Accident Analysis and Prevention 43 (2011) 1887–1891 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Accident Analysis and Prevention journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/aap Short communication Managing speed at school and playground zones Lina Kattan a,1 , Richard Tay b,∗ , Shanti Acharjee c a Department of Civil Engineering, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada b Chair in Road Safety Management, Faculty of Law and Management, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia c Transportation Engineer, City of Red Deer, Red Deer, Alberta, Canada article info Article history: Received 22 November 2010 Received in revised form 30 March 2011 Accepted 5 April 2011 Keywords: Road safety School zone Playground zone Speed abstract Since speeding is one of the major causes of frequent and severe traffic accidents around school and playground areas, many jurisdictions have reduced the speed limits in these areas to protect children who may be at risk. This paper investigated the speed compliance, mean speed and 85th percentile speed at selected school and playground zones in the City of Calgary in Alberta. Our results showed that the mean speed was lower and the rate of compliance was higher in the school zone compared to the playground zone, 2 lane roads relative to 4 lane roads, roads with fencing, traffic control devices and the presence of speed display device or children, and zones that were longer (>200 m). Accordingly, this study provided recommendations to improve the effectiveness of school and playground zone speed limits. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction According a World Health Organization (WHO) report, traffic collisions are one of the leading causes of deaths and injuries among young people in North America and around the world (WHO, 2007). Nearly 400,000 young people under the age of 25 are killed and millions are injured or disabled in road traffic crashes every year. Among the young lives lost on the roads, children are of special con- cern to many road safety professionals and the public due to their increased vulnerability. They might be at higher risk in a traffic col- lision for various reasons. They are less conspicuous to drivers than adults due to their smaller physical size. They also have a higher tendency to behave unexpectedly compared to normal adults, espe- cially when they are preoccupied with other activities. Moreover, children have more difficulty judging a vehicle speed and distance (Dewar, 2002). The high proportion of school children using the road in their travel to and from schools and playgrounds, especially as pedes- trians and cyclists, makes them particularly at risk around these areas. Since speed is considered a major factor in the fatality and injury risks, many jurisdictions have reduced the legal speed limit around schools and some have extended it to playgrounds as well. The faster a vehicle travels and strikes a pedestrian, the more severe and potentially fatal the injuries will be (Garder, 2004). Anderson et al. (1997) suggest that a fatal pedestrian accident is six times ∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 3 9479 1267; fax: +61 3 9479 3283. E-mail addresses: lkattan@ucalgary.ca (L. Kattan), r.tay@latrobe.edu.au (R. Tay), Shanti.Acharjee@reddeer.ca (S. Acharjee). 1 Tel.: +1 403 220 3010. less likely to happen if the vehicle’s impact speed is 37 km/h (10% chance of fatality) as opposed to 45 km/h (60% chance of fatality). Hence, the province of Alberta in Canada has set the speed limit in school and playground zones at 30 km/h. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effectiveness of school and playground zones in reducing traffic speed. The City of Calgary is used as a case study because it is one of the few cities in North America where playground zones are very common. In addi- tion to studying both school and playground zones, this research also examines the effects of several traffic and roadway charac- teristics on traffic speed and speed limit violations. This paper is organized as follows. A brief review of the literature is presented in the next section, followed by a description of the data collection effort. The data analysis and results are then described. The final section presents some discussion and concluding remarks. 2. Literature review The literature on the effectiveness of reduced speed limit at school zones is mixed. The findings may differ from one city to another or from one location inside the same city to another. For example, Young and Dixon (2003) found that school zone signage had no significant effect on speed in the American city of Atlanta. Another speed study conducted by the Canadian city of Saskatoon found that only 23% of motorists complied with the speed limit and drove at or below the 30 km/h speed limit in the absence of any enforcement or traffic calming measures (Lazic, 2003). Fur- thermore, a similar study in the City of Edmonton showed that very few motorists complied with a 30 km/h speed limit although the average speed within the trial school zones decreased by 0001-4575/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2011.04.009