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Enhancing School Zone Safety

Smart School Zone Technology With Omnisight

Protecting the next generation should be at the forefront of every city and municipal road safety initiative. Despite that, a SafeKids Worldwide report exposed that as many as five teenagers die each week in school zone traffic accidents. 

Fortunately, improving school zone traffic  safety is possible. Initiatives such as the Safe System Approach (SSA) and Vision Zero encourage the adoption of technologies and evidence-based methods that anticipate human error instead of trying to eliminate it.

Omnisight’s FusionSensor is designed to support your community’s traffic calming measures, including improving school traffic safety. Discover how our technologies can help you protect children and pedestrians around your city’s educational facilities, from elementary schools to high schools.

Highway Safety

What School Zones Are Designed To Achieve

While school zones combine a wide range of measures and traditional traffic calming systems to create safer environments, they have many limitations.

Here’s an overview:

Speeding risks
Many drivers ignore school zone speed limit signs and drive at the city’s regular speed limits, especially around school pick-up and drop-off times. These behaviors increase the risk of fatal collisions with children or other vehicles.
Distracted driving
Parents and drivers multitasking in school zones often text or phone while driving, increasing the risk of crashing into vulnerable pedestrians and crossing guards.
Illegal parking and lane usage
Some drivers may attempt to use school bus lanes or park in unauthorized areas for quicker drop-offs. They can create congestion around school property and block pedestrian crossings, making it more dangerous for students.
Traffic jams in school zones

Even the best-designed school zones are prone to heavy traffic periods. While high traffic volumes are generally dangerous to all road users, younger pedestrians are the most at risk of fatalities and injuries.

Without smarter tools to reinforce these zones, their intended purpose—keeping children safe—remains out of reach. Traditional solutions, while helpful, often fall short in today’s high-traffic, distraction-heavy environments.

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The Main Challenges of Traffic Safety in School Zones

While school zones combine a wide range of measures and traditional traffic calming systems to create safer environments, they have many limitations.

 

Here’s an overview:

Speeding risks.
Many drivers ignore school zone speed limit signs and drive at the city’s regular speed limits, especially around school pick-up and drop-off times. These behaviors increase the risk of fatal collisions with children or other vehicles.
Distracted driving.
Parents and drivers multitasking in school zones often text or phone while driving, increasing the risk of crashing into vulnerable pedestrians and crossing guards.
Illegal parking and lane usage.
Some drivers may attempt to use school bus lanes or park in unauthorized areas for quicker drop-offs. They can create congestion around school property and block pedestrian crossings, making it more dangerous for students.
Traffic jams in school zones.
Even the best-designed school zones are prone to heavy traffic periods. While high traffic volumes are generally dangerous to all road users, younger pedestrians are the most at risk of fatalities and injuries.

Without smarter tools to reinforce these zones, their intended purpose—keeping children safe—remains out of reach. Traditional solutions, while helpful, often fall short in today’s high-traffic, distraction-heavy environments.

 

How Omnisight’s FusionSensor Supports School Zone Safety

At Omnisight, we have developed the FusionSensor to help cities and departments of transportation create safer, smoother-flowing streets.

 

Here’s how our system can also help support your school zones:

 

Speed monitoring in real time

One of the FusionSensor's most common applications is speed monitoring. The integrated HD3D radar can detect vehicles in real time, and the onboard TrueEdge processing system can instantly assess their speed and direction.

Vehicle classification and bus lane monitoring

The AI-enabled high-definition video camera can refresh at a rate of up to 20 times per second. It can accurately detect and classify vehicles, making it suitable for monitoring bus lanes and alerting local authorities when unauthorized vehicles enter or drive through them.

V2X alerts

The FusionSensor supports Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) alerts, supporting traditional signage with high-visibility notifications. It is capable of alerting drivers in eligible modern vehicles when they’re about to enter a school zone. The same systems can also issue warning signs when going over the local speed limit, helping promote safer driving behaviors.

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Adaptive crosswalk timing
 
The FusionSensor can detect the presence of pedestrians and adjust crosswalk signal timing in real time. This ensures longer crossing times for children/students or large groups—enhancing safety in school zones and busy intersections.

Long-term data collection

Universities and research centers can use the traffic data collected by the FusionSensor in school zones to uncover patterns, improve policies, and ultimately prevent more accidents.

Protect Students With Smarter School Zone Tech

Don’t let outdated safety measures put children at risk. Omnisight’s FusionSensor gives cities the data, alerts, and tools to make school zones safer. Contact Omnisight today to see how we can support your safety goals.