by Max Rios | staff writer
Since pulling into the parking lot on the first day back from spring break, students and parents have been enduring the addition of six new speed bumps placed throughout the campus. Yet these speed bumps, approximately three and a half inches tall, are now resulting in drivers skillfully maneuvering around these bumps due to their height.
“We have kids that are roaming all over before school, and after school it’s real busy because we let out 3,000 kids at one time,” principal John Mehlbrech said. “To help focus more on driving we’ve installed these speed bumps to slow down [drivers] to help them understand their surroundings.”
While these speed bumps are not in place to completely halt drivers, Mehlbrech went on to say how these bumps are designed to slow down students and parents that drive over the designated speed limit of 10 miles per hour.
“We have both parents and students going at higher speeds than they should,” Mehlbrech said.
Not only that, but community vehicles, such as garbage trucks, also seem to drive quickly through campus in order to evade the light on TPC, according to Mehlbrech.
“Up by the front is also a thoroughfare. Dump trucks also just come through here because then they don’t have to go through the stop light. They come through here and not slow down so now I need them to slow down,” Mehlbrech said.
As a result of the speed bumps, traffic has almost come to a complete halt for drivers attempting to enter the campus from Bulverde Road and into the student parking lot. However, changes are being made in order to ease the build-up of cars in areas where there are speed bumps.
“What we have done is review what we put in place and we listen to the concerns. Every parent concern that I’ve heard appreciate the speed bumps but [say] that they’re too high; it’s too rough,” Mehlbrech said.
Last weekend, the district removed the speed bump just before the stop sign off of TPC Parkway. In addition, the district is also moving the speed bump located at the entrance of the student parking lot further back. These changes will be implemented in order to reduce the traffic and allow emergency vehicles an easier path into major zones.
“Whenever they do things like this for the campus some of the costs are taken care of by the district. If it’s something that we’re doing as a campus, like for example the double “JS” in the front that we made with the blue gravel, when we do stuff like that the campus pays for those things,” assistant principal Stuart Guthrie said. “When it’s a part of the capital improvement, such as the speed bumps, the district takes care of it.”
