A Chatham-Kent councilor is doing her part to make school zones safer in the community.
Carmen McGregor is presenting a motion at Monday night's council meeting that requests the municipality installs a pedestrian activated stop light at a Wallaceburg school crossing, located at the intersection of Murray St. and Reaume Ave.
The crossing, which is used by students of Holy Family School and Wallaceburg Christian School, currently has a pedestrian crossover initiated. McGregor says she's heard from many parents who are concerned about the safety of their children walking to and from school or the bus.
"I've been out there numerous times since school has started and it's a pretty scary situation. There's a lot of traffic violations taking place. I know the police were there last week and issued a lot of tickets. When a number of community members reached out to me, I said I would do something," she says.
McGregor believes the installation of a pedestrian activated stop light will improve the safety of school children at the crossing.
"The lights that they have there, they're off to the side and they flash. If you're quite a distance away, you can see it well. If you get up closer, you don't notice it as well. It's just a lot of traffic confusion going on. It just makes for a real dangerous situation for the little ones going to school," says McGregor. "I think when you change it to an overhead stop that it's more predominant for drivers to see that and stop at the intersection."
As part of the same motion, she also wants the municipality to provide an update on her previous request to initiate a study to implement lower speed limits in school safety zones around Chatham-Kent elementary schools. In addition, she is directing administration to work with the local school boards to increase safety awareness through an information session provided to the staff, students, and parents on the appropriate use of the various school crossovers in the municipality.
McGregor hopes her motion will have a better response from the community and council members than the motion that was approved to lower the speed limit on a section of Hwy. 3 in Port Alma during last week's meeting.
"I think when we're making changes in communities that it's very important to have that community consultation as a part of the deciding factor and not just traffic statistics, like how many cars have gone by that particular area. I think at council maybe we need to learn a little more about how we look at some of the changes so that it doesn't get viewed as a political decision, not based on fact...so I'm hoping this is not viewed in the same manner but people actually consider the safety of the children that are crossing there," explains McGregor.