By Thia James

POLL: Bus arm ban to remain in place

May 28, 2013 | 6:36 AM

City council has voted to keep the ban on the use of bus stop arms within Prince Albert in place, denying a request by petitioners to repeal the near three-decades old bylaw on Monday.

Bylaw No. 54 of 1983 prohibited the use of the flashing, extending stop arms on the sides of school buses to bring traffic to a stop when a child is let off the bus. While the city is upholding the bylaw, it’s also going to ask the school boards to change their routes to prevent children from having to cross the street.

Coun. Martin Ring moved the motion to keep the bylaw in “full force and effect,” as per the recommendation outlined in a report submitted to the executive committee by public works director Colin Innes on May 16. But, when putting the motion forward, he attached the rider asking for the school boards’ involvement.

“Let’s go back to the school boards, and let’s ensure that they are going to put those rules in place and have their bus routes re-designed so children do not have to cross that street when catching that bus,” he said.

The rider was inspired by one of the solutions offered by Cynthia Mamer and Lori Stevenson, the two parents who led the charge to petition council to end the school bus stop arm ban. They made a final pitch to council, refuting a number of the points that Innes made in his report.

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But in her list of three potential solutions, Stevenson suggested re-drawing the routes.

“In 1983, AR Linner, in his initial letter recommending the implementation of Bylaw No. 54, wrote that, ‘children are never required to cross the street when loading or unloading from a school bus,’” Stevenson said.

Coun. Ted Zurakowski agreed that the safest way for a child to leave the bus is “off the bus straight up into the home.”

He said the city has three partners on this – the school boards.

“Unfortunately – or fortunately – it does come down to the number of bodies they have to enter their school divisions. And perhaps, if they can agree to a same level of service when it comes to student pick-up/drop-off, that might get rid of a few roadblocks.”

Then, Zurakowski said he’d be willing to look at how Prince Albert as a municipality could help the school boards with the suggestions made by Mamer and Stevenson.

Mamer and Stevenson offered council other suggestions for improving school bus safety, in lieu of the bylaw repeal.

Mamer also implored council to make a commitment to launching a school bus safety campaign. “Whether or not council decides to repeal the bylaw, the key to reducing the number of injuries or fatalities due to school bus loading and unloading is education.”

She said this can be done through public service announcements, mail-out inserts, newspapers, billboards, flyers, and publicizing the prosecution of violators.

While the two offered suggestions to council for ensuring school bus safety, Mamer and Stevenson made a last-ditch effort to ask for the bylaw’s repeal before council’s final vote.

Stevenson asked the councillors to consider what they would say to a grieving parent if a child were to die boarding or unloading from a school bus.

“When the grieving parents come to you demanding to know why you did not do more, to save their child, to protect their child, will you honestly be able to look them in the eye and tell them that children are safer when drivers are allowed to pass the stopped school bus?”

To which, Mayor Greg Dionne paused before telling Stevenson that she ended with a “controversial statement — that could also happen with the stop sign out, arm out.”

Mamer replied, saying they aren’t ignorant to that, but contended the rates are “definitely reduced” with the stop arms.

As council leaves the bylaw banning the use of bus stop arms in full force, the city is looking at other ways to promote safety in school zones, namely the use of traffic calming devices.

After the council meeting, Dionne outlined a couple ideas the city is looking into.

“We have a plan. We have in our possession now probably about six or seven devices. And we’re soon going to bring a report forward to council. And it goes right from speed bumps to curbs jogging out to structures right in the middle of the road that you’re going to have to dodge, so there’s no way you’re going to be able to say to us you couldn’t see the sign,” the mayor said.

He said the idea that really “excites” him is one that they plan to adopt in the school zones, ones that come to Prince Albert via Saskatoon, where the signs are in the middle of the road.

“So there’s no way you could say that you didn’t know it was a school zone because you have to move your vehicle so you don’t hit the signage that we’re going to put up. And that’s what excites me.”

But the traffic calming devices won’t be deployed only in school zones – Dionne said they could be used in other high-priority areas, such as Riverside Drive.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames