Speeding seen more in school zones on Fairchild Street

Aug. 26—DANVILLE — Digital speed signs near schools in the city have shown more drivers going faster than the speed limit on Fairchild Street, near Danville High School and Mark Denman Elementary School, than other locations.

Danville Police Chief Chris Yates shared the speed sign results with Danville City Council aldermen this week.

The Danville District 118 School Board approved purchasing the signs in January due to speeding traffic concerns.

The school district purchased seven digital speed signs for $21,600 from Elan City Radar Speed Signs.

The sign locations: two on Jackson Street near North Ridge Middle School with one facing north and one south; two on Griffin Street near Northeast Elementary Magnet School with one facing north and one south; at Danville High School, one on Jackson Street facing north near the railroad crossing and one sign on Fairchild Street (Kingdom) heading west; and one sign on Fairchild Street near Mark Denman Elementary School, facing west near Bahl Street.

John Hart, assistant superintendent for elementary education, has said the signs are to increase safety for students around the schools. These areas for the signs are the most at need for monitoring.

"There are speeders in the school zones," he's said, adding that they've talked with the police department about ways to make the school zones more visible to slow down traffic. The city installed the signs.

Yates said the radar traffic speed signs are a partnership with the school district and he pulled the first four months of data, April through July.

Yates said they have nothing to compare the numbers to yet, other than what's been seen from time to time and from complaints.

"We do believe that it's made some type of difference," he said.

The data is helping with police department resource allocation.

Yates said more cameras will be purchased with a Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity grant and placed near the other schools. This will include needing Illinois Department of Transportation approval along Illinois 1/Vermilion Street.

The sign results range from about 2 percent to 20 percent non-compliance.

The data also indicated peak time hours of non-compliance, vehicles per hour and total traffic during the time frame.

Yates said for example, they had gotten information where it was believed most people were driving a lot faster in an area, but 91.6 percent were driving the speed limit or less. There was 2 percent non-compliance (going more than 5 miles per hour over the speed limit) at English and James streets near Northeast Elementary Magnet School.

At Griffin and Crystal Drive, near Northeast and Danville Fire Station No. 3, there was 9.5 percent non-compliance.

At Griffin and May, 4.3 percent non-compliance.

At Jackson and Davidson, 3 percent non-compliance.

At Jackson and Prospect, 7.5 percent non-compliance.

There was 20.2 percent non-compliance at Fairchild and Kingdom. Peak time is 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. Max traffic per hour was 474. Total traffic: 374,788, from April through July.

At Fairchild and Bahl, near Mark Denman Elementary School, there was 15.5 percent non-compliance with the speed limit. Peak time was 7 a.m.

Yates said North Ridge Middle School has a lot of students walking to and from home and to Danville High School during track season, that they're monitoring.

"Obviously the Fairchild corridor is our biggest challenge and we're going to continue with that," Yates said.

In other discussions, Yates told the aldermen another Citizens Police Academy will start in September. The free eight-week program allows community members to learn more about the operation of the police department. An application is on the city's website.

The police department also is waiting on construction bids for work at the public works building for the new police community training center. The work could possibly be completed by the end of the year. Renovations also will occur at Friendly Town at Lincoln Park.