City eyes changes to school zones with most ticketed speeders

A new motion directs city staff to review school zones with the highest number of speeding tickets and explore design options to slow drivers down in those areas.

The motion calls for staff to report back on potential infrastructure changes to address the issue, such as new signs, raised crosswalks, crosswalk lighting, speed bumps and curb extensions.

“The idea is not to keep ticketing people. The idea is to fix the problem. The ticketing is kind of an indicator where there are probably some structural problems on the road … So, it’s a good (way) to (determine) where we’re going to focus on,” said Coun. John Orlikow, who seconded the city council motion Thursday.

Orlikow (River Heights-Fort Garry) said the 30 km/h speed limit around many schools is not enough to address speeding on its own, so these extra safety measures should be explored.

“They’re deterrents for sure, the tickets … But if it’s still not working, if we’re still giving out too many tickets, then we have to look at the infrastructure (at those sites),” he said.

An advocate calling for the 30 km/h speed limit to be implemented on all residential streets said changing infrastructure to slow down drivers is a good idea.

“I think it is a great start to changing the way that we think about speed enforcement in the city. School zones are an awesome place to start but … we should be using data to tell us where speeding is a problem throughout the city,” said Emma Durand-Wood, a co-founder of Safe Speeds Winnipeg.

For example, she said curb extensions, also known as bump-outs, provide better visibility for pedestrians and reduce their crossing distance, while raised crosswalks cue drivers to slow down.

“Most people aren’t setting out to disobey the speed limit. The biggest factor …. that influences how fast people drive is the design of the street. So, we know that (changing) the design of the street is the most effective way to change how fast people drive.”

Durand-Wood said the city should incorporate safety infrastructure into road renewal projects and devote photo radar ticket revenue to design changes that make it harder to speed.

“Our goal really should be to get to zero speeding tickets because that would mean people are driving safely,” she said.

Durand-Wood is also a registered candidate in the Elmwood-East Kildonan byelection, which is scheduled for Oct. 25.

However, council’s public works chairwoman said she thinks photo enforcement data alone doesn’t provide enough information to determine where road safety infrastructure dollars should be spent.

Coun. Janice Lukes said she fears basing that decision on heavily ticketed school zones would not necessarily pick the best locations overall. That’s partly because police can’t patrol hundreds of schools in Winnipeg every day, so it’s not easy to ensure the most ticketed ones actually see the most speeding, said Lukes (Waverley West).

Other important safety factors should also be considered to prioritize infrastructure investments, such as traffic volumes and engineering feedback, she said.

“I (probably) wouldn’t support (the motion) because we’re not getting accurate data to base (infrastructure) investments on. I’m not going to base investment on just police ticket data,” said Lukes.

The councillor said she’s very supportive of changing infrastructure to slow down vehicles in school zones but any work must fit within the city’s budget.

“In my opinion, every school should have curb bump-outs … but we don’t have enough resources to do that,” said Lukes.

“People just need to smarten up and slow down,” she added.

Coun. Cindy Gilroy (Daniel McIntyre), who raised the motion, could not be reached for comment by deadline Friday.

The motion will be considered by council’s public works committee in September.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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