Case Study: Applied Information School Zone Beacon System

Western Systems Partnered With The City of Sammamish, Washington to Install Applied Information Modems

About Application

A Growing Suburb Outside of Seattle

The City of Sammamish is a Seattle and Bellevue bedroom community located East of Interstate 405 approximately 10 miles. The population is approximately 65,733 as of 2018. Located on a plateau, the city is bordered by Lake Sammamish to the west and the Snoqualmie Valley to the east. In 2015 they won the Washington State award for the safest city.

42 Flashing School Beacons

The Sammamish Public Schools’ policy is to have multiple 12” flashing beacons at each school with signs that read “Speed Limit 20 MPH when Flashing”. Having signs that flash for certain durations during specific hours while school is in session has proven to decrease driver speeds and increase awareness and safety for vulnerable pedestrians who are predominately children.

The issue, however, is that the Sammamish School District is comprised of two school districts, Lake Washington SD, and Issaquah School District, which on a combined basis include (3) High Schools, (4) Middle Schools, and (11) Elementary Schools for a total of (42) flashing school beacon signs. That means countless technician hours programming school schedules, repairing beacons, replacing LEDS, and performing regular preventative maintenance, not to mention, traveling to each beacon every time a school has a schedule change.

Western Systems Installs Applied information Intelligent Time Clock Modems

Working with the City of Sammamish Traffic Technicians, Western Systems provided and installed intelligent time clock modems by Applied Information in each of the school zone beacon cabinets. The Applied Information hardware requires no additional space and fits seamlessly into the beacon cabinets Sammamish already has out in the field. By installing these devices, the City of Sammamish is able to remotely program their school beacon schedules, perform critical preventative maintenance remotely, view alerts such as “door open” and “beacon out”, check battery health, and perhaps most importantly, make last-minute schedule changes seamlessly saving countless hours and city dollars traveling to each beacon.

The City Can Now Easily Manage The Beacons Remotely 

The Applied Information School Beacon Modems have freed up me and my staff to focus on other pressing public safety issues related to traffic. It utilizes modern technology to make me and our staff more efficient which in turn makes our school zones safer. I would recommend school beacons modems installed by Western Systems to any agency looking to streamline their school beacon program.”  – Melissa Lucas, Senior Traffic Technician

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