City votes to change school, playground zone hours

[Daradon]

That's a fair point. Just thinking out loud here. I guess I would be more concerned about a lot of other things first.

Do we know how much it would cost? I can't imagine a bunch of new signs are going to be huge as far as city budgets go.

[Shawnski]

The signage costs will be dwarfed by the required ad campaign costs in order to educate everyone as to these changes.

[Daradon]

Originally Posted by Shawnski

The signage costs will be dwarfed by the required ad campaign costs in order to educate everyone as to these changes.

Well actually, that's the only upside I can think to the changes. It's far easier to remember. I know some people get really confused with the difference between the two zones. It should be easy, but for a lot of people it's not. I dunno, people can be stupid sometimes, especially drivers.

But yeah, I guess there will be a period of re-education.

[normtwofinger]

How long has the current system (1hr after sunset) been in place? 40-50 years?

[Jimmy Stang]

Are these changes effectively immediately, even if the signage hasn't been updated?

I was driving through a playground zone at about 9:15 last night, which under the new rules would mean no reduction of speed. Under the old rules, there would still be over 75 minutes of playground zone time left.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by SebC

One could argue that any law and/or public expenditure that "doesn't make a lot of sense and really isn't needed" is a big deal.

If people made a big deal about every law and/or public expenditure that doesn't make a lot of sense there overall productivity and interaction outside that forum would be greatly reduced because there are so many nobody would have time to do anything but make a big deal out of them. This really isn't a big deal as it has virtually no impact on your day to day routine. This is simply a sign of the times where people get outraged for the sake of it as complaining on the internet has become the new favorite pastime.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Daradon

Do we know how much it would cost? I can't imagine a bunch of new signs are going to be huge as far as city budgets go.

Earlier in the the thread it was posted at about $150,000 to change the signs, and they mentioned changing school zone signs to playground zones for something like $500,000.

Having estimated sign installation in the past, I'm not totally sure why this is so expensive.

[Antithesis]

Originally Posted by jammies

I've always thought that playground and school zones in this city were arbitrarily situated according to the whims of the whinier community associations, and especially those with moneyed members, but never once have I thought "Wow, it's 7 PM and I sure wish I was only going 30 km/h so I wouldn't be running over these hundreds of playing kids!" It doesn't really matter if it's not all that much of an inconvenience, what matters is that arbitrary changes to an already suspect system should be opposed on principle.

Thanks for the post. I honestly hadn't considered this when I posted my own response to this change. I still don't think it's a very big deal but can see this side of the argument.

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by getbak

The problem is that Calgary does not use them sparingly. Why that is a problem is two-fold: First, when there are too many of these zones and they go on too long, people get desensitized to them and instead of watching for kids, they watch their speedometer. Second, parents and kids can get a false sense of security and assume that just because there's a Playground or School zone, nothing bad can happen.

Oh my god yes. The road I live on has two playground zones which were obviously put in place to slow down drivers cutting through the community to avoid traffic on McLeod trail. In 8 years of living on that street, I've not seen a kid on either one of those playgrounds ONCE. Not even once. One of them is a tiny jungle gym situated a good 200m from the road in a narrow corridor between a gravel lot and a house.

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Isn't the fact that few if any kids are being hit in school zones proof that they are successful? We hear of adult pedestrians getting hit by cars all the time yet young children that are unpredictable, run first look later, etc aren't getting hit in school zones. Sounds to me like the value of school zones is paramount. This isn't photo radar where there's no evidence that it reduces the amount of speeders. The results speak for themselves.

I can't find a video of this part, but...

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a charm.
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Are these changes effectively immediately, even if the signage hasn't been updated?

I was driving through a playground zone at about 9:15 last night, which under the new rules would mean no reduction of speed. Under the old rules, there would still be over 75 minutes of playground zone time left.

I can't see how you can get a ticket following the old rules if the signage hasn't been updated yet. I mean, the instructions are posted right there. You can't just arbitrarily change the law and expect everyone to know about them without updating the signs. What if I didn't hear about the news yet?

[Five-hole]

Originally Posted by The Yen Man

I can't see how you can get a ticket following the old rules if the signage hasn't been updated yet. I mean, the instructions are posted right there. You can't just arbitrarily change the law and expect everyone to know about them without updating the signs. What if I didn't hear about the news yet?

I think you're right, but not for the reason you think.

Not knowing the law isn't an excuse for breaking it. However, signage indicating that the law is otherwise than it is is reasonable to rely upon. If the signs simply said "school zone" or "playground zone" and nothing else, you'd just have to know and them's the breaks. (Brakes? hah)

[The Yen Man]

Originally Posted by Five-hole

I think you're right, but not for the reason you think.

Not knowing the law isn't an excuse for breaking it. However, signage indicating that the law is otherwise than it is is reasonable to rely upon. If the signs simply said "school zone" or "playground zone" and nothing else, you'd just have to know and them's the breaks. (Brakes? hah)

Oh, I agree if it's just the ones with the signs and no other info. The signs that I pass by has the times specifically stated there. So I'll follow those rules until the sign says otherwise.

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Shawnski

The signage costs will be dwarfed by the required ad campaign costs in order to educate everyone as to these changes.

That is easily offset by the inevitable ticket quota blitz that will take advantage of this.

[Regular_John]

BUMP

Started seeing the new signage this morning (it's possible it was up earlier this week) along Elbow Drive.
- Playground: 7:30 - 21:00
- School: 7:30 - 21:00 School Days

So the "school days" thing is still in effect, but with the extend hours (till 9:00) we'll probably be looking at a slower after 5:00 commute.

[rayne008]

I noticed a few now as well, basically white stickers with 21:00 on the same signs. A little sneaky they didn't make the new time a little different, as it looks exactly the same as the sign that has been there for years.