Back to School Means Back to School Zone Speed Limits
Prince George, B.C. – It’s back to school today for students with School District 57 and that means the school zone speed limits are back in place.Drivers need to pay attention to school zones as Prince George RCMP’s Traffic Services unit will be patrolling and targeting enforcement around schools to ensure children arrive at school and return home, safely.
Each and every School Zone will be patrolled and speeding tickets will be issued for anyone not obeying the posted speed limit warns Sgt. Matt LaBelle, head of the PG RCMP’s Municipal Traffic Section Ensuring the safety of our children and other vulnerable road users is the responsibility of the community including the police. If members of the community do not obey speed limits and put our children at risk, then we will issue violation tickets.
On a day when school is in-session, School Zone speed limits are 30 km per hour, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, unless otherwise posted.
Playground Zone speed limits are 30 km per hour, from dawn until dusk, every day without exception.
School Zone and Playground Zone speed limits are set at 30 km per hour, for a number of reasons including:
- BRAKING DISTANCE. Faster cars need more distance to stop in an emergency, like if a child jumped out onto the road. When traveling at 60 kilometres per hour, it takes the average car 55 metres to stop. At 30 kilometres per hour, it takes the average vehicle just 18 metres to come to a stop. A significant difference that could save a life;
- SURVIVAL RATE. The survival rate for a pedestrian struck by a vehicle increases exponentially. If a vehicle traveling at 50 kilometres per hour struck a pedestrian, there is only a 20% chance that the pedestrian would survive. A pedestrian struck by a vehicle traveling at 30 kilometres per hour has a 90% chance of survival;
- MORE PEDESTRIANS. Typically there are more pedestrians in and around School Zones increasing the chances of collisions. A slower speed helps reduce the chances of an incident;
- AGE OF PEDESTRIANS. Younger and less experienced pedestrians are more likely to be in a School Zone and more likely to be distracted or forget about safety.
The Traffic Services Section is committed to increasing road-user safety, while decreasing the number of collisions at high-frequency locations within the City of Prince George.
Comments
Why the need for an explanation for the 30 kmh? It is a school with a bunch of little kids running around, it should be common sense!! Oh right…….
Came home and on the way just saw two vehicles go through a 30 km school zone and the lights were flashing to stop.
Cheers
30 kmh is still too fast. It should be set to 20 kmh.
Ironically enough the vast majority of speeders in school zones generally tend to be the people who live in the immediate area and this includes parents with kids rushing to get them to school and the excuses they use are many yet they worry about their children’s safety but rarely worry about other children’s safety
Dearth, so true. As a result of a complaint, had a driver issued ticket for unsafe pass on First Ave, it was a lady speeding to get her kids to Heritage.
Then there’s the other one. An SUV with sign on back “Be Careful, Kids in Car”, doing +70 south on foothills, blows the red light on to University Way. Who’s the danger on the road?
My experience with school speed zones is the majority of speeders are parents rushing to get preferred parking spots outside the schools. If the city was more willing to enforce parking laws like parking in bike lanes, we would not see such risks being taking as parents would be forced to park further away from the schools and having to walk to the schools.
I might also say that they then get out of their vehicles and yell at people for driving around the same speed that they drove to get to their preferred parking spot.
that is so true, I have seen them step out of their cars and then yell at other drivers after speeding to get their parking spot. Parents really need to address their role in the parking problem.
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