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EDITORIAL
School zones and speed: a bad mix
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/2026/06/04/school-zones...
THIS feels very much like one of those issues that fits into the category of “Why is this even a thing?”
As the school year winds down in Winnipeg, education officials in the city recently received a briefing on “hot spots” for collisions and photo- radar ticketing near elementary schools, and strategies for reducing traffic and better protecting pedestrians in the areas surrounding school properties.
In the wake of the briefing, which took place in March at Winnipeg School Division headquarters, two school zones with reduced speed limits (to 30 km/h) will be given safety upgrades this summer, in the form of traffic-calming curbs to force motorists to adhere to the lower posted limit.
In addition, according to recent Free Press reporting, nine other schools were identified for inclusion in a pilot project employing high-visibility, in-street crosswalk signage placed in the middle of the road between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. on school days.
“There’s no cookie-cutter kind of solution, unfortunately,” said Denae Dorge, the city’s road safety outreach co-ordinator. “You need to have lots of different tools in your toolbox.”
While these measures are an admirable effort to make roadways and crossings safer for students travelling to and from school, one can’t help wondering why road safety around schools continues to require additional attention in the first place.
In 2014, speed limits near more than 170 Winnipeg elementary schools were reduced to 30 km/h between 7 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. from September to June; in 2019, reduced speed limits were expanded to include nearly all schools.
Signage has been in place since the measures were introduced, and photo radar is often stationed within those zones to ticket offenders who ignore the reduced limit.
Public education campaigns have been initiated to remind drivers of the need to slow down, and a debate has been ongoing for years over whether to extend the reduced school-zone limits year-round or to impose a 30 km/h limit on all residential streets.
Add to all that the fact that it’s just simple common sense to exercise additional caution while driving through school zones — particularly during the hours when activity on sidewalks and crosswalks is at its highest — and it’s actually a bit alarming that school officials continue to grapple with the issue of making school zones safer.
And yet… The frequency of speed infractions in school zones is such that the aforementioned briefing included a list identifying the 10 schools whose reduced-speed zones had the highest rates of tickets issued per hour of enforcement. Dorge’s team has “high-level plans” to analyze all the ticketing hot spots during the upcoming summer break.
Among the expanded measures currently being considered is the imposition of reduced speed limits in school zones throughout the year.
The WSD has already submitted a proposal to city hall requesting a year-round, 24/7 reduction in designated areas.
“Our goal of reducing accidents and fatalities should not be limited to 10 months,” said Ward 9 trustee Ann Evangelista, who chairs the WSD’s environmental advisory committee.
Ultimately, however, traffic safety in school zones, and on the city’s streets in general, depends on the ongoing behaviour and daily decisions of Winnipeg drivers. And for the people behind the wheel, it quite frankly couldn’t be easier: existing signage is abundant and highly visible, new attention-grabbing measures will make school-zone restrictions even harder to ignore, and the omnipresence of photo radar adds an expensive level of deterrence for would-be speed-limit scofflaws.
This isn’t complicated. For the sake of the children: Just. Slow. Down.