Why Is This School Not in a School Zone?

Throughout his elementary school education, my son has attended a school that has not been in designated a school zone. We are not in a small town where one might impart a Rockwellian familiarity and consciousness about a school's location and a “your kids are our kids” spirit that would make drivers pass the school with greater care despite the speed limits which fade them.  

This school, an eminent sandstone presence which has been in the neighbourhood for over 100 years, preceded the thoroughfare that was placed next to it and throughout its existence, the compromises made with regards to zoning in this area have consistently accommodated the traffic and established this artery, 14th Street NW, as a key thoroughfare in the overall grid of the city.  There are signs advising a 30km/h speed limit and no passing on the lower traffic avenues north and south of the school (8th and 7th Avenues NW) but these are less of a concern that the four lanes of traffic that stream past the school to the west.

14th Street Northwest and Hillhurst School.  Red dots
indicate intersections where left turns are illegal.

In 2020, the pedestrian overpass that crossed 14th Street between 7th and 8th Avenues and gave students west of the 14th Street safe access for their daily walk to and from school was torn down.  The possible replacement of that overpass has been linked to the development of commercial property north of the school (rather than linked to the students’ safety) and for the time being, pedestrians wishing to cross 14th Street to go east on this block are required to use a street level signal and the “beg button” to indicate their presence and need to cross safely.  There is a car-length space between the crosswalk and the stop line, but paint offers little assurance of pedestrian safety or automotive compliance.

I cross 14th Street as many as a dozen times a week, with my son and on my own, and would be hard-pressed to say that drivers self-regulate sufficiently for the circumstances in this area.  For the facilitation of steady traffic flow, left turns for any traffic at the intersections north and south of the school — at 7th Avenue and 8th Avenue NW — are prohibited, though given the frequency with which vehicles have overlooked or disregarded these signs and executed a left turn anyway suggests that the prohibition is nothing more than a passive suggestion.  The departed overpass once had two of the six signs indicating the left turn was prohibited, but those signs disappeared with the pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.  The signs that remain are to the right shoulder of the road, well out of the line of sight of drivers who are looking to complete these turns from the centre lane.

The SUV left of centre in the image taking an
illegal left

I have seen several accidents unfold, especially at the intersection of 14th Street and 8th Avenue, and seen the aftermath of several accidents on this block on a regular basis.  There was also one accident where an SUV took out the plexiglas bus shelter that was at the corner of 14th Street and 7th Avenue, covering a corner of the school playground with the glassy shrapnel from the high-speed impact.

Still, little has been done to calm traffic on this thoroughfare, despite the school's proximity and the need to prioritize the safety of pedestrians, which includes the student body of this elementary school.  As far as I know, a child has not been struck in the crosswalk yet, but I have seen too many drivers pass through this block of 14th Street intent on making the illegal left to get a convenient parking spot for yoga, to take a convenient, again illegal, short cut to get to their medical appointment or to simply facilitate a change of direction on 14th Street.  I have also seen several cars drive through the red lights needless to say.  The abundance of moving violations on this lone block of 14th Street is evidence of the utter disregard of drivers regardless of their whereabouts.  The illegal left turns may be more of an inconvenience to other drivers, but there is very low probability that drivers making illegal lefts onto 7th or 8th Avenues are respecting the need to reduce their speed to 30 km/h when their priority is to turn off without slowing the flow of traffic on 14th.  They feel overentitled to drive with disregard to the laws specific to this block and when tragedy does, inevitably, strike, drivers will insist that they did not know. The reality is that they do not care.

3 minutes, later an illegal left turn from the
northbound traffic

Drivers are a hard lot to hold responsible for their behaviour and in light of this, there ought to be a commitment on the part of the city, the Calgary Police Service and, perhaps the Calgary Board of Education as well to make a much stronger commitment to protecting the students who attend this school.  Stronger enforcement of the illegal lefts, whether by photo detection, more vigilant police presence or more assertive signage to get drivers’ attention would be a start.  Replacement of the 60-year old pedestrian crossing that was torn down just before the start of the 2020-21 school year should not be predicated on the development of the property north of the school.  The safety of these children should not be pinned to the slow-turning wheels of a development project that may have been negatively impacted by the challenges of approving and developing a mixed use project in this area.  Pedestrian safety, especially in this neighbourhood ought to receive more than lip service and a misplaced trust in drivers.