It's not just Speed Enforcement, it's a paradigm shift towards a Safer Community.

$500,000 Grant Announcement Today?

If you have followed this site for any time you know that speeding drivers, especially near residential communties is one of the quality of life and public safety issues that I am pushing to improve.

Last week a middle school student was hit by a car on Chamblee Dunwoody whereby the boy needed brain surgery to save his life and his leg was broken in 36 places requiring many additional hours of surgery. This week I have had conversations with four parents from the area of the incident that want more done regarding the problem of speeding since they are extremely worried for their children's safety.

They want more speed enforcement, improved crosswalks, additional traffic lights, radar signs and one resident even mentioned that she wanted video cameras on school buses to levy tickets against drivers who routinely go around stopped school buses with the STOP sign out. With school soon to be let out we know that the volume of traffic goes down but the average speed then goes up and it is no longer a concern of allowing your child to walk to school but now a concern that your child can not safety drive his bike to the neighborhood swimming pool.

I believe that we as a City are doing everything we can with the resources available but to at least one person I talked to, we are not moving fast enough to change the mindset of the drivers. The real issue is that there are no easy solutions and nothing can be done over night to assure the safety of our residents, but trust me; we are seriously working on it from several angles.

Later today I am anticipating an announcement from GDOT regarding our application for the $500,000 Safe Routes to Schools Grant to improve pedestrian safety and we are keeping our fingers crossed for positive news. No matter the final outcome, I am proud of the package that the newly formed City put togetharer with a group of dedicated parents representing every Dunwoody public school, along with assistance from the DeKalb County School System we submitted for our first official grant application. Long term safety improvements will come from the citywide analysis conducted by the team and I look forward to seeing the capital improvement requests that the Dunwoody School Cluster (through the DCPC) will be putting forth to improve walking conditions for all students in the community.

The City just completed a successful demonstration project on fixed radar speed limit signs and now the Council needs to determine the feasibility of obtaining these devices, their placement and finally their funding. The long term safety effects of these devices have been proven and now we just need to find a way implement. Besides the fixed sign research that the city has been conducting, the Dunwoody Police Department has purchased and deployed a new speed trailer to also combat neighborhood speeding.

Finally we all know that change happens slow and there will be some who will fight the process, complain of the enforcement even when they are admittedly guilty by their own account of the facts. I saw one such complaint this week regarding a speeding ticket where the person admitted that he was going 25 mph over the speed limit on Womack (doing 60 in a 35) but thought the fine of $400.00 was too high a penalty.

Guess what, the fine wasn't too high as the Judge sets the fine level based on the fine structure approved by the City Council, which was based off of comparisons with other communities. What really happened was that the driver wasn't aware of the paradigm shift, the new reality that Dunwoody is a city where the rules and laws are to be obeyed.

For some, change happens too slow and for others the change happens faster then they drive.