Cars creep through the North Albany Road school zone at mid-day on Sept. 12, 2025. The zone is to get flashing lights to indicate when the 20 mph speed limit applies, just like in days of old.
No one knows how much time it will take to carry out the Albany City Council’s direction to install flashing lights in the school zone on North Albany Road. The lights are to tell drivers that the speed limit is 20 mph, not 40 as at other times.
The council issued the flashing-light mandate at the conclusion of its meeting Wednesday, Sept. 10, and City Manager Peter Troedsson said at the time the staff had already met with a contractor on the matter.
The meeting, it turns out, was not with a light contractor but with Verra Mobility, the company operating red-light and speed cameras at four Albany locations, including the school zone on North Albany.
Signs now say the school zone is in effect 7-5 on school days. On two days in April, about 300 drivers got speeding tickets there when a reader board at North Albany Elementary said there was no school.
In an email responding to questions from me, Public Works Director Chris Bailey said city staff met with Verra Mobility to discuss “how to ensure the speed used for photo enforcement would change with the change in timing for the flashing lights, and which types of lights will work with their system.”
As for the cost and the timing, “We do not know the installation cost yet; staff is just beginning the process of scoping and developing the project. Similarly, we do not know when they will be in place. We have not contacted vendors yet.”
Once the lights are installed, Bailey said, they will flash for 15-30 minutes before and after school release times. “Since we have two schools with different bell schedules, staff will work to define those time windows and program the lights.”
The school speed limit will be in affect only when the lights are flashing.
“One of our concerns,” Bailey wrote, “is what happens if the flashing lights are not operating when they are supposed to. These systems are in place all over the country, apparently, and the flashing lights have an internal alarm capability to send an email or text alert to the city if the lights are not working. We have to do some more research on the options available for the lights and ensure that the system we purchase will be compatible with the Verra system, but this is not an unusual arrangement according to the Verra representatives.”
I had not remembered that there were flashing lights indicating the school speed on North Albany Road before the legislature changed the law in 2005. The change took effect in 2006 and resulted in the “7-5 school day” signs replacing flashing lights in some locations.
Someone at the Albany hospital, where I went for a test last week, told me that he had relied on the flashing lights for years and got a ticket on North Albany Road when they were turned off.
Then I found a letter to the editor that appeared in the Democrat-Herald on Jan. 31, 2007. It said, “The school zone on North Albany Road used to have flashing lights during specific times. Ninety percent of the drivers followed the speed limit. The lights do not flash now, so my observation is that 90 percent of the drivers do not slow now.”
For the North Albany Road cameras, Albany pays Verra $72,000 a year. The council could have saved both money and aggravation if it had opted for flashing lights instead. (hh)
As you stated in the previous post on this issue, “…..without asking questions or thinking through any of the issues it would create…..”, it sounds like we’ll go through this issue again in another 20 or so years.
If the council would have looked at history instead of being blinded by the opportunity to make some quick money, we wouldn’t be discussing this issue (or wasting taxpayer money).
When do refunds go out?
Hallelujah the lights will be coming! The 20 mile an hour time zone is not going to be for 10 hours a day it’ll only going to be when it should be! I love how much sense this makes!
I can’t thank you enough Mr. Hering for all the updates and information on this mess. I remember a time when a person could look to their local newspaper for news like this (back when you were the editor in fact). I no longer so much as scan the Albany DH for anything. I am able to keep up with local news solely by reading your posts and I appreciate it.
Thanks, but remember I write about only what interests me. There’s a lot of important stuff going on, and some of that you’ll find in the paper.
this is what everybody has been asking for – transparency about school hours so drivers can slow down as appropriate. i suppose now the cameras can be removed as this is what all have requested and that expensive contract cancelled! we should not expect any speeding at all, once the flashing lights are there to inform all about the need for the proper speed limit. right?
We’ve never had flashing lights on N. Albany road. I’ve live here 50+ years.
I think this is a good opportunity to also compare data and evaluate the effectiveness of the camera vs the flashing lights. Once the lights go up I’m very interested in seeing the decreased number of incidents or tickets vs just that camera. I have the opinion those lights for the safety of our kids should be at every school but since it doesn’t make them money it’s not a popular matter
I think the City Council is a poor representation of the intelligence of the entire community.