Report puts more school-zone driving restrictions on city’s radar

https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/ways-to-expand-30-kmh-zones-outlined...

SCHOOL-zone speed limits are here to stay and could be expanded in the future, according to a public service review from the City of Winnipeg.

A review of all school-zone speeding tickets issued in 2018 in the East Kildonan and Transcona districts revealed the reduced 30 km/h limit appears to be achieving its goal of slowing drivers. Fewer speeding tickets were issued in those zones than in photo-radar areas near schools that didn’t have a lowered speed limit.

Based on feedback from school administrators in six local school divisions, the report’s authors have flagged several school-zone changes the city could consider, including keeping lowered speed limits in effect all day, every day, not just during school hours; placing school-zone limits at middle schools and high schools; and expanding school-zone limits to streets that are near schools but not necessarily adjacent to school property.

Those suggestions haven’t been officially put forward as recommendations, but the report notes some of the changes could be made with approval from city council and/or changes to municipal bylaws.

The review, which was released as part of the agenda for next week’s East Kildonan-Transcona community committee meeting, was requested last spring by city councillor Shawn Nason (Transcona), who said he hears regular concerns about speeding in the ward, which contains several school zones, and he wanted to know the location of the problem areas.

Nason said Wednesday he will review the report.

“One of the things I was looking for was areas that were having increased photo-radar tickets, so that we could look at safety perspectives,” Nason said.

The majority of speeding tickets issued near schools in the ward were via photo radar, on streets where there is no lowered speed limit. Very few tickets were handed out for speeding in 30 km/h school zones, according to the review. Most tickets were issued in “school areas” that have signs identifying them as such. The signs allow photo radar enforcement to happen there, but the posted speed limit is not lowered.

The most common place to get a “school area” photo radar ticket was at northbound Plessis Road, north of Rosseau Avenue West. Of the total of 523 tickets issued in East Kildonan-Transcona in 2018, 198 tickets went to drivers in that spot. Another 104 speeding tickets were handed out near Polson School, at 491 Munroe Ave., which doesn’t have a lowered speed limit.

Despite the 30-km/h limit in place outside of St. Joseph the Worker School, at 505 Brewster St., 25 speeding tickets were handed out there in 2018, making it the most commonly ticketed reducedspeed school zone in the neighbourhood.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay