In Quebec City, as in Montreal, motorists driving inside school zones are speeding, data collected by the CAA-Quebec Foundation shows. Around schools, up to 96% of motorists exceed the posted speed limit, with some exceeding 70 km/h in a 30 km/h zone.
Posted at 12:11 pm
This stems from an “observation activity” organized by the CAA-Quebec Foundation last week.
In Quebec, speed readings were taken during lunchtime near a Saint-Claude school. In a 30 km/h zone, motorists average 45 km/h.
Of the 25 actions taken, two motorists were caught driving at speeds exceeding 70 kmph.
“This is a very sad fact, because 92% of motorists are driving too fast, even when the signs are clear,” the foundation wrote in a press release.
Montreal drivers are not very disciplined. As children reach school during the day, the average speed in a 30 km/h zone is 40 km/h. The gap is “slightly smaller compared to the Quebec school, but all the same, we observed that almost all drivers, or 96%, are still driving too fast,” CAA-Quebec said.
The behavior of motorists approaching school zones is not much better. In Quebec, 96% of them were driving above the 50 km/h limit (56.7 km/h on average), while in Montreal, six out of ten motorists exceeded 40 km/h, an average of 42.4 km/h.
The CAA-Quebec Foundation believes that “more work needs to be done to make school zones safer.”
“We are concerned about speeding in school zones. Putting children at risk to save a few seconds at best is a very bad idea,” said Marco Harrison, director of the CAA-Quebec Foundation.