Johnston school pickup can cause traffic headaches. How your school might change it:

Student pickup and drop-off might get a little easier in Johnston with some proposed changes to improve traffic flow outside schools.

The Johnston City Council discussed a draft memo during a Monday work session that analyzes traffic issues at the city's five elementary and two middle schools before and after the bell rings. The school traffic findings are part of a broader citywide traffic study by the Foth engineering consulting firm.

The memo includes recommendations for how to make school traffic for pickup and drop-off safer and more efficient and how to best use school space to avoid traffic backing up onto public streets.

The memo is a draft with observations and proposed recommendations to consider. Further discussions will continue with city and school district officials and no official decisions have been made.

According to the memo, 540 people responded to a survey as part of the traffic study, and 225 of those ranked school drop-off and pickup as their biggest traffic concern.

Here's what the report recommends to improve traffic flow at each elementary and middle school in Johnston:

All schools

• Communicate with families to encourage positive behavior, such as making sure students are ready to immediately exit vehicles in a drop-off zone; using marked crosswalks; being courteous to other vehicles; and not using prohibited areas for student drop-off and pickup.

Beaver Creek Elementary

• Convert the west driveway on Lyndhurst Drive into a full-access drive for entering and exiting.
• Shift the parent entrance for student drop-off to the west drive from Lyndhurst Drive to provide more space on Northwest 86th Street.
• Double stack vehicles in the outer section of the existing parking lot or build a new roadway wide enough to accommodate vehicles.
• Use the east entrance for faculty and staff only.
• Maximize the length of the student drop-off and pickup zone by the school building.

Timber Ridge Elementary

• Convert school access to a single-lane exit and two entrance lanes.
• Allow double stacking of vehicles entering the school with a single line in the pickup and drop-off zone.
• Expand traffic flow to the existing access road by the school building and build a cul-de-sac for vehicles to turn around.
• Maximize the length of the drop-off and pickup zone.

Lawson Elementary

• Move the bus drop-off and pickup zone from the parking lot to the on-street parking area along Northwest 62nd Avenue to free up space for families, which could require modifications to the parking area.
• Split drop-off and pickup by having some students enter on the north side of the building and some enter on the east side.
• Maximize existing cross-walk and crossing guard areas.
• Maximize the length of the drop-off and pickup zone.
• Add a marked crosswalk.

Horizon Elementary

• Switch family and bus drop-off and pickup zones to different areas on campus.
• Consider adding a right-turn access and exit off northbound Northwest 100th Street.
• Double stack vehicles in the far west side of the parking lot.
• Convert foldable stop signs to flashing pedestrian signs.
• Increase enforcement during school hours.
• Maximize the length of the drop-off and pickup zone.

Summit Middle School

• Double stack vehicles ahead of the marked crosswalk ahead of the drop-off zone.
• Monitor use of staff-only parking area.

Wallace Elementary

• The drop-off and pickup operates as efficiently as possible given the limited space, but communicate positive behaviors to limit the time vehicles line up on Northwest 62nd Avenue.

Johnston Middle School

• The drop-off and pickup operates as efficiently as possible given the limited space, but communicate positive behaviors.
• Update traffic signal timings.

Chris Higgins covers the northern and eastern suburbs for the Register. Reach him at chiggins@registermedia.com or 515-423-5146 and follow him on Twitter @chris_higgins_.