BUFFALO, N.Y. (WKBW) — The City of Buffalo Parking Department said data shows the school zone safety program is successful.
“You can see people are definitely slowing down,” said Kevin Helfer, the parking commissioner.
Data from 14 different cameras placed around 9 schools shows more drivers are obeying school speed limits. At the end of January only 5% of drivers traveled 15 miles per hour in school zones. By February, that number increased to 33%.
“Basically, in a one month period people were complying more than six times, 600% more,” Helfer said.
The highest violation rate comes from a camera that picks up the lowest amount of traffic. 56% of drivers didn't follow the school zone speed limit when passing the Eve School on Kensington.
“That means we must do more education around that school,” said Helfer.
The Westminster School camera on Bailey showed the lowest violation rate of just 10%.
“That just shows with good signage [and] good education the compliance really went through the roof there,” Helfer said
At the beginning of March, after a two-month warning period, cameras went live on Delaware Avenue outside Canisius High School and on Jefferson outside Makowski Early Childhood Center.
Once live, the cameras collected data that shows there was more than a 70% decrease in speeding cars compared to the beginning of February.
“As time goes on, I will guarantee, as you know this program is suspended now as school is out, but every week we just saw positives and that would continue on I think,” Helfer said.
