The city may be adding a half-hour onto school zone times if an amendment to the traffic bylaw is passed on Wednesday.
The land use, planning and transportation committee could be changing the start time of school zone hours from 8 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.
Ald. Andre Chabot explained that the city is hoping to create consistency between school zone times, which they have legislative authority over, and playground zone times, which fall under provincial authority.
“If we’re going to change our times, it would just seem prudent to change the … start times for the playground zones,” said Chabot.
If this amendment is passed, Chabot said it would come in to effect for the upcoming school year. The committee is projecting the cost of changing the school zone signs will be $25,000, but that does not include the cost of informing drivers of the changes.
“The $25,000 doesn’t envision any kind of a communications plan, and they say that typically ignorance is no excuse for breaking the law, but if we’re making a significant change like that it would only seem prudent to put out a communications plan to make sure that people are informed,” said Chabot.
