We are quite surprised how many GPS users downloaded our Townsville school POI files. We decided to continue providing AU school POIs. We will do our best to add 5-10 school locations every day. The Speed and red light camera database maintenance is our first priority.
Using school POI data on a Navman and Garmin POI Loader enabled devices is simple. TomTom users need to convert data to a TomTom OV2 data format. More information is available in our POI Zone (for novice users). Please feel free to suggest area that you would like to be covered with higher priority.
In addition to the POI Zone listing, all Australian local school speed zones are added to the POI maps: POI Maps (enter a postcode or find a town and press the download button)
Speed limit 40 km/h (including Sydney, Wollongong, Newcastle, etc.) The POI files are available here: NSW School Zones.
I disagree that the school zones should have a lower priority than your other safety data sets.
The severity of penalties for school zones in many (most?) AU States now far exceed other speeding or red light penalties, including licence supsensions that kick in at much lower margins than other speeding offences.
Also the tolerance of those enforcing the school zones (actual live police not cameras) is far lower than for other traffic offences. In some jurisdictions (ACT) the school zone limits operate from the morning throughout the day to the afternoon, not just in the morning and again at night, increasing the offence risk exposure.
So please continue to compile a comprehensive school zone file for all schools across Australia - if necessary break it down by States. Although I frequently fly to all States across Australia and take my GPS with me to use in hire cars, so a comprehensive data set is important.
Many thanks for the great work you have done so far on this data set and all the others.
I agree with you completely. I have programmed my GPS with customised voice alerts and get plenty of warning before I reach speed cameras or red light cameras.
But the best thing is you can get school zone alerts which tell you where you have to slow down. Not all areas are sign posted well so I always worried that I would be caught speeding in a school zone.
Best database that I have seen and definitely worth...
school zones are so important in regard to speed. So many cops are revenue raising these days. i9 have been booked twice for just speeding in the school zones, (10KPH) over!! Hopefully, with these POI's, it will never happen again