Expanding on our partnership with the Hillsborough County Public Schools since adding the School Board as a voting member of the MPO Board last year, the MPO’s new School Transportation Working Group (STWG) will hold its first meeting on April 27th.
Our transportation network serves the 8th largest school district in the nation, with more than 26,000 employees, and transporting almost 90,000 students to and from school each day, making this close collaboration between schools and transportation very important in Hillsborough County. Coordination is needed on many levels for problem-solving traffic circulation to walk/bike safety to school-pools and transit. A regular, periodic meeting of transportation-focused professionals representing local governments, transit agencies, public safety organizations, and several functional groups within the School District would be beneficial, and didn’t exist… until now.
A real-life example of how needed this working group is, an email was forwarded to the MPO from a concerned citizen in the Apollo Beach area who observed traffic signal issues on Big Bend Road when school lets out at East Bay High School and Eisenhower Middle School. Adjusting the signal timing and phasing of that light is the type of issue the School Transportation Working Group will try to tackle.
For more information, contact Lisa Silva, liaison for the working group, via email or call 813/273-3774 x329.