Two schools, one left turn lane on Sandridge, and no one directing traffic

Lake Asbury Elementary and Lake Asbury Junior High sit along the same stretch of Sandridge Road, where getting into school traffic can mean waiting to turn left across a steady line of oncoming cars with no signal controlling the turn. Parents say two years of growth around Lake Asbury have made arrival and dismissal noticeably worse.

Ask any Lake Asbury parent how arrival and pickup are going and you will hear some version of the same thing: it feels like the Hunger Games out there.

There is no traffic light controlling the turn off Sandridge. There is no officer directing traffic. For thousands of students coming and going, the whole thing works because parents, walkers and bike riders somehow make it work.

Parents say it has gotten worse for two years straight as neighborhoods around Lake Asbury have filled in and more cars have poured onto the same road at the same times every day. What has not changed is the traffic control. No one is managing the flow. At arrival and dismissal, it is basically everyone watching everyone else and hoping nobody makes a mistake.

No light controlling the turn. No one directing traffic.

What we are dealing with

The problem is easier to understand when you see how the traffic moves.

Drivers approaching the schools from one direction have to turn left off Sandridge across oncoming traffic. There is a turn lane, but no signal stopping the traffic coming the other way to create a protected opening.

So the first car waits.

And everybody behind it waits too.

Then there is the junior high entrance. Students walking and biking along Sandridge cross near the same area where cars are trying to turn into the school.

That means a parent waiting for a gap in oncoming traffic also has to watch for a student approaching the crossing. Meanwhile, cars are stacking behind them and traffic coming the opposite direction keeps moving.

There is no signal controlling either movement.

Two schools, one road

Here is why it stacks up so quickly.

Lake Asbury Elementary has close to 1,000 students. Lake Asbury Junior High has nearly 1,500.

That is roughly 2,500 students coming and going along the same stretch of Sandridge, with parents in cars, buses, walkers and bike riders all in the mix.

The schools are supposed to run an hour apart. The elementary bell is at 8:30 a.m. The junior high does not start until 9:30, with supervision and the cafeteria opening at 9:00 and students sent to class at 9:20.

In theory, that spacing should help.

In practice, some junior high families arrive well before 9:00. Those cars begin filling the Sandridge turn lane while elementary traffic is still moving through the area.

Instead of one school clearing before the next rush begins, the two can overlap.

On the first day, parents described a long stretch of Sandridge filled with cars waiting to turn in, with some pickup trips taking close to an hour.

The bottleneck: a left turn that does not clear

This is where the photos matter.

One photo was taken at 2:45 p.m. A car is sitting at the front waiting to make the left turn off Sandridge while traffic continues coming from the opposite direction.

The next photo was taken at 2:49.

Four minutes later, the lead car still had not been able to complete the turn.

Four minutes does not sound like much until you consider what happens behind that one car. Every vehicle waiting to make the same turn stays put, and the line keeps growing backward.

Without a signal stopping the oncoming traffic, there is no guaranteed opening. Drivers simply wait until they believe there is a safe enough gap.

Drivers leaving the Sandridge zone are instructed to turn right only onto Sandridge. When someone attempts to turn left instead, that vehicle has to cross traffic again, adding another movement to an already congested area.

Four minutes apart. Same car. Same turn.

And kids are crossing here too

Now look at the bike path.

Kids ride along the path beside Sandridge and then cross near the junior high entrance, close to where parents are making that left turn.

Junior high students cross there on foot too.

A driver waiting to turn is watching oncoming traffic for an opening while also needing to watch the crossing. Students are watching the cars. Drivers behind are waiting for the turn to clear.

Most days, everybody figures it out.

That is not really the point.

The concern is how much depends on every person seeing every other person at exactly the right time.

If you use the Sandridge zone

For Lake Asbury Elementary, the Sandridge zone is used by families with more than one child at LAE, including sibling groups, as well as carpools.

Families should show their car tag and remain in their vehicle. Once children are loaded, drivers turn on their hazards. Loading begins at 2:45 p.m., and vehicles leaving the zone are instructed to turn right only onto Sandridge.

Walkers and bike riders in this zone are walked to the Lake Asbury Junior High sign on Sandridge and continue from there. Kindergarten students without an older sibling must be met by a parent or guardian.

Those rules help keep the dismissal line moving, but they do not solve the larger issue on Sandridge.

This has come up before

None of this is new, and parents have raised the traffic problem before.

About a year ago, after a parent flagged concerns about traffic in the area, District 5 County Commissioner Dr. Kristen Burke responded that she had notified the county engineer so the situation could be looked at.

She said a traffic light was planned for the Asbury Hammock and Village Center intersection and noted that much of the area’s housing development had been approved back in 2006, before she joined the board.

She also acknowledged the frustration over how little seemed to be changing while more families moved into the area and traffic continued getting heavier.

A year later, families using Sandridge are still dealing with the same basic problem at school arrival and dismissal.

Parents can help. They cannot fix the road.

There are things families can do immediately.

Junior high families can wait until supervision begins at 9:00 before dropping students off instead of adding to the elementary rush.

Drivers leaving the elementary Sandridge zone can follow the right turn only instruction.

Everyone can slow down and pay attention to the kids walking and biking through the area. And drivers should never wave another vehicle through a gap they cannot fully see.

Those choices can make the current setup safer and keep traffic moving better.

But parents cannot solve the underlying traffic problem from behind the wheel.

Whether Sandridge needs a traffic signal, someone directing traffic during school hours, changes to the crossing, different turning movements or another solution is a question for the people who actually study and manage the road.

What seems reasonable to ask is whether the current setup still works for the amount of traffic Lake Asbury has today.

Because this is no longer a quiet road serving two small schools.

It is roughly 2,500 students, their families, school buses, walkers and bike riders moving through the same area every school day, while the neighborhoods around them continue to grow.

Who to ask

And if you use this stretch of Sandridge every day, Clay FL News wants to see what you are seeing.