WATCH: City leaders talk safety for students walking to school
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) – The City of Colorado Springs, the Colorado Springs Police Department, and Colorado Springs School District 11 discussed student pedestrian safety at 11 a.m. You can watch their press conference below:
The city says traffic engineering has been making efforts to make the walk to school safer, including improvements to school crossings and pedestrian routes.
On top of that, multiple campuses in Colorado Springs are getting school zones for the first time, which they say will be funded by speeding tickets.
The executive director for school operations tells KRDO13 that in the past, middle schools and high schools were built without school zones because those students are older and officials assumed they could navigate the roads better than students in elementary.
That has since changed, and the general policy now is to install school zones as new schools are built.
"There's a lot of activity around all of our middle schools and high schools. It's just a good idea to try to slow vehicles in that area during those peak times. And so that's that's been our effort. Over the last couple of years," said Todd Frisbie, traffic engineering division manager.
The school zones next on the list are:
- Vista Ridge High School
- Sierra High School
- Cheyenne Mountain High School
- Jack Swigert Aerospace Academy
- Fox Meadow Middle School
- Nikola Tesla Education Opportunity Center
- Mann Middle School
- Atlas Prep
- Panorama Middle School
- West Middle School
- Palmer High School
- Fremont Elementary School
To enforce safety further, the police department tells KRDO13 that they are considering adding speed cameras within the next few months.
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