New Saskatoon playground and school speed limit zones to take effect Sept. 1

Over the next few months, there will be some new signs going up around playgrounds and sports fields in Saskatoon, and speed limit signs coming down around high schools.

At a May 24 meeting, city councillors unanimously passed Bylaw 9829, allowing for the creation of new, year-round playground zones where there’s equipment for children 14 years of age and under, and sports fields where there are programmed activities, according to senior transportation engineer Nathalie Baudais.

“The effective hours for playground zones will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. year-round,” she said. “We’ll also be adjusting the hours for school zones from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. year-round as well, because most of the schools do have play equipment that are used by young children.”

Some of the current school zone boundaries will also be adjusted “to reflect national guidance and best practices.”

Baudais said all of the high school speed zones will be changed to “school areas,” meaning the current speed limits of 30 kilometres per hour will be removed, allowing the speed to remain 50 km/h. But U-turns will still be restricted.

Work to change signage in playground zones will begin immediately and continue throughout the summer, while changes in school zones will start at the end of June.

“The effective date for the zones will be Sept. 1,” said Baudais. “So if you see the signs installed before then, we would appreciate you complying with them, but the bylaw changes won’t be in effect.”

The cost for the new signage, painting new crosswalks, education campaign costs and other materials for 2022 is $830,000.

The creation of playground zones may be new for Saskatoon, but they’ve been in place in many other cities including Regina, Edmonton, and Calgary for some time.

“When we did our jurisdictional scan across the country … the hours varied significantly across the country,” Baudais said. “There was no set standard. Calgary and Edmonton actually no longer use school zones; they’ve combined everything into playground zones.”

The idea to change or adjust speed limits and add school zones began as a council directive motion for administration to review residential speed limits, school zones, playground zones and seniors zones and how they could be set in Saskatoon.

City council voted to keep residential speed limits the same and to increase pedestrian crossing times in areas with a high concentration of seniors.

All of the new rules align with the Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) guidelines.

Not all school zones will be changed right away. St. Mary’s Wellness and Education Centre School near 20th Street West, and Ecole Henry Kelsey near 33rd Street West will have reviews completed independently after Sept. 1.

“Council asked us to take a look at them from a safety perspective and pedestrian crossing perspective … I’m not sure what the changes will be yet,” added Baudais.

Drivers can expect to get more information from the city throughout the summer.