The city will stop enforcing school zone speed limits on Friday as most schools in the city wrap up their school years, city spokesman John Lawson confirmed. 

The city’s school zone cameras, which enforce 20 m.p.h. speed limits for two hours each morning and evening on weekdays during the school year, will cease ticketing for the lower speed threshold — though they may continue to issue tickets for the associated street’s normal speed limit. 

The lights — and their infamously inconsistent functionality — have long been a source of frustration in the city. The Lens first conducted a survey of the lights in 2015 and found fewer than half were functioning properly. In 2017, we found more than 80 percent were working properly.

Another variable in New Orleans is the city’s decentralized school system — where all charter schools operate on independent calendars. School zone speed limits can technically only be enforced on days the associated school is in session. But — even though the city’s lights can be programmed individually on unique calendars — the city uses the district central calendar for enforcement. That results in a uniform stop to enforcement on Friday.

In March, the city council passed an ordinance requiring that school zone lights work in order to ticket drivers. It’s unclear how that has played out as not all school zone cameras capture the associated school zone light. 

In 2019, the administration lowered the threshold to issue tickets from 26 miles per hour to 24 without publicly announcing the change first.