40 zones near schools
I have a gripe with the 40 zones around schools. I reckon its a stupid rule, that nobody follows anyway. Yes, I can see where it may be practical in small streets around schools that aren't close to major arterials, but where they plonk a 40 zone on a major street - its really gets my goat.
I cite one example: Sunnyholt Road in Blacktown. Sunnyholt road is a major dual-carriageway, and is normally zoned at 70. THere is a 40 zone outside Blacktown Public. NOBODY slows down to 40, and people start honking if you do.
As far as I'm concerned, a car is bigger than me, its heavier than me, and its faster than me. So I look out for the car, and stay out of its way. Not the other way around. And the sooner school children learn this, the better. THere is plenty of signage and there are traffic lights. So as far as I'm concerned, if you are run over, most of the time, its your own damn fault.
We stress the importance of careful driving so much, but what about people taking responsiblity as pedestrians. CHECK the road, before crossing, if you have a green walk sign. Don't assume the driver has seen you. Simple things like that.
People say kids are not as road aware, and this is true; but we should not be sheltering people (including parents) from their responsibilities. I think there is too little responsbility on the individual today - its always someone else's fault. And this is just another manifestation.
Besides, even if there are a few accidents, we'd just be improving the gene pool :p
I cite one example: Sunnyholt Road in Blacktown. Sunnyholt road is a major dual-carriageway, and is normally zoned at 70. THere is a 40 zone outside Blacktown Public. NOBODY slows down to 40, and people start honking if you do.
As far as I'm concerned, a car is bigger than me, its heavier than me, and its faster than me. So I look out for the car, and stay out of its way. Not the other way around. And the sooner school children learn this, the better. THere is plenty of signage and there are traffic lights. So as far as I'm concerned, if you are run over, most of the time, its your own damn fault.
We stress the importance of careful driving so much, but what about people taking responsiblity as pedestrians. CHECK the road, before crossing, if you have a green walk sign. Don't assume the driver has seen you. Simple things like that.
People say kids are not as road aware, and this is true; but we should not be sheltering people (including parents) from their responsibilities. I think there is too little responsbility on the individual today - its always someone else's fault. And this is just another manifestation.
Besides, even if there are a few accidents, we'd just be improving the gene pool :p
I think this reflects a larger problem in society today. We are so selfish that we put a couple of minutes of our time as being more important than a child's life.
Sure the parents should be watching and waiting etc, but the split second it takes for a child to lose focus and run after a ball or whatever is all it takes. I dunno about you but a split second lapse of concentration happens to the best of us...
Equally, could you not argue that the problem with society today is that we take responsibility away from the individual and place it on the collective? In days past, people too responsiblity for their personal safety.
I think there is a good argument for school zones generally, in that young children do not have developed peripheral vision, and do not have the capacity to judge the speed of an approaching car.
This therefore raises a number of issues. Firstly, is it wise to build schools on major arterial roads in the first place?
Secondly, if there is a lack of obedience in relation to the speed limit, why not make it a serious speed limit. At the moment in NSW, you lose demerit points at a different rate for speeding if it is in a 40 School Zone as opposed to any other speed zone. This on its own encourages people to not take the school zones seriously.
Thirdly, perhaps there is an argument for not all school zones to be zoned 40. Low risk school zones should not include a reduced speed, and perhaps as a general rule, the school zone should only cause the speed limit to fall by 10kph.