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![\"MIKE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/4516592_web1_260828-SCHOOL-ZONES-0005.jpg\")
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
Former school crossing guard Luna Z\u00fa\u00f1iga supports lowering the limit and doing so on a year-round basis, but she said that alone won\u2019t fix the chronic safety issues at the site.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know what needs to be done (to improve school-zone safety),\u201d she said. \u201cBut I do know that when a six-year-old is crossing the street, a car needs to be fully stopped.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg\u2019s 30 km\/h school zones return on Tuesday \u2014 a full week before the 2026-27 school year starts \u2014 following a summer hiatus. They are in effect every weekday, from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., from Sept. 1 until July 1.<\/p>\n
The WSD board was unsuccessful last year in making an appeal to city council to permanently reduce speeds around its elementary school buildings.<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s road-safety unit is focusing on piloting traffic-calming measures, such as in-street crosswalk signage, and reviewing whether any regional roads should be designated as 30 km\/h school zones.<\/p>\n
Grant Avenue, where Z\u00fa\u00f1iga was injured during a morning shift in February 2024, is currently classified as a regional road.<\/p>\n
Z\u00fa\u00f1iga said she supports lowering the limit and doing so on a year-round basis, but she said that alone won\u2019t fix the chronic safety issues at the site.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t The crosswalk at Grant Avenue and Lanark Street where Z\u00fa\u00f1iga was struck by a motorist while escorting a child.<\/p>\n Historic speeding-ticket records suggest Tuesday will be one of the most profitable days of 2026 for the city, said Curtis Pankratz, a traffic-safety researcher at the University of Winnipeg.<\/p>\n \u201cSeptember days before school starts are immensely profitable. There\u2019s nothing going on and it still feels like holidays and those are streets that are normally 50,\u201d Pankratz said.<\/p>\n The associate professor estimates photo-radar tickets in Winnipeg generate, on an average month, about $4 million. That figure is higher when drivers are adjusting to new routines during back-to-school season, he said.<\/p>\n Pankratz recently analyzed time stamps of more than 260,000 infraction records from reduced-speed school zones between September 2014 and September 2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a rule of thumb \u2014 when there\u2019s no kids (visible), there\u2019s a lot of tickets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n His team\u2019s latest research project shows overall infractions on instructional days drop, as well as average speeds, within 15 minutes of the first bell and final bell, Pankratz said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a rule of thumb\u2026 when there\u2019s no kids (visible), there\u2019s a lot of tickets.\u201d<\/p>\n The review included nearly 24,400 photo-radar tickets outside River Elm School on eastbound Talbot Avenue east of Watt Street.<\/p>\n There were 103 infractions in that 30 km\/h zone between 8:50 a.m. \u2014 which is when the first bell rings at the elementary school \u2014 and 8:55 a.m.<\/p>\n Between 9:15 a.m. and 9:20 a.m., that number spiked to 386.<\/p>\n \u201cIt reinforces what we already knew,\u201d said Chris Sweryda, an independent researcher who regularly collaborates with Pankratz, after becoming obsessed with photo radar-related corruption about 13 years ago.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople don\u2019t speed when kids are present\u2026 and it shows that people will drive accordingly, to the conditions of the road, which is the system we need to depend on.\u201d<\/p>\n Sweryda, who was a candidate in the 2025 city council byelection in the Elmwood-East Kildonan ward, said he\u2019s in favour of proactive interventions, such as the widespread use of flashing lights at eye-level, rather than punitive ones.<\/p>\n There are dozens of missing school-zone signs that need to be replaced or installed to make motorists aware they\u2019re entering them, he added.<\/p>\n Over the summer, in preparation for a new school year, the city installed traffic-calming curbs at several school crosswalks \u201cwith vehicle speeding issues, long crossing distances and poor visibility,\u201d spokesperson Julie Dooley said.<\/p>\n New in-street signage is also being set up at 10 pedestrian crossings \u2014 near Elwick, Acadia Junior High, Victor H L Wyatt, Harold Hatcher, HC Avery, Frontenac, St. Germain, Princess Margaret, South Pointe and Wellington schools \u2014 before classes start.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think it\u2019s a right to drive\u2026 but it\u2019s actually a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are also piloting a new school-area pavement marking as a way to increase driver awareness when entering a school zone,\u201d Dooley said in a statement.<\/p>\n She said these markings are being tested, starting in late September, at five schools with wide streets that are speeding hot spots.<\/p>\n Sargent Park resident Jeff Rupert said he wants speed bumps installed on Clifton Street, where there is one of the city\u2019s roughly 170 30 km\/h zones.<\/p>\n \u201cCars still rip by here during the school day,\u201d Rupert said, sitting on his front porch \u2014 the senior\u2019s usual hangout spot \u2014 facing Clifton School.<\/p>\n Neighbour Emmalee Mosher echoed his concerns about speeding near the elementary school. Mosher regularly walks her two huskies and recently experienced a near-miss there.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople think it\u2019s a right to drive,\u201d she said, \u201cbut it\u2019s actually a privilege.\u201d<\/p>\n She is \u201cpro community-based solutions,\u201d such as expanding school-patrol programs.<\/p>\n Clifton was among 270 schools in Manitoba that participated in the CAA School Safety Patrol last year. The program gives young students the opportunity to don their own high-visibility vests alongside paid adult crossing guards to help kids get to and from school during peak commuter times.<\/p>\n maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Maggie Macintosh Maggie Macintosh reports on education for the Free Press. Originally from Hamilton, Ont., she first reported for the Free Press in 2017. Read more about Maggie<\/a>.<\/p>\n Funding for the Free Press education reporter comes from the Government of Canada through the Local Journalism Initiative<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Maggie produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMIKE DEAL \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Education reporter
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