I had to pay a speeding ticket the other day. I wasn’t driving very fast when I got the ticket, but it was in a school zone.
School zones are tricky. I didn’t realize I was in one until the RCMP member explained why he’d stopped me.
I was used to, on every city block, there being a sign saying when you can’t park there due to street cleaning, or indicating other restrictions. But it’s not so with school zone signs.
I was clocked at 44 kmh on a block where there was no school. There wasa school zone sign setting a maximum speed of 30 kmh, however it was turned the other way, informing the traffic traveling toward me they were enteringa school zone. I could only see the back of the sign. Just past that sign, on my side of the road, was a 50 km speed limit sign, which was apparently telling me I was leavingit.
So, the way it works is, once you see a school zone sign, assume it’s a school zone until you see a 50 km speed limit sign, whether or not you go through an intersection to another block or even turn a corner.
It does makes sense once you think it through, but it’s not exactly intuitive way. I had to go back and drive the area again before I figured out exactly what had happened.
Still, no excuses. Now I know, and so do you. Keep it in mind.
Jayne Foster
