Residents press school committee to address Glenside Drive bus-stop congestion and safety

At the Sept. 15 meeting of the Blackstone-Millville Regional School Committee, residents urged the committee to change school-bus stops on Glenside Drive to reduce traffic bottlenecks and safety risks for children.

"Each and every morning it creates a big bottleneck," resident Tim Roderick said, describing days when 10 to 20 cars can line up at the neighborhood entrance and make crossings hazardous. Roderick, who said he lives at 29 Glenside Drive, asked the committee to consider adding two interior stops so parents would not block the same intersection.

Superintendent Jason DeFalco and public-safety officials said the district funds buses but typically defers routing and stop placement to the transportation vendor and the police department. The committee noted Telstones (the district's transportation provider) designs routes and that public safety must evaluate whether new stops are safe.

The police chief reported on spot checks at pickup times: "The most I saw at Park and Glenside was seven," the chief said, adding that other days he saw three or four. He also described obstacles — landscaping trucks, dump trucks, and vehicles parked on both sides of the road — that force buses and motorists into the opposite lane and raise safety concerns.

Committee members and residents raised a separate concern about winter: several members warned that snow banks could make the secondary entrance impassable, which could force the district back to a single stop during snow season.

Rather than adopt an immediate change, the committee asked the police and Telstones to continue monitoring the two-stop arrangement and to notify the committee if conditions warrant a routing change. "If something changes, let us know," Chair Erin Binacco said. "We stand by where our bus stops are at this moment unless something comes to us from them."

Next steps: Police and the transportation vendor will continue to monitor the Glenside/Park Street arrangement this fall and report back to the committee if safety or operational problems require a change.