Quote:
Originally Posted by WilsonFourTwo
I never understood why they don't just make them Playground Zones. Seriously.....how many schools (elementary schools in particular) become desolate wastelands when classes let out?
Separating Playground and School zones is stupid.......more rules to remember/follow that don't really need to exist.
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There are plenty of schools that are completely deserted in the summer time. I drive past two of them every day, and they are Elementary schools.
In the mid-90s, Medicine Hat made every school zone into playground zones (I don't know if this is still the case) and it was completely ridiculous to drive past a high school on a Saturday afternoon where there wasn't a piece of playground equipment or a child anywhere in sight and be required to slow down to 30km/h.
There should be very specific rules about the placement of school and playground zones. If a school has a playground that kids frequent, then it should be a playground zone. If the street in front of the school is only used for student access to the school, it should be a school zone. If there is an adequate fence around the school yard or playground that does not have an access point to or from the road, there should not be any additional speed controls.
Most importantly, however, a playground zone should require the presence of a playground. For example, this is the neighbourhood I grew up in:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&sour...175.55,,0,7.83
When I was in my early 20s, suddenly this playground zone was installed on the corner. There is not a playground anywhere in sight. There is not anywhere that any child should ever play on this corner, yet, somehow, someone got a playground zone installed. Strangely enough, if you follow the road around, you will go past a large green space. That is where the neighbourhood kids all played, but the playground zone ends long before you get to it.
Playground and school zones should be installed and enforced with one objective in mind: Protecting stupid kids from their own stupidity. They should not be installed somewhere just because an old lady who lives there thinks that people drive too fast past her house. School zones should be installed in locations where there is an increase in foot traffic specifically during school hours, when school is in session. If a playground is present and it is frequented by children potentially any time of the day and any day of the year, there should be a playground zone.
Installing too many playground and school zones in illogical locations diminishes the value of all of them, which increases the danger posed to the very children those zones are designed to protect.
Also, I believe there should be an additional fine tacked on to the speeding in a school zone fine for anyone who has a child enrolled at the school. Often, the parents dropping off their stupid children are the worst offenders of all.
