Driving along today I passed through three school zones, one with amber flashing lights, the others without.

I slowed for the first one which had the lights, but not for the second because I didn't realize until I was in the zone.

It's my understanding that those with lights are zones that service both sides of the road.

This makes me wonder why, with the exception of perhaps rural or regional schools, can't all school zones be 40 zones from 7 till 4 and have flashing amber lights as this would certainly assist motorists in slowing down.

Perhaps it common sense and that just isn't acceptable these days.

Ask the bean-counters, it's all about the money.
Higher costs to instal lights, risk-assessment over kids lives and other esoteric bureaucratic waffle, typical "Yes Minister" behaviour really.
Logic and common-sense are irrelevant, they're weeded out of the PS as soon as they raise their ugly heads!

Rechub

I thoroughly agree with you. I think a lot of people miss the signs and even if they do see them have no idea if there are school holidays or not and are therefore not in force.

We have so many speed limits now it is often difficult to know what is applicable in any particular spot. Just driving to my local hospital, a distance of only about 10 ks, I go through nine different speed zones. If they want so many why don't they paint them actually on the road every 200 meters or so or even have different coloured markings. Not everyone has a GPS tracker that tends to beep a warning.

While I agree with the flashing lights idea, I can't agree with the 7AM to 4PM idea at all.

Most of the school zones in my area are on country main roads, or minor roads. Restricting these to low speeds for such long periods would be extremely expensive in costs to the community. Much cheaper long term, & more effective to install flashing lights.

I saw a set of these lights, new to me, at a villager on Mount Lindesay highway, north of Beaudesert this week. They caught my attention instantly, from a good distance, allowing me to slow from 100Km/H easily & gently.

Flashing lights would have saved me getting booked the last time, about 10 years ago. A stranger in the area, I was coming into a pretty little village south of Ipswich.

I knew I had to turn somewhere in the next few kilometers, & was looking for any sign to help. There were a number of signs in close proximity, obscuring each other, & overhanging trees also obscuring some signs. I did not see the school sign at all, & neither did my passenger.

Fortunately for me, I was traveling slowly searching for a road sign, 46 Km/H the cop with the radar gun, behind a tree said. I was really pissed off, as the worst of the offending signs obscuring the school sign was one telling us about a government safe road project.

It must have been a trouble spot, indicated by the cops presence, no doubt caused by bad signage. Flashing lights would certainly save some danger to kids, & bookings of motorists in such circumstances.

In town the ones I encounter have lollipop people, even where kids cross main roads at some distance from the school. These are better than lights, & appear to be very well respected.

I've often wondered why they don't simply mass-produce a basic tubular tunnel arch, most streets are the same width and it wouldn't need to be higher than your trucks or buses, it's standard engineering these days.
Given the basic form any adjustments for specific exceptions would be simple.
No stairs so it's harder to trip kids and it's disabled friendly, wire-mesh sides for visibility and a roof for rain or high sun.
Overall it would appear to increase safety exponentially.

Rehctub, school zones are major frustration for me, as a constant traveller. I hate em!!

The major problem is that the signs are there all the time but they only apply for short periods, on some days. I have found that this makes them extremely easy to miss. They just don’t register!

I continue to be amazed that, despite my very high level of awareness of speed limit signage and desire to keep my driving within the legal limits, I keep missing these f#$#@ signs!

So often I have found that the first indication I get of a school zone is seeing the sign at the far end, as I am coming out of the zone! That I find to be ENORMOUSLY frustrating and really quite enraging. But it just keeps on happening!

We ABSOLUTELY need flashing lights; large orange lights or at least a red flashing circle around the speed limit, on EVERY school zone sign!

And I reckon we need to GET RID of ALL school zones that take the speed from 50 down to 40. I mean, that is just silly!

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