Why students made traffic signs at this school in eastern P.E.I.

Students at École La-Belle-Cloche in Rollo Bay, P.E.I., are taking traffic-calming measures into their own hands and trying to get drivers to slow down with 55 homemade signs.

On Tuesday morning, parent volunteers installed the signs, and Marise Chapman, the school's principal, said she noticed a change right away.

"We've seen a tremendous difference, even today, because we can hear them slowing down," she said.

"We just would want that to happen regularly."

'RCMP have been great'

Chapman said speeding in the area has been a constant concern since the school opened last spring.

"I think this has been on the agenda for our parent committee every month now since last year," she said.

Parent Melissa MacDonald said members of the school community have written letters to local representatives, the Department of Transportation and RCMP, but the speeding hasn't stopped.

"The RCMP have been great. They've been working with us, with regular patrols ... but they can't spend all day, every day here in front of the school. They're busy people with lots of other things to do as well," she said.

'We'd hate to see an accident happen'

Chapman said she hopes the student-made signs will bring more concrete action from provincial officials by the beginning of the next school year.

"We've exhausted, we felt, every avenue to have local officials look at a speeding radar or something, a sign, a flashing sign of some kind to bring attention to motorists," she said.

"With the school year coming to an end, we felt it was the right time to maybe put some more information out there and hopefully have something in place for September."

MacDonald said the Department of Transportation did adjust a few signs to make them more visible to drivers, and changed markings on the road, but parents and school officials aren't satisfied.

"You know, we'd hate to see an accident happen and I know it's costly to have that equipment put in place and maintained but I don't know if you can put a price on a life," said Chapman.

Chapman also pointed out the concern isn't just that students would get hit by cars, but that a high-speed accident on the road could send debris flying, posing a danger to the kids.

People unfamiliar with area

MacDonald said she thinks people in the area still aren't used to having a school right on that stretch of Route 2.

"There's lots of people who aren't familiar to the area that pass by as well. So we're just looking for some markings to be increased, so everyone's aware."

Chapman agreed with MacDonald's assessment.

"People aren't used to the area," she said. "They might not realize that it does go down to a 60-zone during the day and they carry on going, you know, in the excess of 90-plus kilometres per hour and that's the danger for us."

Chapman said she just wants to ensure the area is safe for students.

"Children will be children. They'll chase balls, they'll chase balloons and if something ever happened, you know, I don't think we could live with each other or live with it," she said.

"The parent committee will keep pushing until they have something that they are satisfied with."

The province didn't respond to a request for comment before the time of publishing.

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