The Things We Do For Cars

As I am going through every street within a 5 mile radius of the Jell-O Mold fountain at Lake Eola, I've stumbled across something interesting...

At first I got excited, because I thought this might be a Go Kart track or maybe a place that conducts driver's ed. But then it slowly dawned on me. Basketball Courts, big open field, central building. This was the pickup line for kids at a school. Dover Shores Elementary, to be precise. This is a massive queing line off street for pickup and drop off. I would assume this is to prevent traffic from backing up into the street. Just for reference, the track that would be required from entering the property to leaving is approximately .6 miles. If this were straight down Orange Ave in downtown, it would be long enough to stretch from Livingston Street to South Street, or 6 Blocks. Amway center for scale.

Usually, elementary schools are more plentiful, and tend to be located in neighborhoods, but it would appear that many of the kids can't walk or ride a bike there. It probably doesn't help that the school is lined on two sides by a major highway and an 'arterial' for the surrounding neighborhoods. Even if some kids did ride a bike, the school is now surrounded by a moat of cars, filled with stressed out parents who have had to take time away from work or errands to pick up their little ones.

I can't imagine that this is the epicenter of happiness at the end of the school day. For comparison, here is a video of people from Amsterdam dropping their kids off for school:

I'm not one to boost for Dutch-style infrastructure necessarily, but do you think it's possible we've made a poor choice with respect to the transportation of people?

Think also about all of the land this takes up. If/When they choose to expand this school, do you think they will take up the lanes that are there currently, or do you think they'll demolish some of those facilities for play and exercise?

Oh, this is not the only school that does this.