School speed limits are unnecessarily complicated. So many times I’ll pass a school speed limit sign and sometimes it’s just “while flashing” which is easy to understand quickly. However, other times it has in very small print conditions such as during certain times or during weekdays or even the really vague “when children present”. Sometimes I won’t notice all of the print before I pass the sign, so I’ll just do the slower school speed limit and the driver behind me starts tailgaiting me because I’m going under the limit. So I suggest instead of having these limits be conditional school speed limits, they should just be the normal limits all the time. It wouldn’t hurt people to slow down when kids aren’t present, so just make the speed limit reduced all the time on roads around the school. Additionally, if this was the case, drivers would be used to going slow and wouldn’t forget to slow down during school hours
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I’d go further as to say the speed limit should be reinforced by traffic calming measures such as curved roads, speed bumps and cobblestone.
Agree with this as well. Always weird when the speed limit decreases and the road stays the same.
Yeah why over complicate it
Is there a school somewhere where kids go and live near? Flat 20mph limit for a 1 mile radius around the school, then 30 mph for another mile radius around that.
Cars don’t need to go at kid killing speeds anywhere near kids, regardless of if it’s school hours or not
b-b-but the econommmyyyy
Thats pretty arbitrary. I don’t think you need to be slowing down for kids around a school in the middle of the night. The thing about schools is they aren’t like parks or something, kids aren’t hanging around schools for fun. Before school opens and after after-school closes you are almost certain to NOT see a kid at a school.
Where I live, you have to slow down if kids are in the school zone regardless of the time or date.
Is that just, like, if you see a kid?
Yeah you’re right actually, anyone, not just kids, ending up getting run over by a car is a pretty bad outcome:
Cars should never need to go above 30mph anywhere they might possibly cross paths with a pedestrian.
It’s not that cars should slow down, they should only be permitted to speed up if there’s zero risk to someone outside the vehicle
Cars should never need to go above 30mph anywhere they might possibly cross paths with a pedestrian.
I promise you that if that became law, 95% of roads would be fenced off overnight.
I mean… isn’t that how it works in cities? Like proper cities, not American suburbs? I’m in a pretty big city right now and I don’t think I ever went above 30 mph until I entered the motorway
They definitely have a good reason for existing so I’ll have to disagree with you there but they definitely are often very confusing and difficult to follow. In my city they also are so dramatically lower that basically no one follows them.
A better solution which I’m sure most people would hate would be to ban cars from the area around schools with some minor exceptions.
I don’t think that would work. How are you going to pick up your kids? They would have to walk to where cars are allowed to go, which defeats the purpose.
Every school in the whole country has the same school days, and the same school times. You don’t need to read every sign.
Most of them flash the reduced limit on a timer. They don’t require any thought.
Maybe this could also go in c/fuckcars
In absolute time spent, driving 20mph instead of 45mph for a few minutes is rather small. But people lose their mind, and don’t care if it means putting kids in danger. People don’t think like that.
I think the problem isn’t so much the signage and limits as it is we built roads that encourage driving unsafe speeds. That and we built a world where everyone driving their own private vehicle is normal, and often the only practical option. But changing all of that is a lot harder than lowering speed limits.
For those interested, Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt digs into this and many other things about traffic in the west. I’ve read it twice and plan to read it at least one more time.
All new cars are connected to servers, all new cars use throttle by wire, many brake by wire.
So…we exactly where every car is and how fast it is going, and we can limit the speed of a car without morons ignoring signs and killing kids.
Slippery slope. Wonderful attack for dangerous hackers as well
And if your car has radar that shows you the speed limit it doesn’t recognize the times or the “when flashing” and then your car is probably telling lexisnexis you’re speeding when you aren’t
School zones and stopping for the school bus are probably the only traffic laws I truly and fully support.
Children are most vulnerable to being hit by cars near schools and in residential areas.
The only ones? You don’t truly and fully support speed limits, lane driving, obeying traffic signals, using indicators?
I do not need a law or rule to tell me to stop my car at a red light or to drive at a safe speed on the freeway. I do that because I want to be safe on the road. School zones are special traffic rules that exist only during certain times. They are enforced strictly by law and are not primarily for the safety of the motorist. They exist solely for the safety of pedestrian children within the school zone.
I did, however, notice the glibness of your comment. I apologize that this runs contrary to your original statement, which is ultimately incorrect, but it is what it is.
So are you an anarchist? That’s the only way this logic would make sense to me.
School zones don’t have to exist. Roads near schools could simply have permanent reduced speed limits instead of time-restricted ones. The issue is that children are more likely to be struck by vehicles where they congregate most, namely in school zones and residential areas.
Because of that, this is the one area of traffic law I fully support. That does not mean I oppose other traffic rules. I do not have to personally endorse traffic lights, stop signs, or road signs in order to follow them.
I’m not sure where the idea of anarchy comes from. I am explicitly agreeing to follow the rules established by the government.
My point is that I don’t need the government to tell me to stop at a red light. It is obviously in my own best interest to do so.
By contrast, there is no inherent self-interest in slowing down in a school zone. That is precisely why specific laws exist to mandate it.
Sometimes I won’t notice all of the print before I pass the sign, so I’ll just do the slower school speed limit and the driver behind me starts tailgaiting me because I’m going under the limit.
Why do you think they wouldn’t tailgate you anyways.
Honestly good question.
