MF YYC Politics - there, I mega did it

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Bigtime

Put 'em on a big jersey barrier.

They had this for a 4 way stop by my house, there was a sign right in the middle of the road. It was great, as the intersection is pretty busy and has lots of pedestrians. Someone smoked it, and it was never replaced.

[Jimmy Stang]

Time for steel posts with a substantial anchor underground. Make it count.

We need to raise the lowest common denominator through expensive lessons. If you can't avoid a brightly coloured obstacle in a SCHOOL CROSSWALK, the issue is the driver, not the obstacle. Time to raise the stakes.

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by Fuzz

Are they getting hit by normal drivers, or oversized vehicles, construction, snow plows etc? Maybe we do need cameras.

But if normal drivers are hitting them, then ya, nails. Enforcement needs to have a punishment aspect.

Just put a sniper on top of every school rooftop. That'll solve things!

[powderjunkie]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Time for steel posts with a substantial anchor underground. Make it count.

We need to raise the lowest common denominator through expensive lessons. If you can't avoid a brightly coloured obstacle in a SCHOOL CROSSWALK, the issue is the driver, not the obstacle. Time to raise the stakes.

Apparently its a perfectly reasonable solution to make suicidal cyclists go a few kph slower at the expense of effective snow clearing or people pulling trailers...I only hope they scale them to vehicle size.

And maybe they can be pubic art: https://maps.app.goo.gl/VjBGbSsrAqdfoRer6

[Table 5]

As someone who is on school drop-off duty, I'm sure I'm not the only one who can attest to them being a total ####-show. People dropping off kids in designated bus zones despite clear signage not to, doing u-turns in the middle of the block to save 30 seconds, kids crossing between moving cars, bikers with massive chariots in the way...etc etc.

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more incidents.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by Jimmy Stang

Time for steel posts with a substantial anchor underground. Make it count.

We need to raise the lowest common denominator through expensive lessons.

This would end up being more expensive for the city (and therefore, for taxpayers) then it'll be for the drivers who hit them. Putting anything more substantial on the road surface becomes a hazard itself (even with a breakaway post), and drivers are all too happy to litigate if they feel like it's the road's fault.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by SebC

Put cameras in them.

Put the previous driver that hit it in them.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by SebC

How? Isn't the goal being to create attentive/safe drivers? If drivers are running over child-sized neon signs near elementary schools that doesn't bode well for non-neon, child-sized actual children, which to me suggests the signs are not working.

You at least hope that a small percentage of "oh #### I hit something, what was that?" is a lesson learned.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Table 5

As someone who is on school drop-off duty, I'm sure I'm not the only one who can attest to them being a total ####-show. People dropping off kids in designated bus zones despite clear signage not to, doing u-turns in the middle of the block to save 30 seconds, kids crossing between moving cars, bikers with massive chariots in the way...etc etc.

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more incidents.

As someone who lives between two schools I avoid pickup and drop-off times like the Plague.

I was always lucky, as a kid I walked to school, my parents worked, no one is picking you up or dropping you off and when I got to High School I took Transit until I got my own car.

But man...those zone are like Somalia during the Revolution...just pure Anarchy. All rules go out the window.

The one that always got me was...they put these gigantic planters full of flowers on the median and they are enormous, very difficult to see around but people still pull U-Turns in the Playground zone.

I want to beat them to death. You've got kids crossing that you cant see and you're chucking U-turns?

[GGG]

Originally Posted by SebC

How? Isn't the goal being to create attentive/safe drivers? If drivers are running over child-sized neon signs near elementary schools that doesn't bode well for non-neon, child-sized actual children, which to me suggests the signs are not working.

Suggests that they are needed would have probably been better wording. Something more robust and damaging would likely be better

[Table 5]

At the school I drop off at (Riverside in Bridgeland), it's been extra spicy this year, as the City also decided that September was the perfect time to start rebuilding the roads/sidewalks on the block around the school. They had been working in the neighborhood since spring, so you'd think they would've picked July/August to do the school block, but nope. So apart from all the general nuttiness, you had everyone trying to dodge construction workers and their equipment.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Table 5

At the school I drop off at (Riverside in Bridgeland), it's been extra spicy this year, as the City also decided that September was the perfect time to start rebuilding the roads/sidewalks on the block around the school. They had been working in the neighborhood since spring, so you'd think they would've picked July/August to do the school block, but nope. So apart from all the general nuttiness, you had everyone trying to dodge construction workers and their equipment.

Oh man, but my office if Ogden its been construction Hell for years now. They have totally screwed this community. Just one giant screw-up after another. Complete Cluster....

And you're right, they always pick the worst times to do it.

[kevman]

Originally Posted by Table 5

At the school I drop off at (Riverside in Bridgeland), it's been extra spicy this year, as the City also decided that September was the perfect time to start rebuilding the roads/sidewalks on the block around the school. They had been working in the neighborhood since spring, so you'd think they would've picked July/August to do the school block, but nope. So apart from all the general nuttiness, you had everyone trying to dodge construction workers and their equipment.

They did the same at Sunnyside Elementary adding bump outs to the sidewalks in the late summer/fall. But then after they were all formed up they pulled the forms out and put some temporary asphalt down to fill the holes because the concrete wasn't going to get poured in time.

[Jimmy Stang]

School pickups are a vicious circle. Drivers make it unpleasant and dangerous to be a pedestrian, which only encourages more people to drive, adding to the gong show.

I am fortunate that my kid’s school is within walking distance, and he’s 13 now. Since about 9 or 10 he’s walked or biked pretty much every day. And as much as the drivers around the schools in my community are as terrible as anywhere, there are a load of kids that walk, and the bike racks are overflowing during the less wintry months (and some hardcores even ride in winter). A small part of me fears for them, knowing the quality of drivers around schools. Common sense goes out of the window at pickup and drop off time.

[Jimmy Stang]

Originally Posted by topfiverecords

Put the previous driver that hit it in them.

I picture a little Checkpoint Charlie-esque hut of shame. Covered in reflective stripes.

[Sr. Mints]

Originally Posted by Table 5

As someone who is on school drop-off duty, I'm sure I'm not the only one who can attest to them being a total ####-show. People dropping off kids in designated bus zones despite clear signage not to, doing u-turns in the middle of the block to save 30 seconds, kids crossing between moving cars, bikers with massive chariots in the way...etc etc.

I'm honestly surprised there aren't more incidents.

Northmount Drive from about 14th Street to Northland is an absolute cluster#### at 8:30am and 3:00pm. I'm actually amazed someone hasn't died (I think it was last year or two years ago that a teen was hit in front of St. Francis, and a beg button went in the next day.)

I may have commented on this before, but it bears repeating: the school traffic problem seems to have gotten much worse the last 5 or 6 years. Was it COVID that changed driving/transit habits? Do fewer people catch transit? Is it a charter school issue where kids are ferried in from every corner of the city by a parent? I dunno.

Whatever the reason, no solution seems to be in play. It's really not a safe situation.

[woob]

School drop-off zones are the worst. Such a perfect example of "f your rules, I do what I want" if there ever was one.

Heck, we live next to a day home and to this day, the only thing that annoys me about it are the arsehole parents who park their vehicles whereever they please to drop their precious little snot buckets off. No way they're going to walk more than half a yard if they have to.

[accord1999]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I may have commented on this before, but it bears repeating: the school traffic problem seems to have gotten much worse the last 5 or 6 years. Was it COVID that changed driving/transit habits? Do fewer people catch transit? Is it a charter school issue where kids are ferried in from every corner of the city by a parent? I dunno.

Highwood and Colonel Irvine have Mandarin immersion programs so they would have students from farther parts of North and NE Calgary attending there.

[photon]

Originally Posted by woob

School drop-off zones are the worst. Such a perfect example of "f your rules, I do what I want" if there ever was one.

This. Not sure if it's dropping kids off that turns parents into the worst drivers or if they are the worst drivers and the school just brings them all to one place, but I always leave for and come home from work either before or after school pick up/drop off time. I regret it when I don't every single time.

[Table 5]

Originally Posted by Sr. Mints

I may have commented on this before, but it bears repeating: the school traffic problem seems to have gotten much worse the last 5 or 6 years. Was it COVID that changed driving/transit habits? Do fewer people catch transit? Is it a charter school issue where kids are ferried in from every corner of the city by a parent? I dunno.

Atleast in terms of the Riversides school in Bridgeland, I think that's a part of it. It used to be that local kids got much higher priority in the school lottery, so you had more kids walk/bike to school. Since they changed the rules, there seem to be way more kids being dropped off by cars. I'm part of the problem (as we used to live in Bridgeland but moved out).