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!

continued

Every school has a school zone in front of it, no matter what. But really, many of them are just not necessary, surely. It is only significant if it is taking the speed down from 60 or 70 to 40, or from 80 to 60, or 100 to 80. But not 50 to 40, as is the case on many small suburban roads around schools.

School zones where the speed is taken down a by a bigger amount than that, such as 80 or 100 to 40 on some of our highways, are actually more DANGEROUS than if there was no school zone.

I am pleased to see you mention that you missed the second school zone because I didn't realize until I was in the zone, and that snake said: < I think a lot of people miss the signs… >

It heartens me that there are actually other people out there who are willing to admit to this sort of thing.

I am sure that it is a VERY common problem.

So again: lights should be on ALL school zones signs when the zones are operating, and there should be review of many school zones with the thought of eliminating a lot of them outright and changing those that have big differences between the normal speed and the school zone speed.

Hasbeen, you must of missed where i said, rural and country zones should be excluded.

G'day Bruce, the fact is that school zones are there to protect kids and, the reason they are there is because kids will usually take the easiest rout and I would suggest any such bridge would not be used unless they were forced to.

At the end of the day most motorists accept that school zones exist, it's just that the times vary and the most simple solution would be to install flashing lights, because it's not about the zones, it's about driver awareness. Solar lights are the best option.

In our district school busses are more dangerous than crossings at schools.

Now this may be because of school signs, or lollypop people, but what ever, many more kids are injured & killed after getting off busses than crossing roads near schools.

Perhaps we need a rigidly enforced 20 Km/H speed past a stationary school bus.

<< …the most simple solution would be to install flashing lights, because it's not about the zones, it's about driver awareness. >>

Yes rehctub, the solution should be as easy as installing flashing lights. But they would need to be in EVERY school zone… and on every school zone sign, not just the ones at the start of the zone. If you turn into a school zone from a side road you should absolutely have a school zone sign, with flashing lights, right in front of you. In every single instance where there are side streets or carparks of any sort, this is what is needed.

We’ve got to cover all bases and make sure that drivers CANNOT inadvertently drive in school zones at the normal speed limit for the road, which can variously be 10, 20, 30 or up to 60kmh above that of the school zone speed.

And we do need to look at some school zones and consider whether they are needed at all. As I have said; those that go from the normal speed limit of 50 down to 40 would seem to me to just be not necessary, at least in many instances.

One of the big dangers with school zones is that kids can become tuned into the slow speed of vehicles and thus just not be prepared for the odd car coming through at 20 or more kmh faster.

continued

There’s another aspect to this – school zone signs are very easy to miss. Normal people who normally drive very safely can all too easily drive into a school zone at the non-school-zone time speed, which may be much more than 10kmh higher than the school-zone time speed.

If they get booked, they could get done for doing 20 or 30 or more kmh over the limit, which is a fair whack of a fine and loss of demerit points… and they’ll have to wear the shame of having done this with their family, work mates, or general community.

And yet they were just driving properly and simply missed the school zone sign, which we now know, in the absence of flashing lights, is very easy to do and is a very significant issue with the whole setup.

Yes Ludwig, if only we were not wasting so much money on non local issues, we would have the funds to instal these flashing lights, as well as most of the funding that is now unaffordable.

Wasteful governments have a lot to answer for.

rehctub, there are simple standards for school zones. As an example those for WA: https://www.mainroads.wa.gov.au/BuildingRoads/StandardsTechnical/RoadandTrafficEngineering/TrafficManagement/SpeedZones/Pages/Part_C__Technical_Guidelines___Speed_Zoning.aspx#TOCh610

While improvements are possible, then need to be made carefully, as they are expensive to make and the consequences of a mistake can be high. As an example of the issues, see the NRMA's 2011 submission on school zones: http://www.mynrma.com.au/media/NRMA_Staysafe_School_Zones_Submission.pdf

So then there is the other issue, that being duty of care if authorities and a possible grey area they have created.

I say this because once booked in a zone without warning lights, one could ague that the authorities have marked some, but not others and, the fact that they have marked some,( not all zones with lights have schools/activity on both sides of the road) points to the fact that they knew that a problem existed, so why didn't they mark the one where the offense occurred. I think they have a problem if challenged.