By JOSE HERRERA | City News Service
The Los Angeles City Council approved a plan on Friday, Aug. 4, to install speed humps on 100 streets around 50 “high-priority” schools following a string crashes earlier this year in which students were struck by drivers.
The council in a 11-to-0 vote — with council members Paul Krekorian, Nithya Raman, Curren Price and Hugo Soto-Martinez absent — adopted the city Department of Transportation plan to add speed humps near schools identified in the Safe Routes to School strategic plan.
“We’re very excited that the council has approved a program to implement speed humps near schools and we’re anxious to get started,” Dan Mitchel, assistant general manager of LADOT, told the council.
Mitchel noted the department has already started installing speed humps and speed tables in some areas, which are designed to slow traffic and heighten driver awareness.
The city’s SRTS plan, an initiative to safely increase the number of children who walk or bike to school, ranks more than 500 LAUSD schools in the city to identify those with the most need for traffic-calming measures.
LADOT ranks schools based on criteria including the number of vehicle-pedestrian/bike collisions; the number of students who live within a quarter-mile; the number of students eligible for free-reduced price meals; and lack of prior state and federal SRTS funding.
Mitchel estimated it will take six to nine months to install the speed humps approved by the council.
Under the city’s existing program, speed humps are only installed on an annual cycle. Groups and individuals are invited to apply, but the cycle closes when a total of 375 applications are received, and the application threshold is typically met within minutes.
LAUSD officials and community members urged City Council members to take action to prevent further tragedies around schools across the city.
Council members supported the dedicated speed hump program for the 50 schools, but…
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