ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One Orange County viewer is confused as to where school zones should be placed.
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A.J. Williams says the school zones near her house are not close to the schools themselves along Goldenrod Road, south of Curry Ford Road.
She wants to know what is going on there and Orange County's rules behind when and where school zones are placed. And when we took at a map, we could not see any schools immediately nearby either.
When we visited the area for ourselves, we spoke with a man named Taylor Gregory waiting at a bus stop right in front of the school zone in question off of Goldenrod Road.
"This road is very busy and it's known for people driving fast," he said.
And he says although the traffic moves quick, certain times of day are slower than others.
"Especially in the morning with the buses and everything," he continued.
However, it is not the only time of day when things can get hectic.
"Then in the afternoon like around 4 o'clock, the end of school day and all that. It's always busy. Traffic usually gets busy around 3, 4 o'clock," Gregory said.
We asked about five different people who live in the area if they could tell us what school this school zone is for.
Not one of them could name the correct school.
We reached out to Orange County and discovered the school that it is actually for is Pinar Elementary School.
An interesting note? It is a school that you actually cannot even access from Goldenrod Road.
Orange County officials told me that they follow criteria in evaluating a school crossing the includes the speed limit of the road, the number of children crossing, available gaps in traffic to cross, and crossing distance to name a few.
I talked with people that cited the apartment complex on the west side of Goldenrod Road as harboring lots of children that go back and forth across the street to get picked up by buses there.
The amount of children who cross on a daily basis during times before and after school seems to be the reason why there is a school zone in the first place.
As for Gregory, crossing the street is certainly not his favorite activity.
"As long as I can see the traffic and it's clear. But for the most part, it's pretty sketchy," he warned.
County officials told me that they follow Florida Department of Transportation guidelines for the placement of school zone-related traffic control devices.
The county receives requests on a regular basis for new school zones and they apply the same warrant criteria to each location to decide where a school zone is warranted.
Thanks for the question! And if you at home have a traffic question or problem that you want looked at or solved, head to mynews13.com/trafficinbox and fill out the simple form.