Location: Arlington, Texas
Overview
Like school zones nationwide, Arlington Classics Academy, between Dallas and Fort Worth, grapples with dangerous speeding drivers.
To help drivers self-correct, flashing beacons with school speed limit signs were installed in the early 2000s. The beacons themselves were effective, but in recent years, the school has experienced frequent closures, making traditional, field-based reprogramming inconvenient.
To prepare for future incidents, Brian Walmsley, the school’s technology coordinator, was in search of beacons with remote connectivity. He wanted the ability to adjust speed limit times without traveling to the beacons or climbing ladders on busy streets, and quickly enough to ensure beacons were only flashing when needed.
Connected beacons
Given the success of their original Carmanah beacons, Arlington Classics Academy approached us for a new option. We suggested the R829-MX flashing school zone beacons with an MX Pro subscription to meet the school’s need for affordable connectivity.
With the Pro subscription, Walmsley was able to create, edit and set school zone schedules remotely, easing challenges during unexpected school closures. The ability to get real-time system alerts and change system settings from anywhere meant less downtime for Arlington and more compliance.
All MX beacon systems come with built-in connectivity and work right out of the box, connecting locally to phones on the MX Field App and remotely via the MX Cloud, which is accessible through any web browser.
Maintenance makeover
“The new [MX] school zone beacons are working great. We programmed them for the year. Now we don’t need to worry about them until, or if, we get an alert. They were so simple to set up,” said Walmsley.
With Carmanah’s MX beacons, the Arlington school’s zone maintenance has been transformed from an arduous task to the click of a button.
Helpful Resources
>> Learn more about school zone safety