Mitch SorensenAs the city looks to lower the speed limit around junior high schools, we say it’s unnecessary and like to think of ourselves as one of the smart kids. I can assure you that you are quite wrong.
The city of Edmonton was recently recommended to extend the school zone speed limit of 30km/hr to junior high schools, a recommendation they will surely enact into to policy. Before this takes effect, this speed limit only applied to the streets of areas around elementary and K-9 schools, while high school and junior high school areas were left to natural selection and common sense. The law is waiting to be approved by city council, and it’d take effect next September.
Some have opposed the law citing the multiple playground areas that need attention, but a report is due next year and it’s a safe bet that the city will do the same. The other opposition suggested is that junior high students are old enough and smart enough that lowering the speed limit won’t have an effect as these kids know how to cross the street. This opposition is the problematic one as it is objectively wrong. Junior high kids are not smart, and anything to assist those little dumbasses is a good thing.
Back in grade nine, I was one of those dumb kids — like incredibly dumb kids. When I moved from my hometown of Preeceville, Saskatchewan to Edmonton, I didn’t believe in things like “crosswalks” or “jaywalking” or “cars hitting pedestrians.” When I was first crossing the street in my neighbourhood, a delivery van was honking its horn at me and almost hit me. Boy was I offended. How dare he honk his horn at me? I was crossing the street he should’ve stopped for me. I was heated for the rest of the day. Then the first week of school at Dan Knott Junior High school, the bus stop was on the other side of the street. Once again I, like all the other students, would just cross the street wherever and think nothing of it. That was until a parent honked his horn at me and yelled “You’re jaywalking you know!” I all but laughed at this man. I had yet to learn that Edmonton was not the sleepy town of Preeceville. I wish I could say that I got a jaywalking ticket or that I got hit by a car and that it wasn’t out of convenience that I accepted the pedestrian system of Edmonton. But that better end to this story is not how it actually happened.
I applaud the city of Edmonton for this move as it ultimately makes the area safer. I agree that students of that age should know better, but we all know from experience that they don’t and need a bit of hand holding.
