Officials with the City of Edmonton say in the few months since school zones went into effect, police are still dealing with an alarming number of drivers caught speeding through those areas.
Starting in the fall of 2014, the speed limit in school zones around elementary schools was changed to 30 kilometres an hour between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. on week days.
Transportation department officials said enforcement in school zones started in November, and since then, thousands of drivers have been issued speeding tickets.
Officials said the numbers don’t appear to be improving either – on Monday, January 26, photo enforcement caught 1065 drivers going too fast – that’s nearly four times the daily average.
“We had speeds as high as 76 kilometres per hour in a school zone,” Gord Cebryk with the City of Edmonton’s Transportation Operations said, calling that day the worst day since enforcement started.
City Councillor Ben Henderson said more needs to be done to change driver behaviour.
“I don’t know how to convince people to slow down and pay attention,” Henderson said.
“We did the school zones because people were begging us to do them, they were long overdue and the fact people are still tearing by schools is very frustrating.”
For now, officials said they’re collecting data to see how the speed limit change is working, and to look for ways to get drivers to slow down.
With files from Ashley Molnar
