City gets schooling on confusing speed zones

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 29/10/2016 (3491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There seems to be some anger and confusion out there.

That’s not breaking news, of course, but it kind of was Tuesday when I wrote about a series of emails I had received from people upset about the enforcement of reduced-speed school zones on days when kids aren’t in school.

The city’s photo-radar patrols had been out there on Thanksgiving Day snapping away at motorists going over the 30 km/h prescribed in 171 school zones.

They have every lawful, if not logical right to be out there, of course.

The signs clearly state September through June, 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m, Monday through Friday.

And Thanksgiving Day was a Monday.

Yeah, but as I was saying — and all those fined motorists were shouting — the schools were closed, just as they are on Saturdays and Sundays when the lower speed doesn’t apply.

Hence some of the confusion. And anger.

After all, isn’t the speed zone intended to keep kids safe? Or is it more about the cash than the crash?

Oh, and Thanksgiving Day isn’t the only holiday Monday that was a giving day for some motorists and a getting day for the city. So was Labour Day. In fact, they were even out on Sept. 1, when the school year hadn’t even fully started. All of which moved a gentleman of my acquaintance named Andrew Morris to write after reading Tuesday’s column.

“I am sure that your piece about this issue touched many Winnipeggers,” the local cardiologist began. “It was certainly pertinent to me! I received a radar speeding ticket the day after Labour Day at 1600 hours. The school was dark, and the area was deserted. Although it was not a holiday, it was a school holiday. The school staff confirmed it was an administrative day and that there had been no children at the school. My thoughts were those you expressed in your article: is the goal to generate revenue or to protect children? I was suspicious, and I didn’t like my answer.”

So Dr. Morris went online and researched school zone legislation in other Canadian cities.

“I quickly found signage from B.C. The speed limit is in effect on “school days” and not “Monday to Friday. I checked with authorities in B.C. who confirmed that is, indeed, the case.”

Then he contacted the office of his representative on city council, John Orlikow.

“My suggestion was the obvious one — amend the signage and let logic and common sense triumph over the widespread suspicion currently extant in the community.”

When I spoke to Orlikow Thursday, he acknowledged he was looking into what the city might do about the issue. And, by extension, trying to see what he could do about all the confusion and anger.

Actually, there’s more confusion — and contradiction — on display in Orlikow’s area of the city. It’s there where one K-to-8 school on Lindenwoods Drive East — Linden Meadows by name — has a reduced-speed school zone of 30 km/h, yet another one not far down the street — École Van Walleghem — isn’t offered that same protection. The reason; Ecole Van Walleghem is close to Lindenwood Drive, but it doesn’t directly abut that busy residential street, and many of the kids cross with the assistance of a guard and patrols. Oh yes, there’s an adjacent and designated playground, too, with a swing set that is close to the street. The playground is unfenced and unprotected by a lower, 30 km/h speed zone.

It doesn’t make coherent safety sense to me.

Which brings us to the city of Calgary; what it used to do about traffic safety for children and what it does now.

Back as recently as three years ago, that Alberta city had reduced school-zone signs that included the words “on school days.” So if it was Labour Day or Thanksgiving Day, the lower speed limit wouldn’t apply. At that time, Calgary had 180 school zones and 1,500 playgrounds.

Then, on July 22, 2014, Calgary city council did away with that wording and did away with school zones as they were known. Instead, the city combined school zones with playground zones.

Now they’re all designated playground zones, from 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Every day of the year.

Calgary’s stated reasoning: “Having only playground zones,” it helps to provide a clear message to motorists, promote uniform motorist behaviour and increase safety for pedestrians and motorists.”

So now there’s no confusion in Calgary.

Parents are happy because their kids should be safer.

Police are happy because public safety is more clearly served.

And, of course, the city should be happy about all of that, plus all that traffic ticketing “cha-ching” opportunity, 365 days a year.

It’s all so much less confusing, isn’t it?

What’s still a little bit hard to understand is how Calgary figured it out. And Winnipeg still hasn’t.

gordon.sinclair@freepress.mb.ca