BUFFALO, N.Y. — With schools reopening in the City of Buffalo next Tuesday city leaders are pressing their contractor to complete a school zone safety project for every school in the city.
This comes in the wake of that major problem for the City Hall attempt to enforce speed limits last year.
It seems hard to believe that it's been about a year since those controversial school speed zone cameras, which generated plenty of tickets and public frustration for driver violations of the then-15 mph limit, were removed by the city of Buffalo. It was an ill-fated failed experiment, but the city in place of it has been seeking to upgrade school zone safety with a now 20-mph speed limit and a special street painting project.
Buffalo Public Works commissioner Michael Finn told reporters "in 2021 we did a little over 40 schools across the city focusing on main roads. This year we have the funding to do all of the schools within the city. That's over 100 schools: public, charter, parochial."
The $850,000 project includes the word "school" actually painted on the pavement, as well as newly striped intersection crosswalks on streets passing by and adjacent to schools.
And Finn says the contractor for the city has a definite deadline for this project.
"Before the winter what we're looking to do is have all of that work complete," he said. "That's been ongoing, and we entered the contract with the contractor. They started the work. They're about 30 percent complete at this point, and they'll be continuing until their work is complete."
While the camera speeding tickets are gone, some of those digital speed monitoring signs are still in place near schools as a warning, and the city does consult with the school district and parents if more is needed.
Finn mentioned an example.
"Public School 32, Clinton-Montessori on Clinton Street near Pine, has been one of those schools where principals, teachers, parents have expressed concerns about speeding," Finn said. "And last year we put bump-outs in and re-striping to do traffic calming specifically for that school, above and beyond what we're doing just for all the schools in the city."
Finn also emphasized that drivers should make sure to stop for school bus flashing red lights and be very careful as they pickup or unload their very precious passengers. Some drivers may not be paying attention after the summer without them, but obviously police will, and they would not want to hurt anyone like an excited child with their carelessness.
Finn also suggests giving yourself extra time as classes begin again since traffic seems to pick up near schools with usually some congestion and confusion for the first few weeks of the school year.