LA Implements 450 Slow Zones and 250 Speed Bumps to Boost School Traffic Safety
With the first day of school swiftly approaching for Los Angeles Unified School District children, council members followed through on their commitments to improve traffic safety surrounding campuses throughout the county.
They stated on Friday that more than 450 slow zones and 250-speed bumps had been put around schools in direct reaction to pedestrian deaths.
“The city moved urgently to install hundreds of safety provisions near schools ahead of this new school year,” said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass in a statement. “In partnership with the City Council and Los Angeles Unified School District, we took action to make streets safer near schools and we will continue to do more to promote student safety.”
City departments performed a variety of installation projects, including efforts to keep the areas surrounding schools safer as students prepare to return to school on Monday.
Some of that work included “quick build” street safety projects at more than 180 intersections near 40 schools, the installation of more than 250-speed bumps near 92 schools where speeding is a problem, and the establishment of various “School Slow Zones” that impose 15-mile-per-hour speed limits on over 450 roads.
In addition, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation plans to deploy more than 500 crossing guards during the 2024-25 school year. Officials said it is the city’s “widest deployment” of crossing guards in over a decade.
Heather Hutt, the Los Angeles City Councilwoman who chairs the council’s Transportation Committee, noted that the safety measures are critical with the new school year approaching.
“The hundreds of safety treatments LADOT installed over the last year, and the record number of crossing guards hired, represent the most significant investment our city has ever made to prevent dangerous driving behavior near schools,” said LADOT General Manager Laura Rubio-Cornejo in a statement.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho also published a statement on the subject, addressing families who have been victims of “senseless” traffic accidents while walking to and from school in recent years.
“As we welcome back our students, staff, and families to the 2024-25 school year, our Board of Education members and I are grateful for the steps Mayor Bass and the City Council have taken to address these safety issues with urgency,” according to Carvalho’s statement. “Los Angeles Unified looks forward to continuing the work collaboratively with all our governmental partners to safeguard the wellbeing of our students and school community.”
The steps toward action began last year when a lady was struck and killed by a car while going to Hancock Park Elementary School with her six-year-old daughter, who was also badly injured.