Traffic Calming Near Schools

Today, I'm writing about one of my pet peeves - TRAFFIC! I love traffic - as long as it's web traffic. I don't care too much for the other kind.

 

Anyway, I read an article last month that mentioned how many children were killed or injured crossing the road at their school. I was mortified! I speak for myself, but when I approach any school in my car, I take extra care. It seems there are some "moegoes" (stupid people) out there that just don't use common sense - or just don't care.

 

It seems that schools that have instituted scholar patrols at crossing points have a much lower incidence of tragedy than the schools that don't. It was pleasing to see that the police were prepared to come on board and teach the youngsters how to handle traffic. Good on you!

 

I pass two schools every day on my normal route. Both schools have physical traffic calming devices (i.e. speed humps). I would expect that the local municipalities would install these types of traffic calming measures at EVERY school. But no, sadly this is not the case. I don't know if this is just a South African phenomenon. The excuse is, it's too expensive. Figures like R50,000 per speed hump were mentioned. I'm not a road engineer, but this sounds totally ridiculous! What is a speed hump? Some tar or concrete set in a raised form across the road, and some paint to demarcate it properly, plus a sign or two. BAD MUNICIPALITY!! SHAME ON YOU! Perhaps it you implemented some work efficiencies, it wouldn't cost so much.

 

The good thing about good physical traffic calming measures, is that they are very effective. Hit the bump too fast, and you are in for some expensive repair bills for your vehicle.

 

I think that it should be law, that the roads around every school should have physical traffic calming measures installed - and that the government should foot the bill.

 

If your school wants traffic of the good kind, as mentioned at the top of this post, why not check out www.SchoolReportServices.com. School Report Services is the leading provider of SMS-based report card distribution mechanism.