Speed limit to be lowered near Kaneland High

Driving on Keslinger Road in Maple Park, it's easy to let the needle on the speedometer creep up. There are a lot of farm fields.

But there also is Kaneland High School, which has several driveways off Keslinger and, of course, a plethora of teen drivers.

Kane County wants drivers slowing down sooner when approaching the school at Meredith Road and is proposing lowering the speed limit to 45 mph from 500 feet west of Meredith to 500 feet east of Dauberman Road. The current school-zone speed limit in front of Kaneland will remain 35 mph.

A parent of a student suggested the lower speed limit this summer to the Kane County Board's Transportation Committee Chairman Drew Frasz, Frasz said.

"The assumption is there is a lot of distracted driving going on at the beginning and end of school," Frasz said, and that leads to fender-bender collisions.

The committee approved the change Wednesday. The measure now goes to the executive committee, then to the county board for a final vote.

The county already took other action in the meantime. It installed solar-powered flashing-beacon signs warning of the speed decreases, to supplement regular signs already in place. And it may move some of the warning signs farther east and west, to give drivers more warning time.

Dropping the speed limit will help drivers transition to the school-zone limit, according to a memo from Tom Rickert, the county's deputy director of transportation. Farther to the east and west, the speed limit is 55 mph.