Come Tuesday, the streets will be buzzing with excited students heading back to school.
“It can be really chaotic. You know, you go from one day where it’s regular traffic and the next day it just multiplies,” notes Shawn Pettipas, BCAA director of community engagement.
Police will be out in force too, keeping an eye on the kids, parents and other drivers, making sure everyone is slowing down to 30 km/h in school zones, where posted.
“The Kelowna Municipal Traffic Department along with support from the Southeast District traffic units will be out in force. Obviously, we’re going to try to go with educating the drivers first, but enforcement will be on hand all week long,” said Const. Mike Della-Paolera, media relations officer with the Kelowna RCMP.
One piece of advice from both the BCAA and RCMP is to give yourself more time than you think you will need to get where you are going.
“My years as a school resource officer has allowed me to witness parents not actually paying a whole lot of attention to their arrival at school on time. Some of them are going to Starbucks before school and then it becomes a rush to get their kids there,” said Const. Della-Paolera.
He says it’s better to leave early and find a safe place to park rather than to dump kids out where they might dart into traffic as they rush to get to class on time.
A recent BCAA survey found 35% more British Columbians will be returning to the office instead of working from home this fall, adding to the back to school congestion.
The poll conducted by Leger revealed that many drivers are dreading their 'back to reality' commutes with 90% expecting to deal with impatient, aggressive drivers. Nearly eight in 10 expect to be on the road longer and 52% say there's nothing they can do except be frustrated and lose their cool.
“You may see aggressive driving, you may expect aggressive driving but you can’t change anybody but yourself,” points out Pettipas. “So, we just encourage people to take a deep breath, look around and just follow the rules of the road, because we’re all in this together.”
The online survey polled a representative sample of 1,001 adult British Columbians, including 881 drivers, from Aug. 18-21, 2023.
