State College, PA – May, 2010
The Fresno Unified School District is the fourth largest in California, with 106 facilities serving 80,000 students. Traffic safety in the areas around the schools has been an issue for years. Don Weaver, Emergency Planning Coordinator for the district, explains, “Many of our schools were built for fewer students and for a student population that walked rather than drove to school. The end result has been problems with congestion around the schools and with the added volume comes increased problems with people obeying the law.”
Four years ago the district purchased one pair of radar speed displays from All Traffic Solutions, a leading innovator in the traffic safety marketplace. The district wanted to see if the signs would encourage drivers to slow down in the school zone and if the issues related to congestion could be mitigated.
The impact of the signs was immediately noticeable and over the past three years the district has installed 29 more pairs of signs! Weaver knew the signs were making a difference and that the students were safer. “Community awareness and approval from the parents, when combined with what I see in the field, showed the district that we had an effective program in place. The real proof came when we received a letter from a local resident who thanked us for putting in the signs – he confessed to having received 4 tickets for speeding in school zones and the new signs made him aware of the school zone speed limit and he has slowed down and has gone months without another ticket.”
Fresno has benefited from remote connection to these signs for years, providing operating efficiencies since they could receive alerts when batteries were running low or when they needed to change the operating schedule to fit the changing school schedule, eliminating the need to physically visit each sign.
The school district’s signs will be updated with All Traffic Solutions’ new web-based services over the coming months. The new technology will offer even greater operating efficiencies and reporting tools. Weaver’s team will achieve total control to configure and monitor the signs remotely. It will also provide a very accessible method to gather and aggregate valuable current traffic data that can be easily shared and used by the school district, the police and the city to better coordinate efforts.
The local police department has been so impressed by the value of the signs they have purchased three sets for the school district and supply resources for tasks such as battery changes or new sign installation. The Fresno police department is also looking forward to sharing data collected by the signs so the police can make more informed patrol assignments and help further reduce the number of traffic safety violations. And since the signs and the data they collect can be accessed through a browser, the police can easily tap into the district’s data to help them understand traffic trends in the community. For the city of Fresno and its school district the speed display signs have become indispensible.
Direct all media inquiries to:
Lori Miles
All Traffic Solutions Marketing Manager
Calder Square, PO Box 10085
State College, PA 16805-0085
814-237-9005 Ext. 205
lmiles@alltrafficsolutions.com
