School zone speed limits reduce collisions and injuries, says city

The City of Edmonton says lower speed limits around schools is paying off with fewer motor vehicle collisions and injuries.

Between 2011 and 2014, there were 50 injury collisions near schools with elementary grades an average of about17 per year. Of those, 20 involved pedestrians or cyclists.

The city implemented 30 km/hr speed limit zones in those areas in 2014.

In the following year, there were ten injurycollisionsin school zones, a reduction of 41 per cent. Of those, two involved pedestrians and no cyclists were injured.

"I think that's great, the message is getting through," said Coun. Dave Loken on Thursday.

"I've always said this was going to be about changing hearts and minds and the way that you do that is through education and literally getting in people's grills, in their faces. And it looks like it's starting to pay off."

The results have city administration recommending that school speed zones be expanded to include all junior high schools in Edmonton.

Targeted strategy

As part of the strategy to bring the collision andinjury numbers down, 13 "problem" school zones were reviewed bycity safety engineers early in 2016.

The engineers came up with new counter-measures tailored for each of the schools. Those counter-measuresincludingpedestrian crossing lights, zebra crosswalks, driver feedback signs, and reflective poles on stop signswere installed over the summer.

The city safety engineers will do a review to see if those changes are making any difference.

The plan is to then conduct safetyreviews of another 24 schools next year, and a further 24 in 2018.