Setting Tyler school speed zones: City Council approves Phase 1 of new traffic plans

TYLER — The City Council approved updating and establishing new school speeding zones to help ease traffic congestion in our community while also keeping students safe, according to our news partner KETK. The number one reason for the use of school zones is for the safety of all students. “It’s been quite a while since we have made these updates. Cameron Williams, the Traffic Engineer, has really implemented this project to kind of catch up on things we have kind of let go for a number of years,” said Mayor Don Warren. According to the Traffic Engineer, Cameron Williams, the lower the speed limit is set to, the lower the chances are of fatal accidents occurring. “This is kind of just the first phase of looking at some of our school zones and working with TISD to clean up some of our areas, add a few new school zones, and the main thing is we don’t want motorists driving through a school zone and saying why is this even here! So, we are going to be able to remove a few of those that were associated with older schools that are no longer in operation,” said Williams.

This change will allow for schools like Andy Wood Elementary, Bell Elementary, and Tyler Legacy High School to receive updated speed zones. When driving around school zones, it is important to remember to always drive slowly and carefully to keep students and parents safe but to also keep yourself safe as these changes around the City start to take place. “We want parents to pay attention to those when they are crossing their kids but also when they are driving and for everybody else that everyone gets to and from school and home safely every day,” said Williams.

Updates will include new signage to improve safety as well as new crosswalks for pedestrians. “We care about your kids and like I said before, I have grandkids. We love our kids and grandkids and let’s keep them safe,” said Mayor Warren. This is all in an effort to improve traffic around the City of Tyler. The school speeding zone changes can be expected to start taking place immediately.