School playing field on roof-top?

Traffic congestion has become norm in our daily panoramic view and the situations near schools during rush hour are the worst when flow of vehicles are almost stagnated with cars, vans and school buses parking along the roads waiting for students.

Traffic congestion or stagnation around school areas is mainly due to lack of parking lots for waiting vehicles parking along the roads. Paradoxically, there are open fields in schools which are underutilized.

In foreign countries especially Japan, many school playing fields are constructed above the top floor of the multi-level buildings. This is clearly an ideal concept of making full use of limited lands in the city where most of the schools located. With this construction, vehicles can be housed and parked while waiting for dismissal of school and directly reduce traffic congestion on the surrounding areas of schools.

The cost of maintenance of the multi-level building should not be posed as a major problem as it can be minimized with artificial turfs. Additionally, some spaces or levels in the buildings can be reserved for parking lots and rent them out to those nearby neighbors for generation of incomes.

The traffic congestions surrounding school areas have to be solved with long-term planning with an annual increase of volume of vehicles on the roads. Reallocation of the schools is one of the measures, however, it is not the best solution and short-termed as the traffic problem will soon be imminent with the existence of the school in that reallocated area.