Edmonton will have more school zones this fall and new data from the city suggests the reduced speed limits are lowering collisions and slowing people down.
“The 2015-16 school year we issued 55,073 tickets for speeding in school zones,” Dennis Tetreault, speed management traffic safety supervisor with the city said. “In 2016-17, we issued 24,607.”
Drivers are slowing down in those areas now, which is exactly what the city was aiming for.
“There has been a noticeable reduction in the number of collisions at or near school zones during the enforced hours,” remarked Tetreault. “The other encouraging thing we’re seeing is quite a few less high-risk drivers, people driving at real extreme speeds.”
Tetreault thinks the latest numbers are a really good sign.
“People are slowing down in school zones now, some still are not slowing down enough, but we’re seeing a progressive shift towards the left, which is what we like to see.”
Tetreault thinks there will always be people who won’t follow the speed limit but they are working on changing that behaviour in people.
With the tickets given out through photo radar, Tetreault does not expect any extra fines or penalties for repeat offenders because you cannot prove who is driving.
WATCH: The push to slow down drivers in Edmonton neighbourhoods is expanding. The city is moving to put more schools into school zones. Vinesh Pratap filed this report in October 2016.
The city installed 22 new school zones around junior high schools in April and are installing 21 more this summer before the next school year.
All 43 Edmonton junior high schools will have school zone speed limit signs installed by the start of the 2017-18 school year.
Data shows that three years before school zones were brought back into use, there were 50 injury collisions in school zones, 20 of which involved a pedestrian or cyclist.
School zone installations are part the Vision Zero traffic strategy from the City of Edmonton, with a goal of recording zero traffic fatalities or serious injuries.
Comments