Slow Down, Save a Life

Do you slow down when you see Radar signs posted on the side of the road or when you see the parked cop car with his arm pointing a radar gun in your direction? You're probably too late to avoid a ticket in the second case, but in the first example, you may be able to save a life.

Last week, I was asked to attend an event on safety at a small charter school in Dunwoody. They have been experiencing problems with cars speeding past, ignoring children in the crosswalk and whipping around the bend to the next school.
In the hour before classes start and the hour after school lets out, a double yellow light with a School Zone sign blinks from its post above N. Peachtree Road at Brookhurst Drive warning drivers to slow down. Over time, that light and tiny sign have become invisible. Officials looked at their options and chose to install a battery-powered driver feedback sign above the speed limit sign on the side of the road.
This is what happened.


I met and spoke with city officials, police officers, concerned parents, a councilman and the good folks at PEDS ( Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety). Unlike my daughter's school that's on a slow moving side street off the beaten path, this school is in an older residential neighborhood that has become the cut through street for people in a hurry to get to the major highways of 285 and 400.

Hey, I like my short cuts as much as the next guy, but when the street passes two busy schools and winds through tree laden neighborhoods with hidden drives, I'm probably not going to be driving 18-34 miles over the speed limit--- unlike the people nabbed on the Radar Sign during its first week in stealth mode.
As I stood on the sidewalk across the street from the school observing traffic flow, college cops and city buses sped past doing 42- 45 in the 35 mph zone. Even with the sign operating, minivans logged in at 39, and most cars simply slowed as they passed and then hit the gas again a car length away. The sign might be slowing them down, but without a cop pulling them over, I get the feeling it's more like a a wagging finger than a hand slap. And these people need to be slapped.
PEDS runs quite a few videos on their website from countries that aren't as squeamish with their advertising content as the USA. They claim "The faster you drive, the bigger the mess."
You can see them here.

This is a video that didn't make the cut for local television or even in our movie theaters, forget the fact that you're there to see all the gore Of SAW IV, someone out there thinks you can't handle the harsh reality of what a speeding vehicle does when it meets little Jenny Sue in the crosswalk.



Wow. That's a pretty strong message.

I live in a neighborhood where kids ride their bikes, scooters and skateboards in the street because we don't have sidewalks. When they walk to the community pool, they usually walk three or four abreast in the road. There are two main thoroughfares and a lot of curves, hills and mature landscaping. No one goes 25mph. A neighbor purchased some children at play signs that looked like this:

We thought it was a good idea.

Apparently the teens who vandalized and later stole the figures disagreed. A woman who runs a day care at her house puts cones and a net at the end of her her driveway. She lives on a dead end street.
There is one sign at the front of the neighborhood that tells anyone entering that there are children at play. One sign for over 400 houses, over 14 streets, over 30 bus stops.
You can institute safety measures, you can teach your kids to be careful... but how do you slow down a speeding vehicle?

I looked around for alternatives to the RADARSIGN, thinking the $3800 price tag may not be something the HOA would back.

You can install speed humps that the city would pay for, humps that would cost only $25/yr to the tax bills of the residents on the affected streets.... but they come with their own problems: added maintenance to vehicles that traverse the humps, delays for emergency vehicles, accidents caused by people trying to avoid the humps, or taking them too fast, and the devaluation of homes on streets with the humps... to name a few.

You can paint and mount your own SLOW DOWN signs.

You can paint fake speed bumps in the road.

You can borrow the radar gun from PEDS for a short period of time, log the speeds and report it all to the local police, which may bring them out for a few days of ticketing- but be aware, in my state, you have to be going at least 10mph over the speed limit to warrent being pulled over.
The cops I spoke to rolled their eyes when I asked about issuing warnings.
They like using the radar signs and thought my concerned moms driving the school zone as "pace car" idea might end up making more people angry, than teaching them a lesson about obeying the speed limit.

Pace cars as "traffic tamers" are cars that pledge to drive the speed limit. They sport bumper stickers that say, "Would you rather I were a speed bump?" And "Honk if you want me to go slower." I think it's kind of cute, especially if the driver is a Granny with her hearing aid turned low.
So what's the solution?
Do we need to pay expensive traffic tickets to slow us down? Hear the sad story of an crash due to unsafe speed? See the obituary in the paper of a child killed when crossing the street?

There are so many distractions in the world. Maybe when you're in your car, you can eliminate a few and keep your eyes on the road and your speedometer.
Try this:
Don't eat while driving.
Don't text while driving.
Answer calls only if you are operating a hands free mobile phone.
Turn your music down.
and Think.

Just think.