This included one motorist who was nabbed travelling between 31kph and 40kph over the speed limit, as well as 29 drivers who were snapped speeding 21kph to 30kph over the limit.
If we assume these are the typical (sub)urban school zone where it’s 40 km/h during school zone hours, in what is otherwise a 60 km/h zone, that means these 30 drivers would have been speeding even if it wasn’t currently a school zone, and one of them was going 10 over the non-school-zone limit. That’s shocking.
Honestly, while I’m sympathetic to all the people who complain about being stung for going a couple ks over the limit, when you’re more than 10 over the limit and there are no other extenuating circumstances (unclear signage, close to the speed limit change, etc.), the punishments for speeding do not seem anywhere near high enough. Nor, more crucially, are the chances of actually being caught and fined.
I have so much less sympathy for anyone who speeds in a school zone, signage or otherwise. If there are kids around, drivers need to show caution. It’s basic consideration and helps make our communities safer.
I’m almost never even driving during a school zone time, let alone driving in a school zone, let alone speeding in one.
That said, I did cycle through a school zone just this morning. It was right at the start of the school zone time (literally I think about 7:05 am). There were no children about.
So while I still think speed limits are a good thing and I have no sympathy for people who disregard them, I’m not convinced that it’s necessarily any worse in terms of child safety for a driver to have been going 55 then than it would be when I drove down the same street when it was not a school zone at about 12:30 pm today.
That’s shocking.
Is it though? People speed constantly on every street or road.
EDIT: It is also possible some of them could have been 70 zones normally.
6 cameras, so about 15 per camera per day on average. id assume after a few months the numbers would drop as people become more aware of them
Good! I’ve been guilty of speeding, but never in a school zone. Kids are stupid, they run right out onto the road with no warning at all.
I lived over the road from a school for 5 years until recently, and saw a few close calls as is. I shudder to think what would have happened had those drivers been doing 60 or more.
I wish school zone times weren’t so long though. I go through a few at somewhere between 6:45 and 7:15, so usually just as the zone comes in to effect… and there ain’t no kids there, ever.
Like constantly driving through road works with no works, constantly driving through a school zone with no school activities happening gets you pretty blase.
Also if you don’t have kids you don’t know when school holidays are. Not the biggest deal, but when you’re holding up traffic at 40 clicks and getting all of the beeps and angry Ford Ranger cut offs cause you didn’t know the grommets had yet another month off you kinda err on the side of standard speed limit rather than 40kph when you’re not sure.
I get the stress of dealing with impatient dickheads behind you, but you should absolutely be erring on the side of caution. If you think it might be a school day, slow the fuck down. School zones are generally what, a couple hundred metres? The impatient wankers in their emotional support vehicles can wait a few extra seconds.
Yeah that’s definitely a problem. I’m lucky enough to have a large part of my social circles be made up of teachers, so I’m usually aware of when holidays are. But even then I sometimes forget plus or minus a week or two. I can’t imagine how bad it is for people without even that connection.
