New School Zone Sign to be Installed at Deer Park Elementary
The sign will go up next month. At least one parent says it's not enough.
The last school bell may have rung, but Hillsborough County Public Works is already gearing up for next school year.
Next month a new school zone sign will be installed in front of Deer Park Elementary School along Citrus Park Drive, denoting the 20-mph zone, confirmed Steve Valdez, spokesman for the county's public works department.
The sign will be placed so that motorists exiting the school will be reminded of the slow speed.
It's bittersweet news to parents like Ellen Faingold, who expressed her concerns about safety along the roads surrounding the school. After sending an email to county officials about several safety issues, she had hoped the county would heed the concerns by installing a flashing light school zone sign for motorists exiting the school.
"Ever since our school was built, there has only been a proper school zone with signs and flashing lights entering the school zone," Faingold said.
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But for motorists exiting the school, there was no sign reminding them to maintain a slower speed limit.
"So people just speed like crazy after drop off," Faingold said. "It is ridiculous."
Faingold sent Hillsborough County officials an email outlining her concerns about the sign, in addition to the need for a longer left-turn light at Citrus Park Drive and Countryway Boulevard, and speeding at the intersection of Countryway Boulevard and Oaksbury Drive.
Her letter resulted in the county programming a longer wait time for the left-turn lane at Citrus Park Drive onto Countryway Boulevard.
"It has been awesome in the mornings," Faingold said about the longer turn signal.
The decision to install a non-flashing light sign is a disappointment, Faingold said.
"I think it is only right that a flashing sign be assigned to our school zone," said Faingold, noting that Citrus Park, Westchase, Bryant and Lowry elementary schools have flashing light signs for motorists entering and exiting the schools.
Valdez said county officials studied the area carefully to determine the best traffic calming measures.
"It probably wasn't necessary to put in flashing lights," Valdez said, noting the school sits on a dead-end street. "It's not like there's going to be cars zooming past."
The sign is expected to be installed next month, Valdez said.
Do you think the sign is enough? Let us know in the comments section.
CMS
8:19 am on Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Ironic that the parents are concerned about their children's safety yet drive on that stretch of Citrus Park Drive well over 40 mph.
HLL
11:40 am on Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Clearly not every one of us drive Citrus Park at speeds > 40 mph. Many of us - parents of DP students - continue to be frustrated by other driver's behavior.
Nick
2:16 pm on Thursday, June 28, 2012
LOL this is classic Westchase hypocrisy at its finest.,...the only idiots who appear to speed down Citrus Park Drive are the "soccer moms" in SUVS dropping their kids off at said school.
CMS
5:26 pm on Tuesday, June 12, 2012
While I do not have children that attend school, the speed of the DP traffic on Citrus Park is alarming in the morning. For those trying to cross this to get out of the side streets is quite a feat. Perhaps the cheap solution is to start the school zone at the entrance to Countryway and bring it all the way back to the school. Any students walking would be safer and quite frankly, the students being dropped off in cars would be safer:-)
Matt Robertson
4:22 pm on Wednesday, June 13, 2012
I dropped of my daughter there the last 3 years and can say that if some parents are running late they speed like anything to the school to avoid having to sign their kids in late, and once some of them drop off their kids they zoom out of there at 40+ mph. They also never stop at the stop sign exiting the drop off at Deer Park despite kids bicycling across that lane to school.