Regina drivers may want to keep their eyes peeled for new school zone speed limits across the city.

Although the City of Regina announced earlier this year that it will be lowering the speed limit in school zones from 40 kilometres per hour to 30 km/h, the first school zone was lowered Tuesday at Glen Elm Community School in order to be ready for Sept. 1.

Faisal Kalim, manager of traffic engineering with the City of Regina, wants drivers to take extra caution while driving at the new speed limits and to understand the police still have the ability to ticket drivers who aren’t following the posted signage.

“We will be in and around school zones,” said Kalim. “We always ask people to be careful of traffic accommodations and to be careful of city workers working in the zones.”

A grace period will be in effect for those who speed in the new zones, though, as the city wants drivers to adjust to the change.

Other changes will also be occurring in addition to the speed change.

The previous speed limit time from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. has been changed to 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., and U-turns are now prohibited in school zones. A cross stakeholder committee, along with the Regina police, made the recommendations.

The cost of the initiative will be approximately $450,000, which will come from the city’s speed enforcement program.

“That’s not just changing out the signs,” said Kalim. “It’s changing school zone extents, installing different signs — there’s multiple things being done with that money.”

Upgrades to pedestrian crosswalks within the zones are also expected.

Kalim also assured drivers concerned about a longer commute that the new school zone changes are not expected to delay travel times.

“We don’t anticipate a longer delay being introduced,” said Kalim, adding “an average school zone in the city at 40 kilometres an hour takes about 14 seconds to get through. Now with 30 kilometres an hour that will be raised to 18 seconds.”

The city hopes to replace the signage of two school zones per day in order to meet its goal of full implementation by Sept. 1. There are around 95 school zones throughout the city and approximately 1,200 signs that need to be replaced.