EASTHAMPTON — Cars and buses make a tight squeeze through the narrow roads of Railroad and School streets, and traffic becomes difficult during school pick-up and drop-off hours.

The city is looking into changing the traffic on both streets to one-way and officials are seeking input from the public to gauge whether the city should move forward with the idea.

The one-way streets consideration will be discussed at a Public Safety Subcommittee meeting at 6:15 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 12, at the first floor conference room of the Municipal Building, 50 Payson Ave.

“I hope a lot of people come,” City Councilor Daniel Carey said. “It’s a major change.”

Carey said the city and school officials have been receiving complaints regarding School Street, which is directly behind Center Elementary School. Difficult navigation is a concern for parents, especially during pick up and drop off when buses are using the street, Carey said.

If the street was one-way, cars would enter on Union Street.

On Railroad Street, cars fill the designated parking spots for Tandem Bagel and line up on either side of the street. The one-way proposal would have vehicles navigate from Payson Street onto Union Street.

Co-owner of Tandem Bagel Shannon Greenwood said she doesn’t think changing the street’s traffic pattern would affect her business and thinks customers would be OK with entering from Payson Street.

“We’re really open to whatever is best for the city,” Greenwood said.

She said the area is a cluster for activity and traffic patterns could affect pedestrians, like Williston Northampton students, crossing Payson Street and bikers riding along the bike trail and crossing both Payson and Union streets.

Fire Chief David Mottor said the department avoids driving fire engines through the narrow streets.

“We try not to use Railroad Street at all,” Mottor said.

If the streets were to become one-way, Mottor said the department still would not use them unless there was an emergency in that area. And if School Street becomes one-way from Union to Payson Street, Mottor said emergency response time might be a minute or two longer.

Caitlin Ashworth can be reached at cashworth@gazettenet.com.