SCHOOL ZONES

[Zetec20]

Every morning i go through a school zone at the posted speed (40kmh) and every morning i see the lollypop lady and kids and parents crossing the road there BUT every morning i also see cars (mainly 4wds) illegally parked near the crossing in the no stopping zones, and i see cars doing u turns over double whie lines in the school zone, and i see parents dragging their kids across the roads not at the crossing, and then these same parents have the nerve to look at me as if i'm doing something wrong because i have p plates on the car and it's noisier than what they're used to hearing. someone try to make sense of that.

also when i went to primary school they never need lollypop ladies because of something we were drilled on constantly, does anyone remember the WAIT, WATCH, WALK ads? i still remember the song after 15 years, as annoying as it was, when i used to go to cross a road it would play in my head.

[Walkinshaw]

Good point. Drivers are not worse today. Kids are just stupid.

[Zetec20]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

Good point. Drivers are not worse today. Kids are just stupid.

lol kids are stupid, and it's the parents faults, the same people that whinge about everything else are causing half the problems

[ADSXR8]

Originally Posted by Walkinshaw

Good point. Drivers are not worse today. Kids are just stupid.

I disagree. Drivers these days are far more agressive, impatient and careless. In the past week there has been a number of incidents at crossings in Sydney and it wont improve until drivers of motor vehicles turn there brains on. We are all driving lethal weapons and should take more care, particulary around schools

[WILDTRAKPX2]

Originally Posted by ADSGTP

I disagree. Drivers these days are far more agressive, impatient and careless. In the past week there has been a number of incidents at crossings in Sydney and it wont improve until drivers of motor vehicles turn there brains on. We are all driving lethal weapons and should take more care, particulary around schools

I agree! The immature mentality being shown here is unbelievable. To make matters worse, "stupid kids" are now behind the wheel driving through these zones. At least we can blame your parents.

[Raptor]

Originally Posted by ADSGTP

....Drivers these days are far more agressive, impatient and careless.....

My theory on this is because so many have been hounded to give up smoking which used to relax them but is now socially unacceptable just about everywhere and have instead taken up drinking more caffeine :

[nobbystang]

Arguments both for and against. One of the pedestrians run over in Sydney recently was done so by a person overtaking 2 cars stopped to give way, WTF. The other one, poor little sophie, was being pushed by her carer. Yes she was run over by an 80 year old man but, no-one makes any mention of what the carer was doing other than pushing her across the crossing.

On a positive note i was glad to see they're starting to introduce flashing 40 signs around schools, hopefully they coincide with the school hours

[new2ford]

Originally Posted by nobbystang

The other one, poor little sophie, was being pushed by her carer. Yes she was run over by an 80 year old man but, no-one makes any mention of what the carer was doing other than pushing her across the crossing.

Nobody's been game to say it yet but I suspect the carer was doing what I tell my kids not to do - don't step onto the crossing until all traffic has completely stopped. My son takes this to an excruciating degree. If he sees a car moving a block away he waits. Must drive the stopped motorists crazy but at least he's alive. There are some very very stupid people driving cars as epitomised by the one who overtook two cars stopped at the crossing and hit a kid.

I agree with Raptor about the unnecessary zones on highways where the footpaths are fenced off and there's an overhead pedestrian bridge but the law on school zones is a blunt instrument being used out of necessity to clobber one of the world's less alert driving populations. If you drive in Europe for a while you'll see what a nation of thickos we are. People get the laws they deserve. (Ford owners exempted from this - I think you can often judge people from the cars they drive and Ford owners are of the higher order of intelligence! : )

So keep the zones - it won't solve it all but its better than nothing.

And so true about the caravans in the middle lane on the F3 Keepleft. Some things do make you feel nostalgic about Oz. I came upon a rare one of these in the UK once so I cheekily passed him on the left. What a display of light flashing and horn tooting that produced!

[merlin]

Re pedestrian crossings.

Latley (as in the last 7 days) I have gone to cross at least 3 crossings and on each occasion the oncoming car sped through instead of giving way to me on the crossing. Obviously being in my mid twenties I have the sense to stop walking and not be run over but seriosuly motorists seem to have forgotten that when a pedestrian gets to a crossing you stop.

Last occasion (yesterday arvo at a nameless shopping centre carpark), I stepped onto the crossing, first car came through and didn't stop (me ****ed off), second car then decided they would also came through (a mazda 6). I then decided to swing my steel-cap boot into their rear-three-quarter panel whilst yelling at them. Rather large dent and then the car screeched to a stop.....so I ran off giggling - stupid thing to do? or justified?, meh I still not sure why I did it...fed up i guess.

[Walkinshaw]

Some people here require the switch turned to "ON" on the "spot when somone is sarcastic" area of their brain.

[Kroc]

Up here in the Northern Territory School Zones apply from 07 00 untill 17 30

School starts at 8 and finishes usually at 14.30 yet as u see are still in force untill 17 30.

As a shift worker that sometimes drives home semi comatose after a nightshift sometimes id like a reminder in the way of those Audio lines before a school zone if u put in 10 meters of those babies b4 a school zone im pretty sure people would realize u need to slow down.

We dont have demerit points so that part of the equation doesnt apply to us but have u noticed in the more politically influent areas that more funding seems to apply to add things like walk lights etc ??

Kroc

[kempster1]

Originally Posted by Shockwave XR8

I agree! The immature mentality being shown here is unbelievable. To make matters worse, "stupid kids" are now behind the wheel driving through these zones. At least we can blame your parents.

I could not agree more

I do not beleieve the attitude poeple have to been made to slow down for a few hundred metres.
It may be slowing down your trip by 30 seconds or a 1 minutes, get a life this is protecting kids we talking about.
The attitude from a few poeple I am seeing here is the reson why these laws have been made.

[kempster1]

Originally Posted by Kroc

Up here in the Northern Territory School Zones apply from 07 00 untill 17 30

School starts at 8 and finishes usually at 14.30 yet as u see are still in force untill 17 30.

As a shift worker that sometimes drives home semi comatose after a nightshift sometimes id like a reminder in the way of those Audio lines before a school zone if u put in 10 meters of those babies b4 a school zone im pretty sure people would realize u need to slow down.

We dont have demerit points so that part of the equation doesnt apply to us but have u noticed in the more politically influent areas that more funding seems to apply to add things like walk lights etc ??

Kroc

If your driving around in a condition that you can not read road signs, you should not be driving.
Also you can still loose your license in the NT if you get to many speeding fines in a 12 month period.

[DJR David]

Once you become a parent, you will always slow down near schools.
Why not slow down to 40km/h when passing a school. Kids coming out of school have their minds elsewhere. I would like to invite anyone who disagrees with me to sit down with a parent of child killed by an idiot speeding.
No I don't beleive speed kills. I believe inappropriate speed kills.
Like flying passed a school. Please slowdown.

[Kroc]

Wonders if some forum readers have the "taking life to seriously disease"


Kroc

[DJR David]

Taking life to seriously, no

taking someones life. someone will today unfortunately

[turboute]

I think that as the population increases so does the amount of stupid drivers - I do think that there are more stupid drivers on the road but I think that it is still in proportion (ie.0.5% if people srewing things up for the rest of us) If you look at the road fatality rates around they are holding fairly stready (I am pretty sure - I have not looked at them for a while)- even though there is more and more people coming onto the roads.

As for the bloke driving too slow on the freeway - those are the types of people who may not be involved in many accidents but they do cause bottlenecks in traffic and there are alot of prangs occuring in heavily congested traffic. Good on the cop for pulling him up - If you cant travel near the speed limit on freeways you should take a different route.

[70caprigt3k]

Ok well i can honestly say that i don't obey the speed limit all the time, most of the time yes but all of the time no but in a school zone i will always slow down to 40, and so they should make tougher laws about speeding in a school zones. Around my area its crazy whenever i drive through one at the right speed there will be without fail at least one hero that will come flying through and sit on my *** the whole way though some even flash their lights at me (thats when i hit the brakes real quick). What annoys me the most is that these people will speed and run the risk of injuring or killing someone's child with no real problems but if it was turned around and their child was hit they would be calling for the most severe penalty possible for them. My point being that kids are unpredictable everybody knows that so why take the risk? just slow down even if it makes the trip to work or whatever longer isnt it better off being late than killing someone? personally i welcome the tougher penalties itll make people think twice before they reach a school zone.

[Kroc]

At the end of the day any feature that lets u know of a school zone or an area that requires u to slow down that is effective and works is worth looking at. Some seem to have missed this point.

U only need to drive over audio lines once to realise its time to slow down so anyone that speeds after doing so deserves to be fined to the full extent.

Kroc

[lisa76]

Quite simply, children aren't capable of perfectly judging speed and distance of moving vehicles. They come out of school talking with their friends and their minds aren't in top gear when it comes to safely getting across the road. My 7 yo certainly isn't capable of it and I as her parent consciously choose to get her across the road and to/from the car in complete safety. There is no other course of action IMO. Plain and simply, children need adult supervision when crossing roads. Motorists also need to be more aware in school areas - particularly those who don't have children as I agree you become more aware of school zones and what children are like once you have your own.

In many cases they aren't signposted well enough. There should be flashing lights clearly visible to let motorists know when the speed zone is in force. The other grey area is pupil free days. Technically, there are no kids in school that day. Should people still get a ticket on those days? Should they be operational when there are no children at school that day?

[pertuan]

Just a theory... Kids nowadays probably lack the spacial awareness that we had as kids. When we were kids, we played outside. We kicked a footy in the park. We rode our bikes around so we learnt to develop our senses to detect where things are around us.

Kids nowadays dont play outside in the park anymore. They play their X-Boxes and Playstations. Thus unable to develop their spacial awareness. I blame parents for providing these mind sucking "toys".

On another note, I could be.. and am most likely sprouting crap. But its a possibility I believe. Thank you, I wont waste anymore of your time.

[nobbystang]

Originally Posted by merlin

Re pedestrian crossings.

Latley (as in the last 7 days) I have gone to cross at least 3 crossings and on each occasion the oncoming car sped through instead of giving way to me on the crossing. Obviously being in my mid twenties I have the sense to stop walking and not be run over but seriosuly motorists seem to have forgotten that when a pedestrian gets to a crossing you stop.

I will always step out infront of a car trying to push through a pedestrian crossing but only if I have eye contact with the driver. They know we are there and have right of way as I know when I'm driving. Guarantee that 90% of the time they're looking at you anyway and just taking advantage of the fact they're bigger.

[ltd]

I always stop at pedestrian crossings, I don't feel I am ever in that much of a rush that I should risk hitting someone or worse still killing someone. On nights when people are drunk and just dart out across the road, I drive cautiously until I can see nobody approaching it then speed up. Just not worth the risk.

Regardsing school zones, I can understand why some people speed/get confused and get angry.
In NSW, we are so over regulated it is reaching ridiculous proportions. The school zones in NSW are only seen as a cash cow for Iemma the Dilemna, he has no concern even though we have had several accidents of children being hit for the last two weeks. NSW Gov answer; after 3.5 years of an alleged trial, we are finally going to get flashing lights at our school zones - Just like the rest of the world. Problem is, in the budget just announced there is no money allocated, and to fund the lights these beauraucratic oxygen thieves want corporations to pay for the installation and maintenance through sponsorship.
In other words, nothing will happen in the immediate future. Not wishing to run off on too far a tangent but when the water in our dams run out and we need to return to the days of the "dunnyman", I'll call him as he delivers more BS than anyone.


When motorists get to school zones they are so frustrated at using NSW roads, that they become inpatient. Trying to drive through the gridlocked, narrow, tolled, delapidated goat tracks of Sydney that are littered with speed humps that the local council has seen fit to introduce every 200 metres is a major annoyance for everyone. The degraded and rundown public transport in NSW is so bad (and has gotten worse thanks to the timetable of lesser services for more reliability) has only forced more motorists onto already congested corridors. Placing of thousands of new residents in built up areas thanks to the proliferation of unit blocks everywhere where there were formerly houses has only added to the congestion, as there is no new public transport available to move these new residents.

The nett result of letting these childless, chauffeur driven Oedipus obsessed morons run this state has seen more motorists than ever before trying to get to the same places yet on the same run down infrastructure. Obviously, more cars + no new or widened roads = more congestion. And really, whoever insists on two lane motorways should be taken out into a paddock and shown the demise of old yellar.

Anyway I digress, on any given day at any given school you will see the 4wd's roll up in a clearway, then stop for little jonnie and janie to alight, frustrating motorists further at this flagrant disregard for the law. Where's the cop to stop this idiot impeding traffic? Down the road with a radar watching the melee but never doing anything about it. You encounter this after spending an hour or so in traffic to move 3 klms, then to cop abuse by some versace wannabe in her tramped up 4wd. Some of them don't even care about which side they let their kids out on, and you witness some 8 year old almost get run down by the car in front. Then, after witnessing a display of natural selection at its finest, you're told about how bad motorists are, and how they're gonna reduce speeds even further. I mean, WTF is the point here? Do these fuggars want major cities like Sydney to be a little village with horse drawn carts and no commerce? The dumbest thing is the idiots in gov and the rta etc can't figure out why people are so p1ssed using the roads. Add to the mix changing the speed limits every kilometre or so just to confuse everyone further, and put a revenue officer/police officer down the end with a radar to make up for a budgetary shortfall in consolodated revenue. No wonder people lose focus on the roads.

I better stop ranting now, I'm getting so worked up I may just have a spell of "the vapours".

[Greg M]

It's all about revenue, and by hyping up the public that speeding kills gives them the justification to maintain speed camera's, high fines and loss of licenses. In Queensland if you have a company registered vehicle, you can choose not to nominate a driver and pay a higher fine if pinged by a speed camera or a red light camera. Tell me that's not blatant revenue raising. If they were serious about the road toll, then speed camera's would be positioned on dangerous, high accident area's of road instead of being hidden on straight high traffic flow area's where they can maximise revenue.
It's all crap and we motorists need to take a stand - a world gone wrong with all of the do's and don'ts