The
City of Sturgeon Bay recently installed and put into operation two pole mounted
radar speed boards. The speed boards
were purchased through the Safe Routes to School Grant to be placed in school
zone areas to alert motorists to pedestrian and bicycle traffic.
The
first speed board is located in the 1500 block of Michigan Street for westbound
traffic that approaches the intersection of Michigan St @ S 15th
Ave. This intersection is heavily used
by students walking to and from Sunrise Elementary School and T.J. Walker
Middle School and is the only location where the city has a school crossing guard
stationed.
The
second speed board is located at the intersection of Maple St @ N Geneva Ave
for westbound traffic. This area of
Maple St is used by students walking and riding bicycles to and from St. John
Bosco School.
Each
speed board has an amber flashing light and a school zone sign stating the “SPEED
LIMIT 15 WHEN FLASHING.” The 15 mph
speed limit is only applicable when the amber light is flashing. A timer system will be utilized to program
the light to flash approximately one hour during the time school begins and
another hour when school is dismissing.
Other
features the system provides includes:
- If
a vehicle is traveling too fast, the word “slow” will display in red letters.
- To
prevent drivers from seeing how fast they can go, the system is programmed to
not provide any speed reading once a designated speed limit is reached.
- The
radar in use is a single-directional radar gun that will only pick up vehicles
moving towards the radar gun and not traffic moving away.
- LED
technology is used for the speed display board and the amber flashing light.
A
secondary benefit of the radar speed displays is that they will be operational
24/7 and will help slow down speeding vehicles during non-school hours. Michigan St and Maple St are used extensively
by local and tourist traffic and the radar speed displays is another valuable
tool that can help us keep our streets safe.
The
pole mounted radar speed displays were purchased through TAPCO of Brown Deer,
WI, and utilizes the radar display and software of RU2-Systems. This is the same system the police department
utilizes in their portable radar speed display trailer.
The
Sturgeon Bay Police Department would like to acknowledge and thank the Sturgeon
Bay Street Department for installing the speed boards, and Sturgeon Bay
Utilities and Gordon Electric for handling the wiring and electrical set up of
the speed boards.
