The D.C. Council today will consider legislation directing District transportation experts to install traffic-calming measures around every public school and recreation center in the city — some 240 properties.
“We have to do something to start regulating traffic around school zones,” said Ward 5 Council Member Harry Thomas, who introduced the emergency resolution that his colleagues will consider during their legislative meeting. “In many cases, we only have flashing lights you can barely see.”
The resolution orders the D.C. Department of Transportation to “study and implement traffic calming measures on streets directly surrounding all public schools and recreation centers.”
That could mean moving school zone lights to the middle of the street so they’re more easily seen, installing physical obstacles such as speed humps or painting brighter crosswalks, the council member said.
Six-year-old Crysta Spencer was struck and killed in late April as she crossed Sixth Street Northeast, a couple blocks from J.O. Wilson Elementary School. The incident, one of 20 pedestrian fatalities in the District this year, was featured on the television program America’s Most Wanted.
Ward 6 Council Member Tommy Wells, who immediately called for the installation of a stop sign on Sixth Street after Crysta’s death, said he will support Thomas’ resolution, but then perhaps take it further. Wells co-chairs the local arm of the $5 million “Safe Routes to School” effort.
“I’m not focused just on schools, but also where we have parks and residential neighborhoods where commuters are accelerating in and out of the city,” Wells said.
Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham, who has oversight of DDOT, said Thomas’ objectives are “laudable.” Graham said he has questions about the measure that he’d like answered before it comes to the dais, though he declined to elaborate.
