DENVER (KDVR) — Summer is over for some districts and school is back in session. The default speed limit in Denver changed from 25 to 20 mph earlier this year, and school zones are even slower with twice the fine if you get pulled over.
Most school zone speed limits range from a minimum of 20 mph during school hours, which is usually around 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. While this isn’t much of a change from Denver’s new speed limit, the penalty for breaking the limit is doubled in school zones, which can be easy to do on main roads.
Fines for speeding 1-24 mph over the speed limit vary from $35-$200. However, driving anything over 25 mph has a minimum sentence of 10 days in jail and a maximum sentence of one year. And that’s for non-school zone areas.
Going 25 mph over the speed limit in a school zone seems impossible, but there are almost 200 public schools in Denver, and many of them are on main roads.
Safety tips
The Colorado Department of Transportation shared some school zone safety tips with FOX31:
- Look out for people, including children, walking and biking
- Slow down, particularly around schools
- Watch for school zones and adjust your speed accordingly. Enforcement of the school zone could result in a citation that is doubled due to it being an enhanced safety zone.
- Be mindful of no parking areas, pedestrian ramps, or crosswalks, and do not block them.
Denver Public Schools starts on Aug. 21. Others are already in session, like schools in Douglas County.
Check for flashing school zone signs on the road, but as a baseline, drive cautiously at 20 mph, which is the legal speed limit across residential Denver.
