Walking my grandkid to/from school, it absolutely floors me how many dangerous drivers there are around kids.
In a matter of maybe 10 minutes, I’ve witnessed:
- at least a dozen cars illegal parked. It’s not the parking that bothers me, but the fact that these cars are often parked on turns or just before intersections, making it impossible for other drivers to see small kids.
- Several people not stopping at stop signs, including at the exit of the school parking lot.
- One car, who completely blew through a stop sign at the front of the school, made a left turn and nearly hit a guy walking his kid. The driver didn’t even slow down.
- Super fucking huge pickup trucks parked in the school parking lot, but their long ass hangs well over the sidewalk near the kindergarden area, leaving very little space to use the sidewalk.
- Speeding. Obviously, you have to have speeding in school zones, right?
This happens every day, during drop off and pick up. I was told that bylaw were “cracking down”, but no, they aren’t. If they were, our municipality would generate $5000 in fines each and every day at every school.
The other day, I rode my bike past another school as kids were getting out. Not only was their massive parking lot completely full, but they had blocked the bike trail (WITH PYLONS) to make space for more cars. Then as I entered onto the road, cars were illegally parked along the road and on a bridge for a like 100m. Making it extremely difficult and dangerous to cross because they blocked visibility for me and other drivers on the road.
I asked the cross guard if these students all lived out of town, requiring every parent to drive them home; he obviously didn’t get my joke.
Seriously, fuck cars. All of them!
There are actually a lot of ways to slow down cars beyond asking nicely with signs. And it’s not just speed bumps.
The way we design our roads psychologically encourages speeding. Shitty people are out there but road design is important too.
I have a video on the tip of my tongue that I’d like to link, demonstrating this, but I’m too lazy to look it up right now. Maybe later.
I think most “major” roads are like that, but the school I have to get to is in a subdivision that isn’t busy. And people are still rolling through stop signs while looking at their phone. I think being in a car detaches people from the reality of what’s going on around them. Like playing a video game from behind a windshield.
It’s stuff you don’t really think about like the visual width of the road and long straightaways that let you detach from the dangers of speeding. It’s not just main arterial roads. Traffic calming can and should, arguably more than anywhere else, be employed in those back neighborhood roads as well.
For speeding, yes, you’re right. I was talking more about general inattentiveness, bad judgment, actual malicious driving behaviour, and poorly skilled drivers. No amount of infrastructure can correct that! LOL
Not Just Bikes - The Wrong Way to Set Speed Limits [STO6]