NSW school zones could operate 24/7 with increased fines for speeding drivers

http://www.news.com.au/national/report-calls-for-24-7-school-zone-fines/story-e6frfkvr-1226309359465

Call for increase in hours of school zone operation
South Australia already has 24-hour, 7-day-a-week regime
NRMA says motorists sick of being used as "cash cows"


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/report-calls-for-24-7-school-zone-fines/story-e6frfkvr-1226309359465#ixzz1qMvUeszK

SCHOOL zones should be enforced up to 24 hours a day with even higher penalties for speeding, the NSW government has been urged by its own road-safety inquiry.
In a report commissioned by Roads Minister Duncan Gay, the NSW Parliament's Staysafe Committee will this week recommend sweeping changes following a six-month inquiry into the 40km/h school zones.
The joint standing committee, which is run by Liberal MP Greg Aplin and Nationals upper house MP Rick Colless, says the government should consider increasing the number of hours school zones are in operation across the state.
Any move to add more hours of operation of school zones as well as fines will be met with fierce opposition by motorists because one of the government's most popular election pledges was to reduce the number of revenue-raising speed cameras.
School zones with a 40km/h speed limit operate from 8.30am to 9.30am in the morning and 2.30pm to 4pm in the afternoon outside more than 3000 schools.
But the Staysafe report cites examples from the ACT - where school zones are enforced for eight hours a day - and South Australia, which has a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week regime.
Raphael Grzebieta, professor of road safety at UNSW's Transport and Road Safety Research unit, said the government should make school zones 24 hours and look at reducing speeds in school zones from 40km to 30km/h.
"Even at 40km we are travelling at 10km faster than Europe," he said. "It's a matter of saving lives or allowing people to travel at speeds which are dangerous to our children."
The report also recommends increasing fines for school zones - which are already at least $60 more than normal speeding fines - to pay for a rollout of flashing lights in all school zones.
It also calls on the government to increase enforcement in school zones, with many still not having fixed cameras.
Mr Gay said he could not comment on the 19 recommendations because he was yet to receive the report.
But he said he would "closely examine" all of them.
Harold Scruby, chairman of the Pedestrian Council of Australia, said the recommendations were "wonderful" but said motorists would reject 24-hour zones.
"You have to balance safety with mobility, so 12-hour speed zones, seven days a week, would be more acceptable," Mr Scruby said.
NRMA president Wendy Machin said the state's motorists were sick of being used as "cash cows" for state government projects.
"Motorists already feel a strong sense of entrapment about school zones," she said. "We would be disappointed should Duncan Gay move to introduce any of these recommendations."
The government earns about $60 million each year in fines for school zone speeding.


Read more: http://www.news.com.au/national/report-calls-for-24-7-school-zone-fines/story-e6frfkvr-1226309359465#ixzz1qMvYVA2A