School Zone Safety !

School zone speed limits were imposed to calm traffic in areas where vulnerable little children were at risk crossing roads and making their way to and from  school.  Most people agree with their necessity, but recent surveys show an appalling disregard of these speed limits being obeyed.

Speed surveys show that fewer than fifty percent of drivers comply with the 40 kph limit in school zones and of these 28% travel at up to 10 kpk over that speed limit - with an additional five percent  doing more than 10 kph.   In fact, one in every twenty drivers passing through school speed zones is travelling faster than that 40 kph limit.

The obvious answer is to concentrate mobile speed cameras in school zones,. but a mix of the laws requiring signage where speed cameras are used and the general congestion in school zones makes this impractical.   Statistics show that only 0.1 percent of drivers passing a mobile speed camera receive a fine - a hit rate one in every thousand, such is the visibility in which these devices are presented to the public.

Driver behaviour other than speed infringement in school zones is also risky.  Twenty thousand drivers were booked for disobeying a " No stopping " or " No parking " sign and another host of drivers were fined for using mobile phones where vigilance for little kids in imperative.  In an alarming number of cases,. the culprits are the parents of the very children these laws are enacted to protect.

Another infringement being widely disobeyed is the practice of picking up or putting down passengers in bus zones.  It is essential that buses park correctly at the kerb and if this is prevented by cars blocking access many passengers get off the moment the bus comes to a stop, often in surrounding traffic movement.   That empty bus zone is very tempting to parents needing to drop off or pick up children in the peak traffic flow.

It seems that fear of an infringement fine is losing its impact.  Many peopled now regard fines as part of the tax that applies to the transport age and have more fear of the demerit points loss.   The car is so important to the modern lifestyle that license loss rarely stops the unlicensed driver from getting back behind the wheel.   The incidence of unregistered cars and unlicensed drivers seems to be ever increasing.

The only thing that seems to deter driving offences generally is the sight of a marked police car monitoring traffic.   That is both a time consuming and expensive way of achieving traffic obedience, but it is the only way we have at our disposal to achieve that objective.   If the vast police car fleet was mandated to be on the road daily during the morning and afternoon school speed zone period we would see a marked improvement in driver behaviour.

What is presently lacking is the " fear factor " !