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Council adopts objective policy goals for crossing-guard program, prioritizes engineering fixes
Summary
The council unanimously approved nine policy goals to professionalize the crossing-guard program, prioritizing engineering solutions and an annual, staff-led review that will keep one school-linked crossing guard at each designated site and evaluate eight citywide locations.
The Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously to adopt subcommittee-recommended policy goals and objectives to guide administration of the city's crossing-guard program.
Jane Chung of the city manager's office summarized the subcommittee's recommendations, telling the council the May decision reduced staffed crossing-guard locations from 27 to 18 and that the new goals prioritize permanent engineering fixes and a professional, data-driven annual review. "The decision was very much driven by the focus of equity, objectivity, and sustainability of that program," Chung said.
Under the adopted framework, staff will maintain one crossing guard at each of 10 school-tethered locations and continue to evaluate eight at-large sites for value and necessity. The program will collect multimodal traffic data and safety metrics and present recommendations each year to the Public Works Safety and Sustainability Commission; if the commission concurs, changes will be implemented the following school year.
Councilmembers praised the move away from ad hoc placements toward objective criteria. "It turns it into more objective process that has guardrails," Mayor Light said during deliberations, noting the value of depoliticizing placement decisions.
Several residents urged reassessment of specific intersections. A Jefferson parent and other speakers asked staff to re-evaluate Ford and Aviation and the Morgan & Harkness area for sight-line and e-bike problems. Transportation staff said they will fold accident history and observed multimodal behavior into the annual review process and work with RBUSD about site placement and sidewalk/mesh issues raised by the public.
Councilmember Barron moved to approve the subcommittee recommendations; the motion passed unanimously. Staff said it will continue communications with the school district, publish an objective annual review, and monitor the effectiveness of engineering treatments introduced this summer.
Next steps include collecting the full set of evaluation data this fall, presenting findings to the commission in June/July of the following year, and implementing changes in the subsequent school year as warranted.
What this means for neighborhoods: the city will rely more on traffic-engineering fixes and a predictable review cycle to decide where crossing guards remain or are relocated, rather than making placement decisions primarily in election or political cycles.
