I would like to jump in on the crossing guard story [“Hands Held High,” Gazette Packet, Feb. 9]. I travel northbound on St. Asaph Street every morning on my way to work. There are two speed humps on the block between Gibbon and Wilkes, and each is painted to alert drivers of their presence, not as crosswalks. What drives me bonkers is when I see parents and their children, or children by themselves, striding across these humps as though they're crosswalks. They're placed approximately one-third of the way along the block from each corner, where the actual crosswalks are.
I've even seen one of those portable crosswalk signs placed in the middle of the one closest to Gibbon Street signalling that it's a crosswalk. It is not a crosswalk, and unfortunately, people are using it as one. The speed limit in that block is 15 mph because of the school, but, as we all well know, not many adhere to speed limits. One morning, a young student bounded out from between parked cars and walked across the speed hump never looking either right or left to see if a car was coming. He assumed he was in a crosswalk and therefore safe to proceed. I wish the crossing guard could alert her charges to only use the designated crosswalks and not the speed humps for crossing the street.
Perhaps the Transportation and Environmental Services Department could devise a way of indicating that the speed humps are not crosswalks and should not be used as such.
Brooke English
Alexandria