On April 4, a car passes the spot where the southbound flashing light is being placed on North Albany Road.
You are probably sick of reading about the installation of flashing lights in the school zone on North Albany Road. But let me explain why I expect the number of speeding tickets there to fall sharply after the lights are in place.
Drivers can commit school zone violations only when the lights are flashing. So exactly when is that?
Chris Cerklewski, the city engineer working on the project with the contractor, explained in an email:
“On a typical school day, the lights will be programmed to flash in the morning from 7:20 a.m. to 9:25 a.m., and in the afternoon from 2:30 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. On early release days (which are typically on Wednesdays) schools get out one hour earlier so the lights will flash in the afternoon from 1:30 pm to 3:15 pm.
“ODOT guidance recommends that school speed zone flashing lights start 30 minutes prior to the start of the school day and continue 15 minutes after the start of the school day, then begin flashing again 15 minutes before the end of the school day and continue for 30 minutes after the end of the school day. This school zone covers both North Albany Elementary School and North Albany Middle School, which have staggered school hours (NAMS is about one hour ahead of NAES). This results in a longer period where the lights flash compared to if there was just one school.”
So, drivers will have a chance to violate the school zone speed limit during only 125 minutes in the morning and 105 minutes in the afternoon.
That’s 230 minutes on school days instead of the current 600 minutes. The time window for getting school zone tickets will shrink to 38 percent of what it is now.
If the violations so far were evenly distributed throughout the 10 hours a day that the school zone now is in effect, you’d expect a 62 percent drop in tickets once the lights are working.
But if most of the current tickets were bunched during the non-peak times when traffic was light — the only times when speeding is more likely — then the drop in violations could be larger than that.
Cerklewski told me the contractor on this $42,900 project, North Star Electrical, was still waiting for parts. But the engineer expects the lights to start working in a couple of weeks. Then we’ll find out whether any of this speculation is close to the mark.
Of course, drivers could foil the city’s camera venture on their own, and reduce tickets to zero, right now, by remembering where they are and slowing down to 30 mph or less. (hh)
HH-
Methinks your last paragraph gives too much credit to folks to have the common sense you imply. We’ll see…
So the speed signs that say “School Days —- 7am – 5pm” are not accurate?
Will they be removed?
What about any speeding tickets issued outside of 7:20am – 9:25am & 1:30pm – 3:15pm?
I’m confused. Anyone else?
Common sense would say that the existing signs would be replaced with something to the effect of “….. when lights are flashing……”, but this IS Albany, so who knows.
One of the GAPS committees was discussing codensing the number of schools in the distrcit this week due to declining enrollment projections. Many workgroups in the session labled NAES as a target of closure with some even adding NAMS to their list. There is a possiblity there will be no school zone on N. Albany Rd. in the near future.
Finally! I’m so excited for this. I couldn’t tell you why but this is really irked me for a long time. I hope that they put flashing lights at all the schools and not just North Albany. I believe flashing light system is More effective than signs.
I had an interesting experience there last week. I was traveling about 19 mph, due to street work, and noticed the light turn yellow as the front of my car entered the intersection. As I slowly went through the intersection while looking up at the light, I thought: I’m not going to make it! Sure enough, it turned red when I was 3/4 way through the intersection.
My friend suggested that it is timed for 40 mph, but I can’t wait to see if they issue me a ‘running the red light’ ticket so I can contest it. :)