If you’re driving near a school in Tempe today, slow down.
It's the first day of school and Tempe police Sgt. Tim Bulson said his department is using a grant from the governor to help keep children safe by ramping up patrols around schools, kindergarten through 12th grade.
"We’re going to be looking for violations, definitely like speeding in the school zones, failure to stop at stop signs, failure to stop at crosswalks when pedestrians are utilizing that," Bulson said.
He said that most of the citations issued by his department will probably be speed-related, but they’ll also be trying to educate parents about other common violations like parking in bike lanes.
"A lot of it comes down to patience and, you know, thinking about where you’re parking and what you might be doing and causing," he said. "As far as children having to go out into the streets, as opposed to being able to ride in the bicycle lanes."
Traffic tends to calm down after the first week of classes, he said, but Tempe will get another burst of heavy, school-related traffic soon. Arizona State University starts classes Aug. 20.
