Drivers not respecting school zone laws (St. Augustine: closing, live in, legally)

[glass_of_merlot]

My son is in a new school this fall because his old school was on the closing list. Today when I dropped him off I crossed a very busy street. This secure crosswalk had lights and a crossing guard. So the kids and their parents could safety cross. Further down on the same busy street, right outside the school, is another crosswalk. It is clearly marked with bright white lines and it also have a large yellow sign that indicate that it is a cross walk. School crossing even. After I dropped my son off I attempted to cross this " so called crosswalk" . But apparently me and the other parents and children attempting to cross are the only once believing this to be a crosswalk.
Not a single driver attempted to stop. Non! I was half way out in the street and nothing. I had to back up on the sidewalk again in order not to be run over. To make things even worse, nobody cares about the school zone speed limit.
It's all kind of ironic because all this talk about safe passage to school, our kids will be safe bla bla bla, and this maps to direct our kids safety to school, and you can't even provide a secure and safe cross walk right outside the school itself. This is a large school with kids coming from all directions. You have only 1 secure crossing and that particular crossing also have a traffic light. This is the only cross walk you choose to put a school crossing guard! Really!
I have never seen anything like it. Is this a city thing? It seems like everywhere else I lived school zones have always been highly respected. The only cops I see outside the school is the once ticketing people parked illegally.

I'd like to bring this up to someone who can make some changes. Who do I contact?

[myrc60]

contact the school's principal.

[glass_of_merlot]

Ok, I was thinking that but wasn't sure that was the right place to go. Thanks.

[chet everett]

Where are Rahm's cameras? He could be raking in the dough for such flagrant disregard of designated crosswalk.

[Chi-town Native]

Alderman & the Principal.

[Drover]

Many drivers are still completely unaware that they are required to yield the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks (driving straight through on a green light being the exception). Even for those who are aware, pedestrians often don't make their intentions clear. Worse still is that many crosswalks are poorly marked, though I've noticed the city is getting better about clearly marking them.


I've found the only way to get drivers to respect crosswalks and pedestrian right-of-way is to basically play "ghetto chicken" where you just walk right out in traffic and dare them to hit you. Obviously the OP probably wouldn't want to gamble with her kid's safety like that. I've also given a small amount of thought to how to fashion together a portable/collapsable "STOP" sign like crossing guards use, maybe make one like one of those paper fans that opens up 360 degrees, only instead of a dainty floral pattern it opens up to a big red "STOP".

[chet everett]

I have found that you need to be creative.

Do something to break the mold.

Try stuffing a pair of pants with rags and then putting shoes on the ends, tossing that setup in a pram and then heading out into the cross walk. Should get folks to notice, don't you think? --

[glass_of_merlot]

Originally Posted by Drover

Many drivers are still completely unaware that they are required to yield the right of way to pedestrians at crosswalks (driving straight through on a green light being the exception). Even for those who are aware, pedestrians often don't make their intentions clear. Worse still is that many crosswalks are poorly marked, though I've noticed the city is getting better about clearly marking them.


I've found the only way to get drivers to respect crosswalks and pedestrian right-of-way is to basically play "ghetto chicken" where you just walk right out in traffic and dare them to hit you. Obviously the OP probably wouldn't want to gamble with her kid's safety like that. I've also given a small amount of thought to how to fashion together a portable/collapsable "STOP" sign like crossing guards use, maybe make one like one of those paper fans that opens up 360 degrees, only instead of a dainty floral pattern it opens up to a big red "STOP".

Sounds like a great Idea Drover

[Irishtom29]

In the town of St. Augustine Beach the heavily used crosswalks across the heavily used beach road have small red flags available at the crosswalks. You wave the flag to attract attention and thus slow or stop the cars (the cars DO slow as the flags imply official recognition of the pedestrian's right of way) walk across and place the flags in the container provided on the other side. Good idea.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by Irishtom29

In the town of St. Augustine Beach the heavily used crosswalks across the heavily used beach road have small red flags available at the crosswalks. You wave the flag to attract attention and slow or stop the cars (the cars DO slow as the flags imply official recognition of the pedestrian's right of way) walk across and place the flags in the container provided on the other side. Good idea.

A good idea if you live in a city with a civilized population.

They had some of those on Elston at Grace, a pedestrian crossing that sees a lot of use when there's a show at the Abbey. They lasted about 4 to 5 days before the flags were all gone, and maybe about another week before the containers holding the flags were torn off the lamp posts they were mounted to. I'm surprised it took vandals that long to get the containers off.