Seeking to Refocus on Traffic at Schools

Worried by continued traffic chaos near schools, Los Angeles transportation officials are studying a proposal to videotape violators and ticket them by mail.

Parking enforcement officers with video cameras would be dispatched to campuses that have generated complaints from neighbors, school officials or parents.

Motorists captured on video impeding traffic, double parking or leaving a car unattended could get a ticket in the mail ranging from $35 to $130 or more.

Private campuses as well as public schools could be subject to the enforcement measures.

Department of Transportation officials are consulting the city attorney’s office and checking to see how the proposal would mesh with current ticketing procedures.

“It would be a way to spread resources, which are thin, and hopefully produce a much higher behavior modification rate,” said city parking administrator Michael Inouye.

Los Angeles Police Officer Clark Baker, who pitched the idea to Inouye after receiving many complaints from residents and school officials, says he sees problems every day.

Take a recent morning, as Baker stood across the street from Woodlake Elementary School in Woodland Hills. A woman left her light-blue car running as she grabbed the hand of a little boy and dashed across the street without looking. A truck slammed on its brakes in time to avoid them.

That afternoon, a few miles east in Van Nuys, typical chaos ensued as dozens of parents converged on Chandler Elementary School. As they waited to pick up their children, some blocked driveways or double-parked. Others waved their children into the jammed street.

Baker said ticketing by mail would allow the unarmed parking officers to cite violators without the risk of being accosted by angry parents. Baker, a uniformed officer who carries a gun, recalls having been verbally attacked by angry parents who were in a hurry.

“For those people concerned about the Orwellian aspects of Big Brother and a camera taping their violations, I personally believe child safety outweighs any negative impact video enforcement might produce,” Baker said.

Councilwoman Laura Chick said every school in her west San Fernando Valley district has a traffic safety problem, and it’s clear that a lot of them are caused by parents.

“This program could be extremely helpful,” said Chick, who has invited Baker to discuss his idea with principals and presidents of parent-teacher groups from more than 50 schools. “We’ve learned citywide that enforcement is the most effective way to get people to change their ways. It’s painful to have to pay a fine.”

Observers say the lack of traffic etiquette around schools has been triggered by a number of factors, including growing enrollment, parents’ heightened concerns over crime, a proliferation of two-income households and a 30% increase in traffic in the Los Angeles area over the last six years.

As a result, not only are more parents choosing to drive their children to school rather than let them walk or take the bus, but the parents are busier than ever, as are city streets.

“Society has changed . . . people are always in a hurry now,” said Chandler Principal Barbara Thibodeau, who supports the proposal. “Parents are rushing from work to get their kids. In a way it’s kind of sad.”

It can also be dangerous.

Baker said no statistics are available on the number of accidents in school zones, but an abundance of anecdotal evidence suggests that a problem exists. Last year at Chandler, a 9-year-old and a crossing guard were seriously injured in separate hit-and-run accidents.

Last month, a school crossing guard at Shenandoah Street School in West Los Angeles was hit by a car after pushing a 7-year-old boy out of its path. The guard suffered a broken leg and hip, pelvic injuries and a severed thumb. In November, Grant High School student Inna Marutyan was killed when she was struck while crossing Oxnard Street in Van Nuys by a vehicle driven by another teenager.

For every accident there are hundreds of near-accidents, parents say. At Woodlake Elementary, about 10 parents have volunteered to help children quickly get in and out of cars in an effort to keep traffic moving smoothly and safely.

Woodlake parent Mickey Hill said she organized the program about three months ago after her car was sideswiped in front of the school by a grandfather dropping off a student. She ordered cones and vests and made signs to remind parents that streets bordering the school are no-parking zones and U-turns aren’t allowed. The program was modeled after one at Welby Way Elementary in Canoga Park.

“Most parents are grateful, but there are ones out there who have made it clear that they are only concerned about themselves,” said Hill, who volunteers almost daily, along with her husband and father.

Volunteer Linda Knolle, whose son Ian is a first-grader at Woodlake, recounted a recent episode in which a parent refused Knolle’s request to pull her car forward in the drop-off area, and later told the principal that Knolle had called her a “bitch.” When the principal asked Knolle whether the woman’s claim was true, the accuser quickly changed her story and said that Knolle had “said it with her eyes.”

Knolle and others say they embrace the idea of videotaping violators.

“It’s like chicken soup,” said Nancy Kaneshiro, another Woodlake volunteer. “There’s a chance it may not help, but it certainly won’t hurt.”

The ticketing proposal is based on a program in Simi Valley, which had similar problems around its schools. That is, it did until Simi Valley Police Sgt. Jeff Malgren sat in front of Valley View Middle School in November with a video camera inside his marked police car.

“It really opened my eyes as to what was going on out there,” Malgren said. Rather than slow traffic even more by ticketing violators on the spot, Malgren said he sent 38 citations by mail. The program has since been modified to use audiocassette recorders instead of video cameras.

Now, officers simply record information on audiotape as they see violations and have issued about 200 tickets this way, Malgren said.

“There seems to be a lot of compliance after we’ve targeted an area,” he said.

Baker said he favors the use of cameras over audiotape recorders because video provides “indisputable evidence.” He said some principals have already begun sending children home with fliers alerting parents to the ticketing proposal.

Eventually, Inouye said, he envisions as many as 10 enforcement teams targeting problem schools throughout the city. He added that the ticketing technique has the potential for use in other busy traffic zones and as an enforcement tool in street cleaning.

Transportation officials have made other efforts to beef up security around schools. In addition to plans to outfit Los Angeles’ more than 340 crossing guards in white uniforms to increase their visibility, Inouye has been trying to garner corporate support for the crossing guard program.

He wants to establish a trust fund to pay for additional crossing guard locations. Sponsors could put up their logos near the new locations, as in the freeway cleanup program.