A crosswalk doesn't need paint.

AI helps with the pictures, but every word is human-written, human-checked and fussed over to a ridiculous degree.

At an intersection, the extension of the sidewalk across the road is a crosswalk, whether it's painted or not. Drivers have to yield to anyone crossing there. In the City of Calgary's words: "Unmarked crosswalks exist at every intersection where there is a sidewalk."

Kids walking to school cut across these quiet corners every day, and they're the crossings drivers forget. Near schools, Calgary also paints ladder crosswalks, with both horizontal and vertical lines.

When the car in the next lane stops at a crosswalk, assume someone is crossing in front of it, even if you can't see them. A child is easy to hide behind a stopped SUV.

Alberta law says you can't pass a vehicle that's stopped at a crosswalk to let someone cross.

Legally, a school or playground zone starts at the sign that marks it and only ends at a sign showing the end of the zone or a higher speed limit. Speeding up once the playground is behind you, before the end sign, is still speeding in the zone.

And while the zone is in effect, you can't pass another vehicle going your way.

Alberta lets each municipality set its own zone hours, so the same sign can mean different things a few kilometres apart. The hours live on the tab under the sign.

• Calgary: no school zones since 2016. Playground zones are 30 km/h, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day of the year.
• Chestermere: playground zones match Calgary, 7:30 a.m. to 9 p.m., every day.
• Cochrane: school zones run 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., but only on school days. And 30 is already the residential limit.
• Airdrie: school zones 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on school days; playground zones 8:30 a.m. to one hour after sunset. 30 is the default on any road that isn't signed otherwise.
• Rocky View County (Bearspaw, Springbank): playground zones 8:30 a.m. to one hour after sunset; school zones at the hours posted on the sign.

• Alberta Use of Highway and Rules of the Road Regulation (AR 304/2002), sections 4 to 8 and 41
• Government of Alberta: School and playground zones
• City of Calgary: Pedestrians and Crosswalks
• City of Calgary newsroom: new school and playground zone hours (2014)
• City of Chestermere: Traffic Control Bylaw 036-20
• Town of Cochrane: Traffic Bylaw 02/2005 and Traffic safety
• City of Airdrie: Traffic Bylaw B-30/2023 and school and playground safety
• Rocky View County: Roads and Transportation Bylaw C-8427-2023

Comprehensive driving education.

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