Slower speeds coming to a school near you

In May, the City of New Westminster Council approved extending 30km/h school zone hours from 8am-5pm to 7am-10pm.

This was awesome; schools are vital community hubs for parents and kids, and are active zones all day, not just during school time. Children are among the most vulnerable road users; according to ICBC, 36% of drivers have reported seeing a collision or near miss involving a child in a school zone, and every year an average of 305 children in the Lower Mainland are injured in vehicle collisions while walking or cycling.

Because all it took was updating stickers on signs, New West was able to complete this before the school year started in September, at minimal cost.

They joined other cities in the Lower Mainland including the Township of Langley and Burnaby in extending school zone hours. We thought it was time for Vancouver to join the club, so we approached council with this simple idea. Councillor Lucy Maloney was on board, and we started drafting a motion.

While working on it, we were fascinated to learn that Vancouver actually approved making 30km/h school zones 24/7 back in 2020. Huh??

This is a clause from a July 2020 staff recommendation to council, which passed unanimously.

You might be thinking, “I didn’t know school zones were all day!” Well, neither did we or anyone else, because many of the signs still say 8am-5pm:

This discovery led to a conversation with staff, who confirmed that yes indeed school zones should be 24/7, and that they’ll be changing all the signs over the next 2 months. There was a lot going on in 2020 so we won’t be too hard on them for letting this slip through the cracks. Better late than never!

We’ll be checking in to make sure this update gets completed. But for now, it sounds like our school zones are going to become slower, safer, and more predictable. Sometimes, effective activism just comes down to asking the right questions!