OHTA.ca

Recently in my town (suburbs of Ottawa) one of our busier 40km/h zones got bumped up to a 50km/h zone (yes it actually happened ). Down the road a little bit there is a high school and then an elementary school a little further along. The elementary school zone has community safety zone signs but remains a 50km/h speed limit. Before the elementary school though the signage near the high school shows a 40km/h speed limit with a community safety zone sign on top of that and then below it says:

School Days

Mon-Fri

7:30-9:30

1:30-3:30

(not positive on the exact times or whether the sign was bilingual, I didn't get a good enough of a look at it)

My question is how this is supposed to be interpreted? I could see it logically meaning 3 different things:

1) It is only a community safety zone (fines doubled) during those hours.

2) It is only a 40km/h zone during those hours and always a community safety zone.

3) It is always a community safety zone and always 40km/h those times are just when kids are most likely to be in the area.

Anybody have some insight as to what exactly this sign is trying to tell me? I figure the safest bet is to assume #3 as I will end up with less tickets making this assumption but I'd like to know what it actually means.

Without "School Days" I would say #2, but I've never seen a sign like that before.

Email whoever makes your local bylaws and they should be able to tell you what's going on.

i'll pick door # 3

I'll say 3 as well. I think the sign below it is just indicating the school hours for awareness.

I'll disagree with all of the above. A speed limit sign is just that: here's the speed limit on this part of the street. The only exception is the speed reduced when lights flashing sign which sometimes is placed around schools.

Community safety zones are in effect during certain hours, days and months of the year. The by-law will state when. The sign goes up but won't state the times. Just because there is a sign doesn't mean it's a 24/7 thing.

Finally who goes to school for 2 hours in the morning and two in the afternoon? It's most likely the daycare drop off hours that allow special parking/stopping.

School Days

Mon-Fri

7:30-9:30

1:30-3:30

Arrival and exit times from school. Those are probably the times when the "lights" are flashing........