Malcolm White School Traffic Tough, Drivers Say

So how do drivers who drop-off and pick-up students at the feel about that experience?

Six of seven drivers interviewed by Woburn Patch at Thursday afternoon pick-up agree:  it’s tough.

“Oh, my God, it is crazy,” said Irene Silveira, the mother of a White School fourth grader.

In the morning, drivers are supposed to drop students off at the crosswalk near the front door, according to a memo sent to Malcolm White parents and guardians in February by school Principal Peter Roketenetz.

But some students are let out onto the entrance driveway, not the sidewalk, several parents said, so drivers have to watch carefully for them. Some cars stop alongside each other. Kids come out of both sides of cars, according to Zulma Rosado, translated by her passenger, Maria Cintron.

“People need to follow the rules,” Silveira said.

Winter—cold weather—is worse for Silveira and her child because it irritates her child’s breathing, she said. “That’s why I come early,” she said, and wait close to the front door.

Morning is more hectic than afternoon, according to Sheila Marshall, who said she has been driving her third-grade grandson to school for four years. In the morning, everybody has to be here at the same time, she said. If a driver has to park, curb spaces on Bow Street only accommodate six cars, she said. She arrives early for pick-up, she said.

Mariela Benitez agreed with Marshall that morning drop off is worse, especially when it’s raining. Echoing Marshall, Benitez said, “Everybody tries to get close to the door.”

But Elizabeth Moriarty, mother of a second-grader, said the morning drop-off is easier. She usually picks-up her child, she said, but has also done drop-off. If she can’t find a space near the entrance to the school, she sometimes tries the lower parking lot, she said. That’s where the school bus stops. So sometimes she said she get stuck behind the bus.

“Under no circumstances should vehicles be parked, left running and abandoned in the middle of the driveway blocking traffic flow,” according to Roketenetz’s memo. One driver did leave her car in the center driveway, in the right-hand lane, at the end of the line, nearest to Bow Street, Thursday afternoon for a time.

Some drivers who have picked up their student passengers try to get out around other waiting cars, Benitez noted. One wide vehicle squeezed through two lines of cars in the center entrance Thursday afternoon.

Mother Raquel Pargana just goes with the flow.

“Traffic does flow,” said Pargana, who’s been making the daily runs for four years.  In the morning, some drivers stop in the middle of the school driveway, she said, and “sometimes you just have to wait.” But, “For me, it’s OK.”

Read the related story about an idea to help relieve drop off traffic congestion at the Malcolm White Elementary School.