Changing Pavements: How to Improve Your School’s Parking Lot

Your school’s parking lot is one of the busiest parts of the campus. It’s where students and faculty scramble to or out of their cars and buses to beat the time. As a place prone to crowding, the parking lot is one of the most difficult to keep organized and safe. But it’s a task that must be done. Here’s how you can improve your parking lot’s safety and security.

Know the Basics

The Seattle government, in collaboration with organization Feet First, created a handbook on improving arrival and departure procedures. It says that students on foot should be the top priority. It also stated that pick-up and drop-offs should be supervised by staff to ensure safety. Everything regarding circulation in the school should be monitored, from where students should be dismissed to which doors must be unlocked and at which times.

The handbook’s “golden rule” is to keep modes of travel separate. Pedestrians shouldn’t pass through a parking lot when they’re making their way to or from the school. Cars and buses should also have different roads and drop-off and pick-up zones. As such, the authors recommend putting parking lot safety at the top of your safety committee’s agenda.

Plan and Implement

The first action step that the handbook recommends is mapping out which roads lead to your school. It’s as easy as finding your establishment on Google Maps and taking a screenshot of it. It helps you find places around the school lot that are busy during peak hours.

Feet First recommends observing these areas and finding problems you can bring up during brainstorm sessions with your committee. Once you’ve identified the places with issues, collaborate with the higher-ups like your principal and the parent-teacher association to come up with a plan. It should address the problems head-on, provide rewards for those who follow the right procedures, provide practical improvements like signs, and ask for extra help from traffic officers, if necessary.

Regular Maintenance

Slips and falls are one of the primary causes of lost days from work, according to the National Floor Safety Institute. It’s important to keep your parking lot’s pavement free of any deep cracks and uneven sections to protect your employees and students from unexpected absences due to slip and fall accidents. If you find that the floors are the worse for wear, it’s time to call a professional and have them fixed before any accidents occur.

Consider Off-Site Parking

If too much parking on school grounds is your problem, consider off-site parking for both students and staff. Some parking lots in New York high schools are so congested that they’ve resorted to parking in the nearest recreation center. If there’s a nearby place of business or church with ample amounts of parking spots nearby, ask the owner they can lend your school parking spaces for a fair price.

Next to classrooms, the parking lot is an essential part of a school. As such, it needs to be free from possible risks that may come from improper planning or wear and tear on the asphalt/concrete. Plan everything out and consult as many people as you can, from the school administration to the parents. It’ll all be worth it when pick-ups and drop-offs aren’t as chaotic anymore.

Get the Parking Lot Your School Deserves

A paved parking lot should be free of any imperfections – or, at least, defects that could lead to potential hazards – to make sure people using them are safe. Here at K&E Flatwork LLC., we have an experienced team that knows what kind of concrete solution is best for the needs of our clients. We’re well-versed in creating highly functional parking lots to help businesses have durable and great-looking entrances.

Contact us now to create a parking lot your school deserves.