Well, school is all back in here and so are the school zone speeding problems. Happens every year, when school starts again. Those young folks, late for work, won't slow down for a school zone and get pulled over. And, there are those that don't have kids, or want kids, and care less about the kids that are out there. What do you think?
Our kids are still off until the first week of September, and I tell you it's absolute bliss on the roads while they're off...when they return it's hell on the roads due to the school run, the parents returning to work, the roads jammed solid after the kids are picked up from school while the parents go shopping.. the heavy school traffic added to the already heavy traffic at rush hour of employees of schools and colleges, not to mention the thousands of College students themselves ...
I always follow the school speed anyway..because sometimes there are things going on in the summer. My grandson started High School on Aug 1! It says when kids are present on the sign..I always see kids. I'm a speedy driver but I do slow down in a school zone...ALWAYS. When I got my speeding ticket years ago...I went to traffic school for a whole Saturday so it wouldnt go on my record. Guy went around the room and asked everyone why they were there....the majority were there because of speeding in a school zone. A few for texting and running a stop sign.
In Millinocket, we have three schools, elementary, middle, and high school, but the middle school and the high school are in the same building, so we really have only two campuses. Both have a school zone but I never see our one cop at the middle/high school campus zone. He is always at the elementary school zone, and that makes some sense. Plus, the elementary school is in a residential area, whereas the middle/high school campus has fewer residences around it, so there are more kids walking to the elementary school. Very few people speed through that zone since the police car is clearly seen. Some cities have school zones even when students are not allowed to walk to school unaccompanied, and that makes less sense to me. When all of the students are coming and going from school in buses or driven by their parents, why have a reduced speed? I know I mentioned this elsewhere in the forum, but it was a few years ago so I'll tell it again. When I lived in Los Fresnos, Texas, something went wrong with the automated school zone sign one year, and it was coming on in the summer, when no classes were in session, since the school did not have a summer school program. Despite the fact that it was clearly an error, the police wrote tickets to people who weren't following the (erroneously) posted speed limit. Someone appealed it to the county level and lost. We're not allowed to decided for ourselves whether a law makes sense, and to disregard those that don't.
It's a mixed bag where I live. In some areas people pay attention and in some areas they don't. We also have problems with people passing school buses that have their flashing lights on. I worry most when school starts up in the fall when we have a fresh crop of kindergarteners that haven't developed their street smarts. IMO the only way to get folks to slow down and to obey many other laws is with strict enforcement and stiff fines. It goes along with the broken window theory, if you don't bear down on the minor violations you will soon have to deal with much more serious violations. It seems like today many people don't worry about what is right or what is legal they only worry about what they can get away with, sort of a yay me screw you mentality.
In rural northern Maine, school bus drivers are pretty accommodating. Most often, they will pull over but not open their doors or turn their stop light on until the cars behind them have passed. Of course, in higher-traffic areas, that wouldn't be practical.
We have some very, very inpatient people that live here. I could be because the pace of this city has really increased, since we moved here back in 2009. People don't like waiting for a school bus to unload or load, they run red lights and stop signs quite often here.
I'm usually a speeder but children's lives are more important. I would never even think of going around a school bus!! Schools are usually in slower speed areas anyway...we do have a lot of schools here though. I try to drive on streets that avoid them..easy to do since Fresno is a grid. It doesn't kill me to slow down to 25 mph....I'd hate to be the one that killed someone's child cause I was in a hurry to go nowhere fast.
@Cody Fousnaugh They do this for one reason: because they believe, or know, they will get away with it. Therefore, the insinuation is, not enough cops around, or too many lazy cops around, or both. Frank
Over here the new school year also began on Monday this week. Drivers can be sure that there's always heavy speed limit enforcement on that day. Days before they are also reminded both on the radio and through banners that school will be back on that day. In school zones there are also big signs on the road warning of kids and showing the reduced speed limit of 18 mph. The usual speed limit of 31 mph in school zones would clearly be too high. My city is so congested during the day that speeding is almost impossible anyway and where it theoretically is there are usually no schools. I hate being caught speeding and if that happens once in a blue moon, I may have exceeded the limit by 6 mph as a maximum but don't want to pay even the minimum fine due for that. I have had a clean licence for the last 35 years now and intend to keep it that way. As @Chrissy Cross said, it would be horrifying to be the one who injured or even killed a child.