City of Regina begins changing school zone signage, asks motorists to reduce speed

Although the City of Regina's school zone speed changes don't officially take effect until September, signage to reflect the changes has already started going up.

Faisal Kalim, manager of traffic engineering with the City of Regina, said crews will be in and around school zones changing signage from now until Sept. 1 of this year, when new limits technically come into effect.

Even before then, though, "the city is asking everybody to follow the speed limits as posted," Kalim said Wednesday.

"It's a good tester for when we actually go live on Sept. 1. Please keep in mind that Regina Police Service certainly can enforce in school zones still, so be mindful of any dangerous driving activity in the zones."

Last month, city hall approved a school zone speed change from 40 kilometres per hour to 30 kilometres per hour, to come into effect Sept. 1.

Council also approved a change to the times when school zone speeds are in effect. Lower speeds will, as of September, be in effect seven days a week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Previously, the lower speeds were in effect from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Kalim said it will cost the city around $450,000 to change the school zone signage and complete other work in the zones. The money is coming from the automatic speed enforcement program, a pilot project that recently ended.

The City of Regina has 93 school zones with approximately 1,200 signs to replace, according to Kalim.

The change in speed is estimated to add only a few seconds of travel time to most people's commutes through a school zone.

"At 40 kilometres an hour it takes about 14 seconds to get through a zone," Kalim said. "Now, with 30 kilometres an hour, that will be raised to 18 seconds."

Rules around U-turns in school zones are also changing — they'll now be prohibited in school zones.

According to Kalim, multiple stakeholders were consulted before the school zone changes were approved by city hall. The Regina Police Service said it's hard to enforce rules around U-turns, and having wording in the bylaw to address that makes their jobs easier.

Kalim said the city is looking to get signage changed at a pace of around two signs per day.