Fort Bend County in Texas has become the first agency in the US to deploy newly approved technology, which warns drivers to slow down or stop when students are present, to improve roadway safety around county schools.
Approximately 120 schools will be equipped with Cellular Vehicle-to-Everything (C-V2X) School Zone Safety Beacons and Pedestrian Crosswalks.
School Zone Safety Beacons, which are located on approaches to schools, activate when students arrive and leave school to warn drivers to slow down. Pedestrian Crosswalks are used near schools to help students cross the road safely. C-V2X communications alert drivers when pedestrians are in the crosswalk and warn the driver to stop.
The technology will be deployed in school zones across the county in the Katy and Fort Bend Independent School Districts. Schools in Lamar Consolidated Independent School District will also have their school zone beacons upgraded in upcoming budget years.
The C-V2X technology was developed by Applied Information and integrated by Paradigm Traffic Systems.
“From cell phones to dashboard screens, personal technology is drawing driver attention away from roadways,” said Brian Fields, traffic operations supervisor at the Fort Bend County Road & Bridge Department. “This has been especially challenging for transportation agencies in terms of driver compliance with school zones and yielding to pedestrians. When C-V2X became available, we knew it would be an opportunity to use the same technology to draw driver attention back to the roadways in these critical areas.”
C-V2X was recently approved by the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) as the primary communications technology for vehicles to receive safety warnings which notify drivers to act. C-V2X is a combination of cellular and special direct communications to enable long-range and fast communications of safety messages like those transmitted by School Zone Safety Beacons, Pedestrian Crosswalks and other traffic control devices. Motorists can receive school zone and crosswalk alerts by using the Glance TravelSafely smartphone app.
