Dropping off and picking up for school isn’t what it used to be.

With more parents out of the line and into the walk-up-to-the-door-with-your-student mode at elementary schools, including Oxford’s Bramlett Elementary, the need for changing road striping on a busy city street emerged.

That’s why the City of Oxford has added a new loading and unloading zone along the school-side of Jefferson Avenue, adjacent to Bramlett Elementary. The wide, yellow-striped hash marks provide a clear space for parents to briefly park to escort the children to or from the school. The parking is next to the sidewalk along Jefferson.

The idea is that by providing this clear designated area parents will no longer park on the other side of the street, ushering children across a busy Jefferson Avenue.

Travel lanes on the street have also been narrowed in hopes of slowing traffic.

These are good and necessary moves, as anyone knows who has watched the Bramlett drop off and pick up patterns in recent years. Jefferson Avenue is a busy through street, making mornings and afternoons a literal accident-in-waiting.

Our children’s safety is a top priority and they deserve to taken to and picked up from school safely. This move may slow traffic and break some habits, but it is a good and worthy effort by the city to manage what had become a risky problem.