As part of a review of posted speed limits across St. Albert, the city will also be zeroing in on hours for school and playground zones while ensuring they are properly categorized.
During the month of October, video counters will be placed at 13 school and playground zones to provide a “snapshot” across the entire city.
St. Albert transportation manager Dean Schick said the broader city-wide review could result in changes to arterial roadway speeds, but school zones and playground zone speeds are provincially outlined.
“At this point in time, it’s not necessarily being looked at, in regards to should speed limits in school zones or playground zones be changed, but more kind of the appropriate setup and utilization of them,” he said.
Data collected for the playground zone review will include when the playgrounds are highly used and where there are “potential conflict of users.” The results will be included in administration's city-wide network speed review to be presented to city council in the first quarter of 2020.
“I want to be very clear that until I see information and it’s reviewed and kind of analyzed, there’s no pre-set expectations,” Schick said. “We want to use data and the information to come forward with any recommendations, or just to report back to our council to our public, our residents, on what is happening out there right now.”
Schick said currently St. Albert follows provincial guidelines for hours of playground and school zones, but some school stakeholders indicated before-school and after-school, along with after-hour functions, can go beyond those set hours.
Data collected will look at whether the sites meet playground zone criteria, and based on data and stakeholder engagements, if they meet the requirements to extend timelines. In addition, Schick said many schools sites have playground zones attached to them, and the review will determine whether it would be more appropriate for motorist signage to focus on the playground zone.
“That’s our two key elements, is really ... time of day and the appropriate messaging and warning to motorists,” he said.
Locations for the playground zone review were chosen to provide a “holistic” snapshot of St. Albert, a “good representation of St. Albert,” Schick said. Video counters will be placed at each locations for three to five days, and the footage will be deleted after administration reviews it.
The city-wide network speed review will be examining all arterial, collector and local roadways in St. Albert, in terms of speed based on roadway design, geometric design and Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) guidelines. That review will coincide with the playground review until the beginning of November.
With the full network review, Schick said possible recommendations coming out of it could include amending speed limits on roadways by amending St. Albert’s traffic bylaw. He added no results are certain and recommendations will be dependent on the data.
St. Albert is using in-house resources for the review along with contracting out services from ISL Engineering at a cost of $79,000.
Locations
Video counters for the playground review will be in place until Nov. 1 at:
• J.J. Nearing School
• Muriel Martin School
• Lois Hole School
• Ronald Harvey School
• Sir George Simpson School/Robert Rundle School
• Ecole Mission School
• Elmer Gish School
• Father Jan School
• Neil Ross/Keenoshayo School
• Oakvista Drive playground
• Natalia Park playground
• Lacombe Park Estates playground
• Poplar Park playground
