RICHMOND, Va. — The speed limit in front of Linwood Holton Elementary School is 25 miles per hour at drop-off and dismissal.
But Tara FitzPatrick says it’s not unusual to see drivers doing twice that. And she has the receipts to prove it.
“So he officially hit the school zone doing 50 miles an hour through a crosswalk,” FitzPatrick says, pointing her radar gun at a gray Chevrolet SUV flying by in the left lane.
This is one of two schools in Richmond where the city has installed new enforcement cameras to catch speeders. FitzPatrick has two children at the school. She’s also a traffic safety advocate for the nonprofit Greater Richmond Fit4Kids , which is why she owns a radar gun.
Still, FitzPatrick has mixed feelings about the speed cameras. She’d rather see the whole street redesigned to discourage speeding and protect pedestrians and bicyclists. But she also knows that won’t happen anytime soon.