Culyer: Educate & Fence Sonn Drive Safety Issue

Thoughts on Sonn Drive and the Boston Post Road.

By Jim Culyer

Culyer believes the subject will be a discussion during Tuesday's "open forum" session during the Board of Ed meeting.

Osborn School and Sonn Drive:  I call this my three E’s scenario – Educate, Encouragement & Enforcement.  We all know that parents learn from their children.

Let’s re-educate our children on the proper crossing of streets. “On the Green, not in between”. “Cross at the corner” Use the traffic light, use the crosswalks and make use of the crossing guard to get across the Boston Post road safely.

Encouragement can be a two-step approach. Place a Rye City Patrolman on station at Sonn Drive for early morning arrival hours and for afternoon dismissal hours to encourage the crossing of the Post Road at the corner; not as a temporary crossing guard.

Enforcement is a bit more difficult. NYC had a similar problem years ago on Fifth Ave. around Rockefeller Ctr.  Here the City of NY installed iron fencing to stop the jaywalking, the crossing of Fifth Ave. in the middle of the street and ensured that the street corner (Where there were traffic lights, crosswalks, etc.) was used appropriately.

In summary, traffic surveys, traffic consultants, even NYS has said that the placement of crosswalks, or traffic signals at the intersection of Sonn Drive and the Boston Post Road is not appropriate, since there is a traffic light, crosswalks and crossing guards within 100 feet and in fact would cause additional traffic issues and concerns. If education and encouragement don’t work; install the fencing to ensure the safety of our children getting to and from school.