Playground, School Zones To Start at 7:30am

Alberta Transportation is working on changing playground and school zones so they begin one hour earlier, at 7:30am as opposed to 8:00am currently for school zones and 8:30am for playground zones. In our previous discussions on the effectiveness of playground zones, many of you expressed frustration towards motorists that went 30 km/h before the start time of the playground zones. Now with these changes working their way through the legislature, we can all slow down.

“It doesn’t make sense to have a playground zone when cars are only slowing down after the bell has rung,” says Laura Shutiak, president of the Calgary Association of Parents and School Councils.

“The big issue has always been morning times, and anything that deals with that is helpful.”

Alberta Transportation Minister Luke Ouelette said his department is looking to standardize both school and playground zones so they both start at 7:30am and end at 5:00pm, leaving the option for municipalities to alter the end times through bylaws. Calgary currently has its Playground zones end 1 hour after sunset, but according to Ald. Ray Jones, chairman of the city’s transportation committee, it may look towards having both Playground and School zones end 1 hour after sunset.

Having both school and playground zones start and end at the same time is great for motorists. If a driver spends any time deciding if a school or playground is active, then they are not focusing on the road and potentially forgetting to slow down. The province will be holding public consultation and information meetings throughout the province before the changes are made.

Happy Halloween 2008!

Pumpkin Carvings by beyond member, barmanjay

I normally start these type of posts with some sort of history of the day but Halloween is different. You see, its the one time of year where it is socially acceptable for younger women to bring out their inner slut. This year will be especially crazy as Halloween falls on a Friday allowing for more partying. Tonight all the guys will not only have alcohol on their side to help them score, they will also get to hide their ugly mugs behind some sort of clever Halloween costume!

Since this is an automotive blog, its my duty to throw the following message out there. Please slow down when driving tonight especially in residential neighborhoods as there will be many children out there trick-or-treating. During my days of going door to door to get free candy (woot!) we didn’t start until 6:00pm but I have noticed parents are starting to go earlier each year with some starting as early as 5:00pm to try to catch some sunlight so be on the lookout! :)

In our playground zone debates, many drivers here on beyond said they normally just drive slower when there are actually kids around (regardless of whether or not they are in a playground zone). Tonight, you can bet that there will be kids on nearly every residential street and the last thing on their minds will be to look both ways before darting across the road.

If you’ve carved a pumpkin this year, snap a photo of it and post it in the pumpkin carving thread! I’ll post a bunch of them in a future blog post.