More than 250 speed bumps installed on streets near schools in Los Angeles
As the first day of school for Los Angeles Unified School District students approaches, council members have put plans into action to increase safety on the streets surrounding school campuses across the city.
On Friday, they announced that more than 450 speed limit signs and 250 speed bumps had been installed around schools in direct response to the pedestrian deaths.
“The city has urgently implemented hundreds of safety precautions near schools ahead of the new school year,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. “In partnership with the City Council and the Los Angeles Unified School District, we have taken steps to make streets near schools safer, and we will continue to do more to promote student safety.”
City departments have completed various installation projects, including measures to increase safety around schools as students prepare to return to school on Monday.
Read more: The Los Angeles City Council is pushing ahead with a proposal to install speed bumps in front of all public schools
These measures included, among others, fast-track projects to improve road safety at over 180 intersections near 40 schools, the installation of over 250 speed bumps near 92 schools where speeding is a common problem, and the establishment of several “school slow-down zones” enforcing a 24 km/h speed limit on over 450 roads.
In addition, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation will deploy more than 500 school crossing guards for the 2024-25 school year, which officials say will be the city’s “largest deployment” of school crossing guards in more than a decade.
Heather Hutt, Los Angeles City Councilwoman and chair of the City Council’s Transportation Committee, added that safety measures are of utmost importance with the new school year approaching.
“The hundreds of safety measures LADOT has installed over the past year and the record number of school crossing guards hired represent the most significant investment our city has ever made to prevent dangerous driving behavior near schools,” LADOT Director General Laura Rubio-Cornejo said in a statement.
LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho also made a statement on the issue, addressing families who have been victims of “senseless” traffic accidents on the way to and from school in recent years.
“As we welcome our students, staff and families back for 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 urgently address these safety issues,” Carvalho’s statement said. “Los Angeles Unified looks forward to continuing to work with all of our government partners to protect the well-being of our students and school community.”
The first measures were taken last year after Woman was hit and killed was hit by a car while walking to Hancock Park Elementary School with her six-year-old daughter, who was also seriously injured.
