Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett pledged Monday to use the first $25,000 from speeding tickets generated by the county’s new speed cameras to pay for pedestrian-safety measures at county schools.
His announcement came during a midday appearance at Stone Mill Elementary School in North Potomac, which could be one of the recipients of the speed-camera revenue.
But the specific destinations for the money won’t be known until October, when Montgomery County Public Schools finds out whether it has received a state grant for pedestrian-safety improvements at 11 schools.
According to county spokeswoman Esther Bowring, officials perform traffic studies for the areas around all county schools on a rotating basis. The schedule for the schools being examined next year will be set in the fall. Leggett said whichever campuses receive speed-camera money will get enough funds for needed improvements discovered through of the traffic studies and that the enhancements will speed up the improvements by at least a year or two.
The speed cameras were put in place around Montgomery County earlier this spring, with the warning period ending at the start of this month. County officials do not have estimates about the amount of revenue the cameras will generate, but said the money must go back into local safety measures.
“I hope that aggressive drivers are getting the message to slow down, so that we never have to have speeding citations,” Leggett said Monday. “But for those that continue to break the law, they’ll be helping us step up initiatives to make our streets safer.”
