Pedestrian Safety near Huff School

Along with others, I attended and spoke at the City Council Study Session on Tuesday in an effort to help secure prioritization and (hopefully) funding for the Martens/Grant/Phyllis intersection proposal. Together, we reminded the committee of the crossing guard accident last year, provided findings from our research (over 200 cars dropping off kids daily), shared personal stories of close calls / minor accidents, and showed recent photographs (faces blurred) of dangerous driver/pedestrian situations (including cars blocking cross walks, kids / parents jaywalking with oncoming traffic, illegal u-turns, cars stopping in the middle of the road to unload children, cars driving on the wrong side of the road, cars creating 3 lanes where only 1 exists, and streams of children walking on non-sidewalk side of the street).  While this was just a preliminary meeting, a majority of the City Council members acknowledged the safety issues and appeared supportive of the project.  The council is expected to discuss again May 20 and vote on June 10 (subject to change).

Our neighborhood committee is working with Safe Moves, school administration and Public Works to make additional improvements.  So far, we successfully extended the red zones on either side of the school entrance/exit to allow greater visibility.  As Craig Goldman highlighted in the PTA meeting this morning, we are also trying to educate parents & children to always walk on sidewalks v. in the street, and to encourage less driving through organized walking groups (which is only possible if parents feel children are out of harms way).  Stay tune for more information.