Introduction of school zones to improve safety

29/6/96

The streets around Western Australian schools will be made safer and road trauma will be reduced, following the introduction of school zones.

Transport Minister Eric Charlton introduced school zones at South Thornlie Primary School today, the site of a one-year trial into reduced speed limits to create safe road environments around schools.

Mr Charlton said the speed limit around schools would be reduced by 20 km/hr for the hour before and after school to increase the safety of pedestrians and cyclists. Vehicle congestion would also be reduced.

Three schools in the City of Gosnells - South Thornlie Primary School, Sacred Heart Primary School and Thornlie Senior High School - were part of the trial to reduce the speed limit on existing 60 km/hr to 40 km/hr during specified times.

The school precincts used in the trial would become the first to have new speed zones introduced on a permanent basis.

Mr Charlton said the new speed zones would be introduced progressively throughout the year, and by the start of the 1997 school year would have been installed near most metropolitan primary schools.

He said Main Roads would initially concentrate on local streets around pre-primary and primary schools and then high schools.

The focus would be on metropolitan schools initially but would be expanded quickly to the country.

"School zones relate to an area around a school where specific traffic rules are applied to create a safer environment for children," Mr Charlton said.

"This is especially important for the stretch of road where most of the children arrive and leave the school by vehicle, bicycle or on foot, and where the traffic is most congested.

"Research shows that children have difficulty dealing with some of the hazards associated with negotiating traffic, which makes them vulnerable on roads where traffic is heavy, such as outside the entrances to schools.

"A school zone will apply to a section of the road with a direct school frontage where the speed limit is reduced by 20 km/hr."

Mr Charlton said experience in other States had shown that school zones had been accepted by motorists and that compliance was similar to that for general speed limits.

School zones would be marked by three signs indicating that the section of a street was a school zone, the speed limit for that section, and the times that the school zone applied.

Motorists not obeying speed limits in school zones would face existing penalties for breaking the law.

The school zones would complement the Roadwise Safe Routes to Schools program run by local government.

Media contact: Sally Squires 321 7333