As Charlottesville and Albemarle County students head back to their first full week of school, local police are working to improve safety by monitoring and fining drivers who are speeding in school zones or passing stopped school buses.
The Albemarle County Police Department (ACPD) intends “to ticket anyone that’s 10 miles an hour or [more] over the speed limit,” said Jamie Gellner, director of transportation for Albemarle County Public Schools.
The ACPD began issuing warnings Aug. 13 to anyone found to be speeding in school zones during school hours on the section of Route 250 known as the Rockfish Gap Turnpike near Crozet. After Sept. 15, however, they will be fined up to $100.
“We’ve got a lot of students who walk to school, and it can get just really busy, so making sure that people are going the speed limit is super helpful,” said Gellner. “It really makes it a lot safer for kids as they’re walking to and from school.”
Logan Bogert, public information officer for the ACPD, said that the department previously conducted a study of school zone areas where speeding had been reported in the county. The ACPD’s findings resulted in the installation of cameras on Lambs Lane.
“Last year, the 2024-2025 school year, was our first time utilizing school zone speed cameras,” said Bogert. “We launched them at the Lambs Lane campus, which impacts Albemarle High School, Journey Middle School and Greer Elementary School. After last school year, we saw a 49% decrease [in speeding] on the northbound side and 42% on the southbound side. So for us, we saw how this could improve safety and speeding in our school zones. So we did another speeding study.”
The second study led ACPD to install cameras on the Rockfish Gap Turnpike, as it is also a high-speed zone, according to Bogert.
Data provided to Charlottesville Tomorrow by the ACPD said that on Dec. 11 and 12, 2024, an estimated 4,043 vehicles traveled eastbound on Rockfish Gap Turnpike during “flashing light” hours, which are during school drop-off and pick up times. An estimated 428 motorists were traveling 10 mph or more over the speed limit.
The ACPD said that around 4,016 vehicles traveled westbound during “flashing light” hours, with 88 motorists found to have been traveling above the speed limit.
Virginia law dictates that the maximum speed limit around a school zone is 25 mph. Many school zones have posted speed limits of 15 mph at specific times, indicated by flashing lights.
The law also says that any vehicle, regardless of what direction it is heading, must come to a complete stop when a school bus has its stop arm extended with its red lights on.
“You’re only allowed to pass a stopped school bus if there’s a concrete barrier in between you and the bus, which makes it a highway or something like that,” said Gellner.
One of Gellner’s staff members said they had over 31 drivers pass their school bus, despite having their stop sign extended and red lights on.
With the assistance of traffic safety software company Altumint, the ACPD will be able to review footage of any vehicle passing a school bus or speeding in school zones.
Each school bus camera feed will go to Altumint, which, according to its website, uses artificial intelligence to “capture data on vehicles and people who break the law.” The company will then send this footage to the ACPD to confirm that it is indeed a traffic violation. If it is, the ACPD will then issue a citation.
The same process will happen for the traffic cameras.
Currently, there are only two buses for the county equipped with cameras, but Gellner is hoping to have cameras installed on at least 10 buses by the end of the year.
“We’re hoping that this extra measure will be another deterrent for drivers,” Gellner said. “Just to remind them that they need to be safe, especially around the times that kids are going to and from school.”
In Charlottesville, the city installed six new cameras in three different school zones to deter speeding.
Amanda Korman, community relations coordinator for Charlottesville City Schools, said that two cameras were installed on Cherry Ave. near Charlottesville Middle School, and an additional two cameras were installed on Cherry Ave. near Tall Oaks Elementary school. The city also installed two speed cameras on Monticello Ave. near Summit Elementary School.
The cameras are part of an effort to “protect students from reckless drivers,” as they make their way to and from school, according to the Charlottesville Police Department website.
And much like in Albemarle County, the enforcement times will be during school drop-off and pick up times.
“The city developed this program in response to persistent safety concerns at those locations,” Korman said via email about the camera installations.
Editor’s note: This article was updated on Aug. 25, 2025, to clarify Virginia state law regarding school zone speed limits.
