The city of Grande Prairie Enforcement Services is reminding motorists to slow down on Monday as school zone speed limits will be returning to 30 kilometres per hour.
Sgt. Charlene Gallant says with students heading back to class in a staggered manner in 2021, the decision for a blanket approach made the most sense.
“There are a couple of schools that are going back on August 30th, so the city just wanted to increase safety for all school zones and eliminate any confusion,” she says.
“We would hate to say they’re in effect on the 31st when, in fact, we have schools opening on the 30th.”
Sgt. Gallant says despite the zones not being in effect since May 2021, as students moved to online learning, it’s important to focus on safe driving practices as soon as possible. She says enforcement services will be out in force to make sure drivers are doing their best to keep speeds down.
“We will have officers, every day, assigned to various schools throughout the city on a rotational basis to ensure we hit all the schools and try and assure the safety of all students,” she adds.
She adds they’re also reminding parents and residents not to park too close to a crosswalk in a school zone, as it creates its own safety challenges.
“Every year we seem to try to educate and help people realize it’s a safety concern if they cross too close to the crosswalk,” she says.
“Oncoming vehicles cannot see children that are in the crosswalk looking to cross, [as] it reduces visibility… so it’s so important people stay 1.5 metres behind the crosswalk,” she adds.
Between enforcement services and automated traffic enforcement, over 2,000 tickets were handed out in the first two months of the 2020 school year.
