Page 115 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 13 February 2019
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An NRMA submission to the New South Wales inquiry on school zone safety in 2011 found that motorists’ awareness of school zones and their ability to comply with the speed limits was significantly improved where flashing lights had been installed:
This is because it alerts drivers both to the fact there is a school zone, but also that it is operational. The introduction of flashing lights helps remove the ambiguity of whether it is a school day, the time of day, and the start point and end point of school zones on the road … The NRMA believes that a motorist’s awareness of school zones and ability to comply with the speed limit has been significantly improved where flashing lights have been installed.
A 2011 study into speeding behaviour in school zones by the Institute of Transport and Logistics at the University of Sydney identified that things like flashing lights in school zones reduced drivers’ speed without impacting on vehicle flow during times when school is not operating.
Overseas as early as 1993 a paper by the US Institute of Transport Engineers on modified signs, flashing beacons and school zone speeds showed that flashing lights reduced average speeds by 9.3 per cent and that this reduction was maintained.
Today flashing lights are placed at every 40-kilometre-an-hour school zone in New South Wales and are in operation during school hours. All New South Wales schools have at least one set of school zone flashing lights, and an additional set of flashing lights has been installed at more than 500 schools that have multiple busy entrances.
If this government is serious about increasing safety around schools, flashing lights should surely be included in a commitment to improve road safety around our schools. If Labor and the Greens are serious, they would not be picking just a handful of schools for a crossing supervisor but would make them available for every school that needs one. There is little point in having painted signs on footpaths around schools showing a safe way to school if the whole safety message is lost at the pedestrian crossing because there is no-one there to supervise the traffic.
We do not believe a few painted signs and a couple of graphics can be considered a traffic safety plan in its entirety. We know that every school is different and we would work with every school to deliver an individual safety and traffic management plan for the school community. We would consult with parents, with traffic experts and with school staff to understand the complexities and the needs of each and every school. We would assess whether the traffic flows are working and whether dedicated drive-throughs and short-term parking are needed or need to be expanded.
We know schools like Forrest primary seem to have got it right. They did it themselves, but such basic things as a workable traffic plan should be core business for a government. We know already that schools are jam-packed nightmares morning and afternoon. Just look at schools in Gungahlin where local residents know there is no point in trying to get out of their driveways before school goes in.
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