Every morning when schools start and in the afternoon when they end, vehicles ferrying students to and from these schools contribute significantly to traffic on city roads. Further, dozens of these vehicles converge at individual school campuses, causing bottlenecks and traffic jams. The Indian Express spoke to authorities at some schools in Pune as to how they try and manage vehicular traffic.Sanjay Shendge, principal of the Sheth Dagaduram Katariya High School, said that 60-70 vehicles ply daily to ferry the over 900 students at his school. These vehicles are parked on the road outside the school and students have to exit the school gates to get to their transport vehicles. Students have to cross the road passing impatient and honking vehicles on the street.Also Read | India cut 3,282 single-teacher schools in a year, yet 5 states added thousandsShendge said that the school deploys two teachers at its two gates to help manage traffic. “There is 12-15 minutes of congestion when students arrive at the school and leave the school. Otherwise there is no issue.”“Under every police chowki there might be four or five schools. I think it should not be a problem for them to depute a constable for 15 minutes twice a day when the schools start and finish so that the constable can manage smooth flow of traffic at all schools,” he suggested.Ramesh Shelar, teacher at New English School, Ramanbaug, and head of the Vehicular Transport Committee, said that installing a traffic signal at the chowk near the school gate in Narayan Peth last year helped manage school traffic. The school has about 2000 students in total.“Before the signal was installed, we used to have major traffic issues. Our teachers would have to go out to the road to manage the traffic. But now, the signal helps and traffic exits smoothly,” he said.Also Read | Ghaziabad schools shut for Kanwar Yatra. For some students, learning is on holdOn vehicular safety, Shelar said that private operators—be it autos, cars, or buses—regularly overload their vehicles. “However, parents also demand this as they pay less money if more students are in the vehicle. We cannot really control it,” he says.Story continues below this adLike Shelar, Shendge also opined that schools could not limit the number of students in a vehicle as they were private vehicles operating outside their jurisdiction. He said, “Not all students come from well-to-do families. They might not be able to afford the fares if fewer students travel in the vehicles.”Ashley Eates, Principal of The Bishop’s Co-Ed School, Kalyani Nagar, said the school follows regular checks and monitoring to ensure its transport services comply with all Regional Transport Office (RTO) guidelines. However, he noted that the biggest safety concerns arise not from within the school’s transport system but from the behaviour of other road users.“As far as our school transportation goes, we conduct regular checks and balances to ensure that all RTO guidelines are followed. Safety issues we actually face involve general motorists on the roads who do not follow traffic rules, continue to speed in school zones and blatantly ignore traffic rules,” Eates said.Elaborating on these challenges, he said the most common violations include motorists driving on the wrong side to bypass traffic and vehicles being parked indiscriminately, making it difficult for school buses to manoeuvre safely. “These seemingly minor violations create unnecessary congestion and significantly increase the risk to children during pick-up and drop-off times,” he said.Story continues below this adEates attributed the issue more to a lack of civic sense than inadequate enforcement. “Everyone seems to be in a rush to reach their destination, often at the cost of basic traffic discipline and consideration for others,” he said, adding that while the traffic police have been responsive whenever the school has raised concerns, long-term road safety depends on greater personal responsibility and adherence to traffic rules by all motorists.With inputs by Shrijita Acharyya