New Traffic Plan in Place for Royston Elementary School

Some changes for parents next month at Royston Elementary when they drop their students off at school.

At this month’s city council meeting, Royston Police Chief Donnie Boleman asked the council to approve a change in the traffic plan.

Boleman said the new plan changes the drop off and pick up zones around Royston Elementary because of new regulations with the Georgia Department of Transportation.

“One of the biggest issues that we’ve run into during this traffic change is that we still have a three-way stop,” Boleman told the city council. “The purpose for that three-way stop was to maintain traffic control in front of the school so the traffic could keep moving and flowing. But the State DOT no longer recognizes three-way stops so we would like to move to change this to a four-way stop.”

Under the plan, College St. and Jordan Sts. would still be one way. Boleman said the new plan will also accommodate the expected increased traffic from the new students under the new redistricting plan.

“We anticipate the traffic coming in off Cherry,” he said. “With the redistricting, more parents are coming from the Sandy Cross area, and they will figure out that it’s a lot easier to turn on Cherry St. and then take a right on Jordan to drop their child off.”

But he said that traffic is now going to back up causing a pinch point at the three-way stop because the merging traffic from College St. is not going to stop and there’s no way to make them stop.

Boleman said he has been working with the new principal to come up with the new four-way plan that he said would be safer for motorists and students. And he said once parents get used to the new traffic plan, the new system will be better organized for students and parents.

“It’s required to make these changes and we’re trying to accomodate the principal to make this new plan happen,” he said. “This will make drop off and pick ups safer for the students and parents.”

Other changes Boleman said will include a bar scanner system, as well as projections inside the school for students and parents to see where to go and which bus they are on. Students will also be lining up in the gym instead of under the covered walkway outside, he said.

After hearing from Boleman, the city council approved the new plan unanimously to convert the three-way stop intersection to a four-way.

The new plan will now be advertised in the local paper before the start of school next month.