bus stop to Jack Court.

The wish list also includes instituting regular service on Church Street during rush hour by diverting buses from Markham Road, Ninth Line, Wooten Way and Highway 7, and getting York Region Transit on board to pilot free or subsidized Presto cards in September to Grade 9 students to increase ridership.

The council also feels a school safety department or committee needs to be convened and centralized through the York school board that would have dedicated funds and resources to review and manage school safety across the board.

Key components would include creating a school safety scorecard (audit) that can be used to measure effectiveness of safety measures already in place, as well as earmarking a portion of the school’s operating budget to carry out their respective student safety initiatives.

“We are not trying to replace what the board is already doing. We are trying to help educate parents and students about what kids are facing and how it can be addressed."