A More Flexible Slow-Down Period Enacted
Trevor Phipps
For more than 20 years, Woodland Park’s school zones forced drivers to slow down for mjch longer periods than in many other cities.
It used to be that the school zones on Kelly’s Road and Baldwin Street required motorists to reduce their speeds to 20 miles per hour between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on all school days. The normal speed limit is 30 miles per hour.
This represented a much more restrictive policy than slow-down periods used in other towns in the Pikes Peak region.
However, this policy has now permanently changed.
The Woodland Park Police Department recently announced a change regarding its school -related speed limit policies. Now, drivers will only need to slow down for an hour in the mornings and an hour in the afternoons.
Over the years, the long all-day school zones frustrated local drivers who had to use the Kelly’s Road and Baldwin Street (two main throughfares in the city). Slowing down traffic while students were in class inside the building didn’t make sense. Plus, this created unnecessary traffic tie-ups.
Many residents have pointed out that most cities only enact school zone speed limits during the times when children are arriving at school or leaving.
Over the past two decades, many have questioned why the city chose to have slower speed limits on two main roads within the city for the entire day. They noted that wasn’t the case in other jurisdictions. In addition, some motorists got further frustrated when they were pulled over and ticketed for violating school zones in the middle of the day, when children were not present on the roads.
Over the past few years, the complaints about the extra-long school zone times have increased. During at least one Woodland Park City Council meeting, a resident spoke during public comment and asked the council why the school zones were so long.
The council stated they couldn’t respond to his question, and they referred him to speak to Woodland Park Police Chief Chris Deisler.
According to Deisler, ever since he was hired to head the city’s police department in February 2022, he has received complaints from people wondering why the reduced school zone speed limit times were so long. He said that he couldn’t understand why the extended school zone times were set up this way.
After reviewing Woodland Park’s ordinances, the chief realized that city law empowers the staff to make changes to speed limit zones. As a result, the chief and the WP city manager decided to make the necessary change.
Taking Speed Limits More Seriously
Over the past few years, the school zone speed limit signs on Kelly’s Road near Columbine Elementary had yellow flashing lights that sometimes would never turn off.
People commented on social media that they would get nervous driving through the school zones even late at night because the signs would sometimes stay flashing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But now, the signs with the flashing lights have been removed. In fact, Woodland Park’s school zone signs have changed so that they only slow down motorists a half an hour before and after the school day.
The police chief said he had considered making these changes for a long time. “I think the school zones are better tailored this way to actually give the school zone a little bit more teeth and a little bit more seriousness, other than just being a blanket all-day type thing,” Chief Deisler said. “Especially the ones on Kelly’s by Columbine with the flashing lights that are broken half the time and flashing all night. It led to some driver confusion even though most people would reasonably assume that if school is not in, then there wouldn’t be a school zone there. I think it was incumbent upon us to remove that antiquated system that’s not serviceable anymore and not reliable. So, we took those lights off and we made the changes to the times to be a little bit more reflective of the protection of the kids and what the school zones are designed to be.”
The more flexible change in the city’s school slowdown policy will also affect other local educational institutions.
The school zones around Colorado Springs Christian School will now be from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. On Kelly’s Road past Columbine Elementary the school zones will be enacted between 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m.
On Kelly’s and Rampart Range near Merit Academy motorists will now only have to slow down to 20 miles per hour between 7:25 a.m. to 8:25 a.m. and 2:45 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. The new school zone times on Baldwin near the junior and senior high school will now be from 7:45 a.m. to 8:45 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
