Primary School starts this morning in Toronto. I was out for a walk last night, and on a street with a 40 kph speed limit, cars were routinely doing 60 kph. I wonder how many kids will be injured or god-forbid killed this school year on their way to/from school by drivers who feel the rules of the road don’t really apply to them? In this auto-erotic city, sadly I’m sure the number won’t be zero. #toronto#transportation
@Jgmeadows it's a similar situation here in NYC. The opposition to fully functional speeding cameras is strong, as is the predictable uproar about changes to roadways that would keep non-motorists safer.
@NycAuntie We have a few speeding cameras in Toronto; drivers bellyache that they are just a "cash grab" by the city, and the cameras tend to get vandalized very quickly. Whenever more widespread use of 30kph (around 19mph) speed limits is brought up for residential areas, drivers you get them foaming at the mouth in rage online. Then there is their reaction to more bike lanes...
@Jgmeadows@NycAuntie
School Streets have been around for decades in Europe and Victoria BC set one up in 2019.
"A program that creates a car-free environment in front of schools at the start and end of the school day to prioritize safe walking conditions for children, their caregivers and teachers."
@AlisonCreekside@Jgmeadows@NycAuntie Vison Zero #Toronto "solved" the speeding traffic issue in front of our local school by installing 6 flashing yellow beacons on the surrounding streets to "warn drivers" of the school zone. The lights blink everyday, until 9 at night, 365 days a year. Of course, they instantly became background light pollution and are completely ignored. Total waste of money and did not improve the kid's safety one whit.
@gemelliz@AlisonCreekside@Jgmeadows@NycAuntie We don't have a speeding issue in front of the school - it's on a small neighborhood street. What we have - and I got my first taste today biking the kids to school - is a snarl of traffic for a few blocks surrounding the school. It's all the more frustrating since the overwhelming majority of kids can either walk, bike, be freely bused, or take transit (the subway's 4 blocks away) to school.
@brian_gettler@gemelliz@AlisonCreekside@Jgmeadows@NycAuntie I would never want to live too near a school. I lived on a P-shaped “crescent” with the egress across the street from an elementary school. I learned to avoid having to go anywhere by foot (dangerous) or car (too much unpredictable, irrational traffic) around school start and stop times.
The traffic circle in front of the high school where I taught was regularly jammed by parents trying to get as close as possible to the door before letting their kids out. Lots of people could have easily and quickly managed the drop-off on a nearby street, but nooooo… I couldn’t tell you how many of them could have walked - we had a program that kids across the city came to attend, but we were also a neighbourhood school.
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