Blah, blah, blah, Jamba Juice, blah blah …. school has started!

San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed welcomed kids and parents back to school today by accepting a [$790,000] check from Caltrans to purchase 3,600 new safety signs. …

The check is for the purchase and installation of the lime green school safety signs that will be placed near 250 of the city’s schools, Helmer said. The signs will say “25 MPH” and indicate school zone crosswalks.

The signs may not be up in time, but at least the money arrived for additional school zone safety signs across San Jose. There’s no indication whether any of WG’s local schools will get the signs, but WGx wishes we didn’t really need them. It’s a school zone … slow down!

The announcement also came with a warning from [SJ Police Chief Rob] Davis, who cautioned motorists, especially parents, to drive safely in school zones.

“Parents sometimes are the offenders,” Davis said. “Sometimes we are our own worst enemy.” …

“We look for people passing school buses with flashing red lights,” Davis said. Speeders, car-seat violators, kids on bikes without helmets and people without seat belts will also be targeted, he said.

So the signs will be lime-green, in an attempt to provide more visually striking warnings that might actually be heeded. It’s in a similar vein to the roadway pedestrian signs and crosswalk countdowns that have already been added to make people pay attention to basic, common sense safety rules.

We’ll see if any of this works, but WGx suspects this visual escalation will continue until people really wake up and simply decide to drive more safely. We’ll see.