Winnipegs Worst Signed School Area

Signs Referenced

WC1-School Zone

RB1-Speed Limit

The School and Location

John Pritchard School is a K-9 school located at 1490 Henderson Hwy. This school is immediately adjacent to the west side of Henderson Hwy just south of Chief Peguis Trail. Due to this school's immediate proximity to Henderson Hwy, small children well be along the roadway during peak school times. At this location, Henderson Hwy is a major six-lane divided arterial roadway with a speed limit of 60 km/h.

Signing Requirements
When a school is adjacent to a roadway, that roadway must be signed with WC1 school area signs in both directions approaching the school. Due to Henderson Hwy being a divided road with a speed limit of 60 km/h, City of Winnipeg policy A-17 requires the school area signs to be dual signed on both sides of the road and to utilize larger (75x75cm) signs. Since 60 km/h is not part of Winnipeg's blanket speed area, speed limit (RB1) signs are also required to be posted along Henderson Hwy.

Signing in 2009
Unlike other Winnipeg locations where too small of a sign is used, on southbound Henderson Hwy, which is the direction abutting the school yard, there have been no school area signs for an unknown period of time leading up to April 2009. There were school area signs posted on NB Henderson north of Springfield and on the turn channel for traffic entering SB Henderson from Chief Peguis EB. Speed limit signs are required to be posted after route markers in 60 km/h zones, but the sign on SB Henderson south of the route marker at McIvor is missing. The absence of that sign means there is no speed limit posting for SB Henderson traffic that is entering this school area. The presence and absence of signs in 2009 can easily be confirmed with Google Street-View.

A Google street-view image dated April 2009 shows the absence of WC1 school area signs on Henderson Hwy SB south of Chief Peguis (Left). A similar image from June 2009 shows the absence of an RB1 speed limit posting after the city route marker on Henderson Hwy SB south of McIvor.

Google street-view images dated April 2009 show school area signs posted on Henderson NB north of Springfield (Left) which is opposite from the school and on the right turn channel from Chief Peguis EB to Henderson SB (Right).

The above map shows the signing on Henderson as it was in 2009. The red circles indicate the missing speed limit sign on Henderson SB south of McIvor and the missing school area signs on Henderson SB south of Chief Peguis.

Fast Forward to 2012

Over the past three years since 2009, the signing situation on Henderson has degraded further. None of the missing signs have been replaced and two more signs have gone missing. The median school area sign on Henderson NB north of Springfield and the school area sign on the turn channel from Chief Peguis EB to Henderson SB have both gone missing. The right side sign on Henderson NB north of Springfield is the only sign that remains.

In March of 2012, the school area signs are still missing on Henderson SB south of Chief Peguis (Left) and the speed limit sign is still missing on Henderson SB south of McIvor (Right)

Since 2009, the median school area sign on Henderson NB north of Springfield (Pictured) has disappeared. During the Chief Peguis construction, the sign on the turn channel from Chief Peguis EB to Henderson SB was removed and never replaced when construction was completed.

The above map shows the signing on Henderson as it is in March 2012. The same three signs that were missing in 2009 are still absent and two more signs have disappeared.

Conclusions
These signs have been missing for three years so their absence cannot be associated to the construction work done at the intersection of Henderson and Chief Peguis during the summer of 2011. Rather than more signs going missing, it was anticipated that missing signs would at the very least, have been installed during the new Chief Peguis expansion, but unfortunately this didn't happen. The signing on NB Henderson is less imperative than the southbound due to the school being located on the west side of the road. It can only be imagined how many city crews have driven down Henderson over the past three years without observing any of these issues. It is also disconcerting that in December 2011, crews wasted resources installing and then removing redundant truck route signing instead of replacing the missing school area signs at Chief Peguis and Henderson (See truck route report section B4.7.8). School area signing should be a priority at school locations that involve high speed (>50 km/h), arterial/major or divided roads and small children (K-4). The John Pritchard School location meets all three of those criteria. Considering school area signs are present at Dakota Collegiate and Grant Park High School which involve more mature students, there is no justification for not signing at a K-9 school. This location is not unique and is actually indicative of the city-wide issues. The City of Winnipeg is currently lobbying for a reduced speed limit around schools claiming that it is for safety. With the current state of our school area signing, the city's level of care can seriously be called into question. Until our current school areas and speed limits are properly signed, there is no ability to determine if a reduced speed is warranted.

The Solution
After the writing of this document in March 2012 and attempts to communicate with the city, the signs still remained missing. The following June, a letter was sent to the school principal with the anticipation that the signs would go up during the summer. At that time, a press release was covered by local media outlining the problem of missing signs with no response from the city. http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/06/30/missing-206-school-zone-signs During the 2012-13 school year new efforts were undertaken. A protest was held on October 29, 2012 in front of the school and another press release was released. http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/10/29/school-zone-signage-is-scary-says-wise-up-winnipeg http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/10/31/winnipeg-is-hiding-school-zone-signs-so-it-can-bringin-more-cash-from-speeding-tickets-activist/ http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/39/3936.asp After this coverage, the signs still remained missing. Only after a collision occurred in a school zone with a subsequent letter published in local media did the signs go up. All the missing signs except the speed sign were installed on the afternoon of November 13, 2012. It took nearly 7 months of pressure to have these signs installed. http://www.winnipegsun.com/2012/11/12/letters-nov-13 http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/have-your-say-178804261.html