School Zones Reduced Speed Limit and NO SCHOOL (vic)

[RedHotGT]

I'll put it this way... and be blunt also...

Lets say the school zone is 300m (from start to finish)...

40km/h means it takes 27 seconds to pass by the school zone...
60km/h means it takes 18 seconds to pass by the school zone...

For the sake of 9 seconds of your life (which must be O-So-Inconvenient) you're happy to increase the risk of hitting a child in front of a school??

Sure - it's up to the parents to supervise, but kids are unpredictable... If a young whippersnapper was to step out in front of you, you will have travelled further before you react, it will take longer distance to stop... to cut 9 seconds off your trip???

For me it's a no-brainer...
Do the advised 40km/h speed...
Don't Complain...

For the safety of MY kids... make up your 9 seconds somewhere else...

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

I'm against school zones for high schools. If you have no idea how to cross the road at that stage in life, you have absolutely no hope beyond those years.
.

Its not about people crossing roads, its a high traffic situation involving cars parking, stopping, busses etc...

[TheSneakiness]

Originally Posted by Nikked

Its not about people crossing roads, its a high traffic situation involving cars parking, stopping, busses etc...

Funny that, all schools I went to had bus bays inside school grounds and plenty of parking. Hell, they made the road wider out the front of my high school so the chance of someone or something being hit decreased.

[04redxr8]

I live right near a primary school. (The same one my daughter has just started at). The speed zone here isn't just about the kids, but the extra traffic and the dangerous situation that idiot parents create by not wanting to walk 200m up the road. It is an accident waiting to happen.

The other aspect is that kids are unpredictable. They don't look both ways before crossing, they don't always use the crossing bay. Thats when accidents happen. There are also a number of useless drivers, that will still not notice the school zone, no matter how bright and colourful you make it.

How many of these idiots have we seen in the past that mount footpaths in busy areas? 3 spring to my mind immediately.

I see the spped zones as combination of things. Kids who don't know any better, (and some who just keep having excuses made for them), and bad drivers who just have no idea of what to do when in a busy enviroment.

Originally Posted by Ben73

Actually many school were back Monday.

When I was in yr 11 and 12, we had the entire school to ourselves.
The youngest people at the school were 16. And some were as old as 19.
We still had a school zone, reducing cars from 50 down to 40. Seriously, Most of the people in the school were DRIVING THEMSELVES home. The 40 zone only caused all students to leave the school slower.

It is not even a busy road in the first place!
If these 16-19 year olds were unable to cross a road with a limit of more then 40. Then they must have something wrong with them. And wont last long anyway.

For those who had to walk down to the bus stop, there were teachers standing on the corner 2 black away from the school to make sure the students crossed and waited for traffic lights instead of just crossing whenever it was safe. The students who crossed against the light would receive in school punishment.
This leave of bubble wrap is just pathetic.
You don't need to supervise 18 year olds crossing the road, that is just sad.

I kind of think that you would have to supervise an 18 or 19 year old, if they are still in school. They either started really really late, or there may be other factors?

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

Funny that, all schools I went to had bus bays inside school grounds and plenty of parking. Hell, they made the road wider out the front of my high school so the chance of someone or something being hit decreased.

My high school had the same setup. You do realise that not all schools are the same, and some don't have the room to be extended.

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by Streets

Yeah, schools exercising a duty of care for their students; what are they thinking?

Yeah because theses 16-18 year old really require the teachers to look after them outside school hours off school grounds.

[zdcol71]

Originally Posted by Rapid_Axe

I'm against school zones for high schools. If you have no idea how to cross the road at that stage in life, you have absolutely no hope beyond those years.

Mate, I can tell you most high school kids have about as much sense as a new starter.
Even if they do know how to cross a street showing a little cosideration to the people who actually have a reason for being on it, it is some kind of "right of passage" not to cross it responsibly. Makes me laugh sometimes to see so many people on this forum talking about how kids will be kids, and what we did as youngsters, then in the very next thread we are on about how they should have more sense and how Darwins theory will sort them out etc etc...
There is a regular gathering of young kids in a school zone, doing what young kids will do, and there are people here coplaining that they have to slow down for a couple of yards to compensate??? Sheeesh!!

[bigdude1011]

At least in VIC (and probably every other state) the school zone is split up between mornings and afternoons. In stupid Canberra, the school zones are on all day (8am-4pm)!! At my old high school (it was kindy to year 10) a year 1 kid got hit by a car when crossing the road in a school zone.

I can't believe that every school I've been to in the ACT (even Uni, which I am at now) has a school zone (mainly because of other schools being nearby both my college, and my university).

[Ben73]

Originally Posted by 04redxr8

I kind of think that you would have to supervise an 18 or 19 year old, if they are still in school. They either started really really late, or there may be other factors?

19 Was a rare case, but still happened.
18 was pretty common. I dont know where you are from but most people'here were about 17-18 when leaving year 12.

My school was not filled with a bunch of brain dead *******.

[mr ghia]

I really can't recall widespread carnage before this school zone 40 km/h thing.
And let's not get started on roadwork speed limits.

[zdcol71]

Originally Posted by mr ghia

I really can't recall widespread carnage before this school zone 40 km/h thing.
And let's not get started on roadwork speed limits.

I don't believe "wide spread carnage" has entered the topic??.

[Bucknaked]

Normal speed limits of suburban streets is 60? In the ACT it is 50 in some area's. So people are having a whinge about slowing down by 10 to 20kph for 10 seconds.

Sometimes I think people will have a whinge for the sake of having a whinge. What makes you so important that you can't slow down around school zones. I know you can't get back that 10 seconds. It's gone for ever.

[mrbaxr6t]

reduced speed limits outside high schools are a must have due to the little turds congregating and waiting for cars to cross the road just to make the car stop, this happened local to me and numerous complaints to the school were made the "kids" were told to cease this activity highschool kids but telling them not to do it resulted in more of them doing it this turned a roundabout into a panel beaters' wet dream of an intersection with cars shunting each other nose to tail under breaks, despite this being highly dangerous nothing was done no police/teacher presence nothing then one day the inevitable happened and a young girl was hit by a toorak tractor with a bullbar firmly and proudly attached not sure how bad her injuries were, but all of a sudden after this incident it changed (the behavior at this intersection)

now on to primary schools and crossings - up the road from that high school there is a primary school which is on the same road one of those split ones with a stretch of grass up the center, now by design where the crossing is placed etc if you approach the school from a certain direction you have to cross the crossing in one direction loop thru the island then cross it in the other to pick your kids up, then do the same once they are picked up. This GREATLY increases traffic through the crossing and congests it even more heavily. So some clever parents decided to drive off the road around the corner and cut through public land where the parents all park to get the kids reducing congestion on the crossing and making everybody safer - that is until the council bylaws guy come along and sat where cars were cutting on the side of the road. I stopped and talked to him and explained the stupidity of what he was doing fining people for driving across the grass but not fining anybody whom was parked on the same patch of grass and that if he fined people cutting he had to fine all those parked. The council cannot choose which laws they will not enforce and which laws they will. Add to this the crossing supervisor has no concept of traffic flow and it almost seems she goes out of her way to stop cars as much as possible to further congest this patch of road. I also made complaint about the crossing supervisor to the council guy in car. I pointed out how stupid what he was being asked to do really was and he zoomed off in his council car. School speedlimits pickup/dropoff zones and crossing supervisors have been the cause of much angst and frustration since my kids started school. not to mention the nazi-like way schools are run and the assumption that we all live solely for our kids and don't have work and other things to busy ourselves so when they call they are shocked when we cannot come immediately as we are at work. My personal experience with he whole school experience is terrible.

Enforcing a reduced speedlimit with no need smacks of revenue raising oh no I mean reducing road toll...

[outside]

Originally Posted by burnz

school zone's for high schools..
if they cant cross the road safely by now, what chance have they got later?

have you seen these high school kids????
ears full of ipods and phones with no idea of who or what is on the road

[superpursuit83]

I am all for school zones if it helps. But in my observations its ALWAYS the MUMS that are late that are speeding through the school zones.

[flappist]

Originally Posted by superpursuit83

I am all for school zones if it helps. But in my observations its ALWAYS the MUMS that are late that are speeding through the school zones.

Ah yes, I have a "known associate" who wears blue 'jarmies and has on many occasions stated that the majority of people he meets "professionally" are bubbles driving along with their brains turned off. Hoons normally spot him miles aways...

[mr ghia]

Originally Posted by zdcol71

I don't believe "wide spread carnage" has entered the topic??.

Well exactly.
Where is the justification for this 40 nonsense?

[JC]

Originally Posted by mr ghia

Well exactly.
Where is the justification for this 40 nonsense?

Here you go:

Originally Posted by loftie

I'll put it this way... and be blunt also...

Lets say the school zone is 300m (from start to finish)...

40km/h means it takes 27 seconds to pass by the school zone...
60km/h means it takes 18 seconds to pass by the school zone...

For the sake of 9 seconds of your life (which must be O-So-Inconvenient) you're happy to increase the risk of hitting a child in front of a school??

Sure - it's up to the parents to supervise, but kids are unpredictable... If a young whippersnapper was to step out in front of you, you will have travelled further before you react, it will take longer distance to stop... to cut 9 seconds off your trip???

For me it's a no-brainer...
Do the advised 40km/h speed...
Don't Complain...

For the safety of MY kids... make up your 9 seconds somewhere else...

It's sensible - those of you who don't have kids have no idea how they lack understanding of so many things - road safety and road sense being but 2. It's our job as parents to teach them that. However, at school, they are not in our control so we are left with teaching them at home and hoping the put it into action at school. I am confident that with no outside influences, my kids would be OK with the road; the 7yo twins are both sensible and MOST times look both ways before crossing a road/carpark etc (MOST - at 7, they're still not consistent though). Even the 5yo has some idea to stay off the road and to look what's coming before just running across - again, MOST times. However, they have friends, and what do 5yo and 7yo kids like to do more than anything else in the world? Talk and play and "show off" to their friends. And what happens when this action is taking place? They forget about road sense.

So, if it means that if my kid does forget, and happens to get knocked over on the road, I know he has more chance of surviving if the car is doing 40, than if the car is doing 60. This assumes of course that the speed limit is being obeyed. Which is a big assumption. Which is why I think that school zone speed infringements should carry DOUBLE the penalty of any other speeding infringement - from a selfish point of view, I want to know that my kids will make it home each night, and those that disregard my kids safety pay a price that might get their attention (ie hit in the hip pocket hard).

The same principle, i suppose, is why they have 40km limit at road works - to keep cars from hitting construction workers, equipment etc (have you seen some the way some of the people we let on the roads drive - they are oblivious!). I do, however, agree that in a lot of cases (not all) road works speed limits can be taken down at the end of the working day to allow normal traffic flow.

Lastly, do I sometimes go a little faster than the posted limit? Yes
In a school zone? No. Never.

[zdcol71]

Originally Posted by mr ghia

Well exactly.
Where is the justification for this 40 nonsense?

I never looked too hard for any sort of justification for the pleasure I got out of watching my kids and grandkids being kids.

[Streets]

Everyone is interested in the safety of children, except when it takes precedence over their perceived right to get to where they're going quickly, it seems.

Taking the foot off the gas pedal is not exactly difficult. I don't know why everyone gets so stressed about low speed or speed variations. Enjoy the ride more.

[gcg2503]

Originally Posted by Streets

Everyone is interested in the safety of children, except when it takes precedence over their perceived right to get to where they're going quickly, it seems.

Taking the foot off the gas pedal is not exactly difficult. I don't know why everyone gets so stressed about low speed or speed variations. Enjoy the ride more.

Its quite disconcerting that some people are really splitting hairs about what is really an insignificant portion of their day

The OP was about 40kmh speed limits when kids arent in school. 100% agree that is frustrating and defies logic.

As for debating about the merits of reduced speed limits when school is on, I find it extremely comical. I love the holier than thou opinion of some the posts above......great entertainment.

[FPV8U]

Im 100% Behind school zones in primary school areas, less so around highschools but thats another arguement i guess..

What i do feel is that the school or council should be responsible for covering those signs on non school days or holidays, i don't have kids at this stage in my life and most of the time don't know when particular schools have gone back or arn't back yet.

IMO thats not my responsibility, i'll happily do the speed but make it clear when it is and isn't "In Force".

[Nikked]

Originally Posted by FPV8U

Im 100% Behind school zones in primary school areas, less so around highschools but thats another arguement i guess..

What i do feel is that the school or council should be responsible for covering those signs on non school days or holidays, i don't have kids at this stage in my life and most of the time don't know when particular schools have gone back or arn't back yet.

So, you say that you don't have kid's so councils should cover signs when not in use...


...but you only want Primary schools to be zones? Its easier to know that every school is in a 40k zone....

[Halfmo Rocks]

Originally Posted by Nikked

So, you say that you don't have kid's so councils should cover signs when not in use...


...but you only want Primary schools to be zones? Its easier to know that every school is in a 40k zone....

i haer you, all or nothing makes it easier...but he's saying us non parent adults have no damn idea when school is on...i know i don't. if you come through by 3:20, most/all cars there to pick kids up have left...but it's still a school zone, and i'd have no idea

[zdcol71]

Originally Posted by gcg2503

Its quite disconcerting that some people are really splitting hairs about what is really an insignificant portion of their day

The OP was about 40kmh speed limits when kids arent in school. 100% agree that is frustrating and defies logic.

As for debating about the merits of reduced speed limits when school is on, I find it extremely comical. I love the holier than thou opinion of some the posts above......great entertainment.

In QLD, school zones are, as far as I see, designated with permanent road signs. I have seen the electric ones used outside normal school terms when the schools are acting as day care centres and are turned on at appropriate times (that don't always marry with the 7-9, 2-4 school times).
I can't see what is comical about debating the merits of reduced speed limits when school is on,(unless you are saying it's a no-brainer), and I can't see who is espousing holier than thou opinions above.
Not sure I see your point?