In the coming weeks, students and parents may see drones flying over their Carson City Schools. It's part of a project to improve safety in Carson City.
"The city has funded the 2019 Bicycle and Pedestrian School Safety Review Studies," said Lucia Maloney, Transportation Manager for the Carson City Department of Public Works. "This is a $150,000 project where we are looking at the infrastructure around each of our eight elementary and middle schools in Carson City. We're looking at how children get from their homes to school and safety improvements that we need to make, whether it's additional lighting, signage, location of crossing guards, sidewalks, ramps all kinds of things."
The drones will be flying above the six elementary schools and two middle schools during drop off and pickup times. The results will be incorporated into a master plan.
"The project should last about a year and during that time we'll study each of the eight middle and elementary schools in Carson City and develop a list of infrastructure improvements and educational opportunities to improve the safety of getting kids and their families to school," Maloney said. "At the end, we'll develop a master plan with a prioritized list of infrastructure improvements that will help make walking and biking to school safer, and we'll use that list to take a comprehensive view and hopefully spend that money smarter to improve the infrastructure around our community."
The goal is to encourage more students to walk and bike to school.
