The Relentless Blogger

Elections are coming up, and I would like to know who PRECISELY is responsible for traffic control and school zone safety along Dessau Road at the entrances of Delco Primary, Dessau Elementary, and Dessau Middle Schools. These three schools are located adjacent to this six-lane-wide stretch of highway with extremely heavy traffic, and no safety measures in place whatsoever for the children who must cross the highway to get to and from school.

Neighbors and I have contacted the Pflugerville Independent School District and the city, but the Dessau area is annexed into PISD and Pflugerville, and the roads are under the control of Travis County.

Students who live across the highway from the school have been told they must walk roughly a mile up or down the road to the nearest intersections to cross the highway. Neither of these intersections (Howard Lane and Parmer Lane) are within the school zone, neither have protected pedestrian crossing safeguards, and either option requires SMALL CHILDREN to walk approximately a mile down and back to arrive at school. I'll say that again ... SMALL CHILDREN are being required to walk long distances away from their homes and neighborhoods and negotiate major intersections with no pedestrian crosswalks simply to get to and from school.

There are also no crossing guards anywhere on school grounds or along the highway. Children as young as primary students are virtually "on their own" when it comes to getting to school safely. I don't believe I've gone a day without seeing at least one child try to "run for it" to get across the highway in bumper-to-bumper traffic, nor one day where a child doing so wasn't very nearly missed by a driver who wasn't looking for them, didn't see them, or just plain didn't have time to react.

What is it going to take for a protected crosswalk to be installed at the intersection directly in front of the schools? Why are parents being told that if their child getting to school safely is, "such a concern, then why don't you drive them yourself?"

The other day, I was driving through the Dell campus. Highly conspicuous crosswalks are everywhere - many even have a little button pedestrians can use to trigger flashing lights that line the crosswalk and alert drivers to their presence. Even without the nifty flashing lights, there are signs EVERYWHERE reminding drivers to yield right of way to pedestrians in crosswalks "by state law". Now, is that so difficult?

Dell seems to understand and appreciate the value of their workers enough to protect them as they cross the streets to get to work. Do we not have at least as much concern for the safety and well-being of the children attending THREE schools controlled by ONE intersection?

The county has provided an officer to attend the front parking lot of the middle school and prevent parents from being stupid in using the bus entrance. Taking nothing away from the importance of the buses being able to complete their routes safely, I have to wonder ... if the county could only provide ONE resource for that area and those schools, wouldn't it be a better use of this resource to provide some traffic control and safe crossing for the little ones?

I'm serious ... I really WOULD like to know specifically who is responsible for making the determination to add a crosswalk and safety lights on this highway. I don't need a name - just an office or a title. I would really like to see this remedied before it costs the community a child.