Plans for more 20mph speed limits
SAFETY zones that force motorists to cut their speed could be introduced outside county secondary schools.
The Lincolnshire Road Safety Partnership is looking at extending its current scheme beyond primary schools to give children between the ages of 11 to 18 greater protection on their school journey.
The safety zones can include zig-zag road markings, 20mph speed limits and speed humps.
Road safety experts believe they have a greater impact in cutting motorists' speed than road signs.
Research in 2005 showed that drivers were slowing down an average of 3mph and, in some instances, dropping their speed from 33mph to 28mph when entering a designated safety area.
Greville Burgess, the partnership's principal road safety co-ordinator, said he was hopeful that work to assess the current impact of the safety zones would soon take place.
He said: "Another survey needs to be done thoroughly and impartially. I will be looking at a full evaluation in the not too distant future.
"Safety zones are designed to reduce the risk to children and, although the regulations are not legally binding, co-operation to enforce them is required.
"We do it because we want to work in partnership with schools and communities to make the areas safer."
Mr Burgess also said that recent research by the partnership had also shown that the number of collisions taking place outside schools during the school day was very small.
He added: "When we look into collision data, the number of incidents, such as collisions or near-misses, are very, very rare."
He said that the biggest number of injuries to children suffered in these incidents involved those within the car rather than cyclists or pedestrians.
Safety zones include advisory 20mph speed limits and zigzag road markings.
Martin Hollingsworth, county council senior highways officer, said: "A letter was sent to each school in the county in early September last year, to invite applications for school safety zones.
"There are 380 schools in Lincolnshire and around 115 have sent responses and inquiries."
2 Comments
by Mr M Goldacre, Folkingham
Wednesday, December 09 2009, 1:05PM
“While I agree speeding outside schools is completely unacceptable and needs to be addressed, I also feel that it is easy to point the finger at the motorist - It wasn't that long ago that schools taught the 'green cross code' but todays youth appear to have a built in self destruct when it comes to road safety; dashing out from behind parked cars with iPods on full so they can't hear approaching traffic, riding bikes on pavements then jumping them into the road etc, etc. I know we all point the finger elsewhere but people need to responsible for their own actions and this includes pedestrains. Motorists can be easily targetted for these accident reduction schemes and I fully understand that by slowing vehicles reduces the seriousness of any collision but surely not having accidents is a more preferable option. By re-introducing such schemes as the green cross code will help children (and adults) realise that the highway isn't to be taken likely, regardless of how slow the traffic maybe.”
by mr n watson, boston
Friday, November 13 2009, 10:44PM
“like many other parents that are outraged at the cars parking on the zigzags outside schools ,my two daughters attend st nicholas c of e school on woad farm road,to be honest the area is like a war zone in the mornings and evenings trying to get across the road and trying to dodge the idiots who treat the road as a formula 1 race track,these so called speed bumps or speed restrictors would make a big impact along this stretch of road and make a big impact on the parents fears of there children being safe.How much longer before anything is done,there has already been a couple of incidents to my knowledge in the last six months where children have been struck by vechiles and been injured,so please please consider not only placing these outside secondary schools but also outside junior schools too.”