School Zone Santa .Com

This is from Peter Olsen

I'll post this now and read it later myself
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Dear Simon,

As the School Zone Santa pointed out the web site is owned by him, not me. He was pushing the issue of school zone safety long before I became interested in it and is to be congratulated for his efforts.

In reply to the issues you raised:

1. How will a system be monitored that does not have back-to-base monitoring?

It will be monitored by the hundreds of students and parents who pass the sign each day. The schools simply assume responsibility for their own lights given that it is their children who will be affected if they fail. Offer a 5-minute early-mark (primary school) or a suitable small recognition (high school) for the first child who reports a fault in the lights. Plus roster a few volunteer parents who drop their children off every day to check the lights daily.

It is the same system that is used quite successfully to monitor virtually every other aspect of our infrastructure:
- Large potholes in the roads.
- Street lights that are out.
- Blocks of concrete that fall off trucks onto the road.
- Accidents that cause traffic snarls at intersections that do not have RTA cameras.
- Serious car crashes with people bleeding to death.
- Broken water mains that flood roads and railway lines.
- Power lines brought down by trees in a storm.
- Smashed glass in bus shelters.
- Traffic safety signs that get run over by cars and flattened.
etc. etc.

All are safety risks but we do not spend $800M on automated monitoring. That is what it would cost to install the RTA's $36,000 lights on all 22,000 school zone signs in the state.

2. How was I notified?

I was notified by the above means, namely by a parent or passer-by. More importantly each time I was notified the problem was fixed within an hour.

When the 3 sets of RTA lights at Taren Pt broke down on Monday afternoon or Tuesday morning the RTA was presumably automatically notified, yet late Wednesday afternoon, after being out for 4 school zone periods, the lights had still not been fixed. The northbound footpath sign was not working at the start of the 5th school zone period on Thursday morning.

After I advised the RTA of the problem with power to my lights it took them 2 months to fix it. So what is the point of expensive back-to-base monitoring if the problems are not going to be fixed promptly anyway?

3. You say the RTA has been doing this for many years and is world renowned. In spite of that:

- Numerous existing 40kmh signs are installed directly behind poles and trees so that they are almost invisible. See attached photo of Forest Rd Bexley cnr Anderson St. The sign on the left is obscured by a pole and the sign on the right is totally hidden by a tree. 40kmh signs like that are everywhere. It gives the appearance of a total disregard for the safety of children by the organisation that is charged with administering road safety.

- Many of the new $36,000 flashing signs have likewise been installed where they are impossible to see until drivers are almost past them. Why spend that amount of money then hide the signs behind trees and poles?

- In numerous school zones there is a set of traffic lights in the middle of the zone, but no 40kmh sign beyond the lights. After sitting at the lights for several minutes many drivers forget that they are in a school zone. Princes Hwy Kogarah is a case in point. The problem (feature) helps the government rake in $6.5M pa. from unsuspecting motorists via the speed cameras there, at the expense of child safety. Does it take a lay person such as myself to point out problems like these to the RTA's "experts"?

- The RTA did a 3-year trial of flashing lights, analysed the results in great detail and produced a huge and expensive report, yet promptly ignored the findings of its own report. The report, available at http://www.rta.nsw.gov.au/roadsafety/downloads/finalreport_flashinglights_2006.pdf found (p.65 para 5.3), based on the results of the largest and most significant survey sample "Group A", that two simple flashing lights (Type 1) reduced average traffic speeds by 50% more than the lights with flashing lights around the "40" numerals (Type 3). In spite of that the RTA is persisting with the less effective and more expensive Type 3 lights in the latest 100-school trial. That does not suggest competence on the part of the RTA.

- The RTA and Roads Minister said the technology used in the original 3-year trial at 43 schools was unreliable based on an average failure rate of once every 9 months. They said that newer, more reliable equipment would be used in this 100-school trial. The latest systems are supposedly based on years of research and hundreds of thousands of dollars in R and D yet they have broken down repeatedly in the 3 weeks that they have been operating (not 6 weeks as I said below). How did the RTA get it so wrong? Did it just install the equipment and hope that it would be more reliable.

4. You ask how I will maintain the lights if I "get the gig".

There is no "I" (me) and there is nothing to "get". I have GIVEN my technology to the RTA to use at NO COST. It is up to them how they use and maintain it. I am not earning one single cent from the exercise. They offered to refund my current out-of-pocket expenses, nothing more. I am certainly not making the millions of dollars at taxpayers expense that the current tenderers stand to make. If that was my aim I would have tendered $5,000 vs their $36,000 to do the lights, installed them for under $1,000 (including back-to-base monitoring), and made millions.

I am not "angry that I have not been given the gig" as you say. I am angry that the RTA is persisting with expensive technology that has been shown to be less effective and no more reliable than a simpler system costing 1/100th of the price. As I have said repeatedly lights that work 99% of the time have to be better than no lights at all. I do not care whether they are my system or someone else's, as long as they are cost effective and are installed at all schools.

5. You say the tender process is a long one and many systems have to be tested.

The RTA has been trialling different systems for 4 years! At this rate we will all be dead before they make up their minds. Or at least some of our children may be, and that is my concern, that it is going to take another Sophie Delezio before the government gets tired of the RTA's procrastination and orders them to "just do it".

6. You say that after the current trial the lights will be installed at all schools.

Read Eric Roozendaal's press release of 21 May 2006. He said the lights will only ever be installed on a "needs basis". Try explaining to the parents of a dead child at a small school that their child did not "need" the protection of lights. Or try explaining to other law-abiding and unsuspecting motorists like yourself who have been booked 3 times in school zones, that they do not "need" a better warning system.

To illustrate the latter, on Wednesday afternoon the Police cynically took advantage of the non-functioning lights on Taren Pt Rd Caringbah and set up a radar trap. Not only that, they set it up on the far side of the traffic lights that are in the middle of the zone, with no 40kmh sign beyond the lights. They thus sought to maximise revenue by taking advantage of two problems at that location.

If the lights are only installed at some schools the Police will target the schools that do not have them.

7. You say my lights would have to be thrown away if school zone times change.

The hours of operation, holiday dates and daylight savings dates can be changed in any of my lights at any time via radio. Nothing has to be thrown away. They store up to 6 years worth of holiday data, which is overkill given that the dates are only gazetted 4 years in advance.

8. You suggest the RTA lights on Taren Pt Rd may have failed due to an Energy Australia problem.

The RTA lights are solar powered. Last time I checked Energy Australia did not control the sun. A higher power does that.

I note that converting my lights to solar power would increase their cost to $700, but they would then be about 100 times more expensive to run. The batteries have to be replaced every 2 years and the solar panels every 10 years. That costs over 100 times the annual 50c cost of powering my lights from mains power.

9. You say I am trying to blame the RTA over the faulty transformer.

I offered to supply my own transformers but the RTA elected to install their own. Who manufactured them is irrelevant, it wasn't me.

Regards
Peter.
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Fell free to comment on what Peter has said Simon and I'll post it without alteration.
Just click on the comment button.
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Peter sent a second e-mail.
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Media Release
16 February 2006
Another day another School Zone Lights Issue

A Greg on the Princes Hwy Blakehurst just phoned me to advise that the RTA had dug an enormous hole in the footpath outside his home and was about to fill it with 7 tons of concrete, to support a huge pole that would have an arm across the road with a 40kmh sign on it. The problem is the pole will be directly in front of his front gate.

He asked me if I could do anything to stop the installation and get the pole installed in a more sensible location, such as on the boundary between his property and the next. He said the RTA "big wigs" would be on site around lunchtime today to consider his request.

This would seem to be another case of a total lack of planning and control on the part of the RTA.

PS. The flashing lights on the Princes Hwy Blakehurst that failed on Monday afternoon were once again not working this morning. The School Zone Santa took a photo of them at 8.43am showing the clock on the car wash in the background.