As the end of the school year in Calgary steadily approaches, drivers are being reminded that it’s no excuse to hit the gas.
The city no longer has school zones. In 2019, Calgary converted all school zones to playground zones, meaning the slow speeds are in effect every day, whether school is in session or not.

The limit in every playground zone is 30 km/h from 7:30 a.m. until 9 p.m. daily.

Despite the change seven years ago, police say they constantly receive complaints about problem playground zones.

In Deer Run, dozens have taken to social media to demand more be done to curb speeding along Deer Ridge Drive Southeast.

The post on the Deer Run / Queensland community page lists excessive speeding and passing in the busy playground zone as just some of the concerns.

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Deanna Panting lives within that playground zone.

” It’s infuriating,” Panting said. “I’ll be standing out here and I’ll see people go by at 60 km/h or sometimes more than that. Oftentimes people drop their own kids at school and then speed out of here.

“Last week, a little girl was nearly hit in the crosswalk.”

Many in the community are calling for more to be put into calming measures like speed humps, overhead lights at the crosswalk and flashing signs to warn drivers of their speed.

The city councillor for Ward 14, which includes the communities of Deer Run and Queensland, says the city can put all the money in the world into traffic calming, but it’s only one part of the solution.

“This is an enforcement issue. If you don’t fear enforcement, there’s no reason not to speed, so this is something we need to work with our police service on,” said Landon Johnson.

“I mean we can do all the speed mitigation we want, but it’s not going to change driver behaviour without enforcement.”
Staff Sgt. Andy Woodward of the CPS Traffic Unit says resources to enforce the speed zones are limited.

” We get traffic safety requests coming in all the time, and they’re trying to hit as many problem places as they can,” said Woodward. “We are getting the help of our traffic safety team which is the bylaw traffic safety team.”

The fine for speeding in a playground zone begins at $120, plus two demerit points.

Depending on speed, it increases to nearly $500.