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2 Buffalo school speed zones to go live Wednesday

Speed zones outside Canisius High and the Makowski Early Childhood Center will officially go live Wednesday morning.

BUFFALO, N.Y. — After months and months of delays, parts of Buffalo's school speed zone camera program are about to go live. 

Speed zones outside Canisius High and the Makowski Early Childhood Center will officially go live Wednesday morning. 

"We chose these two schools because of traffic volume Delaware Avenue is a very heavily trafficked street Jefferson Avenue is a very heavily trafficked street," said Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown. 

The beacons or flashing lights outside these schools will be active, and the cameras taking pictures of anyone going 26 mph or over. 

"This was a program that was announced last summer and now we're starting to see parts of the program go live, why has it taken so long to get to this point?" Asked 2 On Your Side's Jeff Preval.

"Because we want to do it right we want to make sure that people understand the program," Brown said. 

So far, there are 10 schools that are part of the program. We've already told you about two that are going live, the other eight have cameras, and the city has been in the process of putting flashing beacons in these speed zones. 

"As far as any other schools beyond Makowski and Canisius we'll be continuing to do the installation and roll out those additional schools as the cameras and the beacons are ready and tested," said Michael Finn, Buffalo's commissioner of Public Works.

Until this happens, no pictures will be taken, no warnings and no $50 violations will be written to speeding drivers outside the other schools in the program. 

"We're not issuing warnings any longer we think now people are aware of this program," Brown said.

City Hall says 90,000 warnings have been sent to drivers, going over the school zone speed limit and that compliance is rising — two months ago, 5 percent of drivers were at or under the limit in school zones — a couple weeks ago that number jumped to 33 percent.

The city still maintains this is not a money grab. 

"Our goal for this program is to not to write tickets our goal is to get drivers to slow down," Brown said.

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