The Sunnyvale City Council is reminding motorists near Lakewood Elementary School of safety first when driving through school zones.
On April 8, the city council voted to establish a new speed limit of 15 miles per hour around the school.
The decision came at the request of a resident to consider the school zone speed limits on streets adjacent to Lakewood Elementary School, where drivers have reportedly been driving over the 25 mph speed limit.
In response to the request, city staff conducted and completed an engineering study of existing speeds on Lakechime, Meadowlake and Silverlake drives in the morning school hours.
In December 2012, the city council adopted a policy by which establishing a 15 mph school zone could be considered on streets that have documented higher traffic speeds as part of a comprehensive school traffic study.
State law was modified in 2008 to allow local jurisdictions the authority to establish 15 mph speed zones near schools; normally, enforceable speed limits are set according to the California Vehicle Code and California Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices, according to city staff.
If school area streets have an 85 percentile speed greater than 25 mph during school commute times, the establishment of a 15 mph zone is recommended, city staff reported.
Speed surveys taken during the 7-9 a.m. time period on Lakechime, Meadowlake and Silverlake drives showed that the 85 percentile speeds for the three streets are 29.9 mph on Lakechime, 25.2 mph on Meadowlake and 34.1 mph on Silverlake.
Because the speeds did exceed the council’s established threshold, the creation of a 15 mph school zone was recommended by staff, and subsequently approved by the council.
