Slow Down on Scott Boulevard and Around Decatur, School Starts Monday

This should be an interesting.  As Sgt. Ross reminds us in a post on The Decatur Minute regarding school resumption next Monday, Scott Boulevard school zone speed limits will soon be in effect.

There will be an increased presence of Decatur officers in and around the school zones to remind everyone school is back in session.  Don’t forget that Westchester Elementary is now open with applicable school zones on Scott Boulevard.

The standard school zone speed limit is 25 mph during designated times. Westchester times will be between 7:15a-8:15a and 2:!5p-3:15p.  That’s going to be a jarring change for a lot of commuters who fly through Decatur along that state road each morning along.

Here’s a full rundown of speed zones and a reminder that students will be out and about starting next week, courtesy of an email that Sgt. Ross…

Don’t forget that school starts back up in Decatur next Monday, August 4th .   The lighter summer traffic will give way to more traffic in general to include school buses.  Please keep in mind we will also have many more young cyclists and pedestrians making their way to school.  Please slow down and pay extra attention and plan for a little extra commute time to prevent speeding through the school zones.  There will be an increased presence of Decatur officers in and around the school zones to remind everyone school is back in session.  Don’t forget that Westchester Elementary is now open with a school zone on Scott Boulevard.  Atlanta Public Schools will also start back Monday, August 4th and DeKalb County Schools start back Monday, August 11th.

When traffic is backed up or stopped and your frustration level rises, just sit back and remember the excitement of the first day of school.  Then relax and do your part to make sure everyone gets to where they are going safely.

School Zone Locations & Times Chart (after the jump!)

 

School Zone School Morning Hours Afternoon Hours
E. Ponce de Leon Ave. Glenwood 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
Church St. and Erie Ave. Clairemont 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
Michigan Ave. and Erie Ave. Clairemont 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
Scott Blvd. Westchester 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
W. Ponce de Leon Ave. and W. Trinity Place St. Thomas More 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
W. Howard Ave. (Lansdowne Ave. to Greenwood Cir.) Oakhurst 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
W. Howard Ave. (Greenwood Cir. To N. McDonough St. DHS 7:45-8:45 am 3:15–4:15 pm
Inman Drive and Avery Street Winnona 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
S. Candler St. Winnona/Renfroe 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
S. McDonough St. College Heights 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
Oakview Rd. and 5th Ave. FAVE 7:00-8:00 am 2:30-3:30 pm
Mead Rd. Oakhurst 7:15-8:15 am 2:15–3:15 pm
W. College Ave. Renfroe 7:55-8:55 am 3:25-4:25 pm 

29 thoughts on “Slow Down on Scott Boulevard and Around Decatur, School Starts Monday”


  2. Most days I drive on Scott there are police parked between Clairmont and Coventry clocking folks. I usually pass through between 10 and 10:30 and there’s always one on a side street with a radar gun aimed into traffic.

  4. Why is there still a school zone on W. Howard for Oakhurst? Children on the W. Howard side of the tracks no longer attend Oakhurst.

      1. Don’t think so, and the times are completely different for the two zones anyway. Must be a mistake. Surely we won’t pay to have a crossing guard at the corner of W. Howard and Adair anymore, will we?

        1. Just because the kids on the north side of the tracks aren’t at OAK anymore doesn’t mean a crossing guard isn’t needed there. My 7th grader (and other middle schoolers in our neighborhood) crosses there to go to Renfroe. He also crossed there to bike to FAVE. So I certainly hope there will be a crossing guard there.

      2. Most Lenox Place 3rd graders will finish at Oakhurst. Many kids use this crossing to get to FAVE and Renfroe .

    2. Don’t forget that it took years after the closing of Westchester in 2004 for the school zone and blinking yellow light there to be removed. I actually kind of liked it, thinking that maybe it kept traffic on Scott Blvd. a little more under control. Not to mention that I kept hoping it would make it more likely that Westchester could quickly reopen. Sort of worked.

  6. How dare they impede the god given right to travel at (or above) the stated speed limit. The only speed limit should be determined by the “ponys” under my hood. First the bikes, now CHILDREN (some on bikes)!!

    1. Most speed limits are ridiculous, so they are appropriately ignored. Think of it as our daily mass demonstration of civil disobedience. (For the record I observe the limits in school zones. Otherwise I like to give the 330 ponies under my hood an appropriate workout.)

      2. Disagree in SUCH a big way, not that you will care. Every day, all day, drivers wreck and say “I didn’t see them”, “I lost control”, “They came out of nowhere”. Slow down, look twice, or thrice. The math is not in your favor. On a 10 mile drive, going a speed limit of 40 will take you 15 minutes. Going 50 will only save you 3 minutes, but it takes you nearly 50% longer to come to a stop (roughly 205 feet compared to 142). Now maybe you’re the most efficient and important person on the planet and I don’t know what you will fill those 3 minutes with, but you will never convince me it’s worth it.
        On roads that have direct access to driveways, speeding is just stupid.

        1. Lets be honest , the most Dangerous thing on the roads aren’t people going 10 Mph over , its the huge # of people texting/ phoneing etc and not paying attention to driving, I promise you I can stop a car going 50 MPH over quicker than some texting fool going 10 Mph under !

        2. “but it takes you nearly 50% longer to come to a stop (roughly 205 feet compared to 142).”

          LOL! Did you get those stats from the Winnebago performance specs page at Road & Track? Of course different cars have VERY different braking performance. As it happens, mine goes from 60mph to zero in a shade over 100 feet.

          More fundamentally, your hypothetical 10 mile trip can be done in just 30 minutes at an average speed of 20mph. Are you saying that if the legal limit is 40, you drive that fast and increase the risk of an accident to save yourself a mere 15 minutes? Are you going to cure cancer in that 15 minutes? Why not do 20 everywhere you go, if safety is so paramount?

          The reality is that most of us drive a speed we believe to be reasonably safe under the prevailing circumstances, regardless of the posted limit. Only on DM — the on-line repository of the 20 or so hyper risk-averse people who actually do the speed limit (they swear!) — is this a matter in dispute.

          1. ” mine goes from 60mph to zero in a shade over 100 feet”
            I’m glad I don’t ride with you.

            1. My Silverado will go from 60 to 0 in 158 feet…but much quicker if I hit something.

              1. After doing the kessel run down Scott I can go from light speed to 0 in 3.2 parsecs. It’s going to be a real bear when I finally get ticketed for it.

          2. Good news, everyone. Both sides are correct, because they’re not actually arguing the same topic. In the left corner…. DEM! DEM asserts that “Most speed limits are ridiculous, so they are appropriately ignored.” He’s right. Because of the standards that inform most of our roadways, the “design speed” (that is, the comfortable average speed that the road is designed to facilitate) is vastly different, and typically much higher, than the “posted speed.” Much of Scott Blvd. has long straightaways with lane widths comparable to an interstate highway. Just putting a sign that says you’re supposed to go slower represents a laughable dismissal of observed and documented human behavior.

            In the other corner… Iteral not Literal! Iteral asserts that speed kills and that the ability to respond to hazards is reduced with higher speed. Also correct.

            Until we build roads to foster the level of speed we want, we’ll continue to talk past each other in search of a solution. Scott Blvd is intentionally designed to speed vehicles from in-town out to the ‘burbs. Blame GDOT for that, but that’s its purpose. Meanwhile, we’ve got a school and homes and sidewalks along there and want to walk safely. Those two goals are in conflict and will not be resolved with new signage. It’ll take much more expensive — both financially and politically — efforts.

            1. You are all arguing moot points. Once we built the moat around the city, this issue will be resolved along with all the other problems.

              1. It was an effort at expedience. I foolishly thought DM commenters had other things to get to!

      3. DEM, that ticket you got? Wasn’t it for speeding in the W. Howard school zone?

          1. If you two claim to recall some post I made a long time ago (which even I don’t remember), then kudos on your photographic memories. Or stop on-line stalking me, I’m not sure which applies.

            In any event, ’tis true, about 3 years ago I was ticketed for doing about 10 mph over the limit there (as I recall), because that area changed from school zone, to not a school zone, back to a school zone. Everyone makes mistakes. Since then I have made a special effort to go slow in the entire area when I drive that way, which I usually don’t.

            1. You so silly. You railed about it several times after you got it on up to your court date! Luckily, Judge Carriere managed to knock some sense into you, or no doubt you’d still be complaining. (Well, you do still grouse about it, but not very often and without mentioning what it was for. :0)

              Glad to know you’ve adjusted your heavy footed ways when over there.

              1. Why am I not surprised to find that you speak with such authority on a matter about which you know nothing? Judge Carriere did not preside over my school zone ticket. I appeared before him once about 12 years ago in a completely unrelated event. But go ahead and call the DPD to get a more complete file on these very serious matters. Or continue making stuff up, whichever you prefer.

                1. My mistake for wrongly crediting Judge Carriere– I apologize for it. At the time, it was very interesting after all your carrying on that you never let us know the outcome. When you did mention it sometime later, it was good to read the presiding judge had somehow managed to get through to you– at least on that ticket. While it’s again interesting to see just how pissy you get when folks disrupt you with an inconvenient truth, your comment about me contacting DPD about you is flat out bizarre. Maybe you wouldn’t hesitate to try to use DPD in such a way (which would surely fail), but I sure as hell would never take up DPD’s time with anything petty.

            2. Perhaps you should provide the police photographs of yourself and your 330hp paramour. Explain that it can go from 60 to 0 in one hundred feet. With such special powers you should surely be granted exemption from the rules that everyone else must follow.

  8. DEM, Could you alert us to your vehicle make and color? I’ll alert my children to
    run for cover upon your approach.

Comments are closed.