The Ottawa Police Service’s three-day traffic blitz in early January cracked down on traffic violations in school zones across the city, but unsafe driving is an ongoing issue for busy Centretown-area schools.
For Jim Tayler, principal of Glashan Public School, a middle school bounded by Kent, Bank, Arlington and Catherine streets, unsafe driving around the school zone, such as speeding and distracted driving, is something they have to keep a close eye on.
“One (concern) would be people who speed, particularly on Arlington. Many of our students walk on it and it is also a pick-up location,” says Tayler.
Speeding is of particular problem in the winter, as streets become narrower and traffic congestion increases, says Tayler.
These slippery winter conditions mean drivers should be extra cautious, but in the Ottawa Police Service’s latest city-wide school zone traffic enforcement project, Project Interlude, officers had to issue 191 provincial offence notices in a three-day span from Jan. 5 to 7.
A total of 54 charges and 137 warnings were issued throughout Ottawa, says Const. Jon Hall, of the Ottawa East District Traffic Section and the co-ordinator of the city-wide project.
Among the most common violations in school zones were speeding, disobeying traffic signage and distracted driving, but there was also an issue at one Ottawa school in particular with drivers not clearing the snow off their vehicles. This was noted 63 different times, says Hall.
Hall says the Ottawa Police Service typically conducts projects like this three times during the school year and continually consults with all schools across Ottawa to get feedback on what is happening in the area.
“We try our best to be proactive. Traffic safety and road safety isn’t just a police issue, it is a community issue and we do rely heavily on the community,” he says.
Erica Braunovan, the new trustee for Somerset/Kitchissippi, says traffic safety is always something to take into consideration with all schools in the area.
Braunovan, whose children attend Centennial Public School on Gloucester Street, also says she walks her youngsters to school in part because of the commuter traffic in the area.
Traffic safety is an ongoing issue that involves continual work with all schools and the Ottawa police, said school board officials, responding on behalf of Mike Carson, the board’s superintendent of planning and facilities, via email.
“With 150 schools across the City of Ottawa, we have a wide range of issues that can arise depending on the location of the school, commuter patterns, construction, weather, etc.,” they said.
Hall says Centretown has a denser population with more vehicles travelling, so logically there are more cars on the roads. He also says the streets are older and not as wide as those in other parts of the city.
“There’s different issues in different parts of the city depending on the engineering of the streets,” he says.
For Glashan, Tayler says the school has done a good job educating its 400-plus students about traffic safety.
He says, in his two-and-a-half years with the school, there have been no traffic accidents involving vehicles coming into contact with students in the school’s zone.
“Given our proximity to Bank Street, as a result of our location, one thing we talk about with our students is the importance of street smarts and their own pedestrian safety,” he explains.
With schools all over Ottawa, the police normally ask drivers to be aware and to put themselves in residents’ shoes, says Hall.