Temple Inc. of Decatur helped deploy smart devices, which alert drivers with visual and audible signals that they're approaching school zones or stopped school buses, in Alpharetta, Georgia, in May to test their integration with Audi vehicles.
The installation in Alpharetta is serving as the initial test for what Forrest Temple, CEO of Temple Inc., hopes will spur a continued expansion into other school districts nationwide.
"You'll be able to see when a school (bus's) stop bar opens up (and) be warned when you're behind a school bus," Temple said. "It was a simple case study, but it took a lot to make that pilot work."
Temple said his company's role in Alpharetta was installing smart devices known as "intelligent smart zone beacons" developed by Applied Information Inc., a Suwanee, Georgia-based information technology consulting firm. Temple Inc. also test drove vehicles to ensure the beacons performed successfully.
He said the company has a long-running history in Decatur as an electrical contracting company managing traffic control, but more recently, the company has turned to producing smart devices in an increasingly interconnected world.
"We've been in business for 67 years, we're a fourth-generation family business," Temple said. "We represent 30-plus manufacturers, but we also manufacture traffic cabinets and intersection devices here" for cities, counties and states.
Temple Inc., which has offices on Bank Street, has 85 employees, with 70 based in Decatur. The company began in Gadsden in 1954 but moved to Decatur in 1965. It has previously sold central software systems and school zone management systems to municipalities, so Temple said becoming a part of the Alpharetta project was a natural choice. He said it's his company's first foray into connected vehicle technology.
Layer of security
With the technology Applied Information created, a chip installed in a vehicle networks with the beacon installed on a bus or within a school zone to notify drivers of when to slow down when approaching the zone or bus. The beacon sends an alert to drivers within about 50 feet, according to Temple.
"The bus is armed with an in-vehicle device, or onboard unit," Temple explained. "When that stop sign arm (on a bus) is engaged, through electronics you know something has changed. Cellularly, that's communicated to a vehicle."
Before the Alpharetta pilot project, Applied Information developed a smartphone app, Glance TravelSafely, to serve the same purpose as the onboard unit by connecting to the beacons, but Temple said having the technology integrated into vehicles could expand the number of users and be more convenient than needing to download an app.
Decatur's school zones feature 12 of the beacons already, but they have not been activated for use with the Glance TravelSafely app, Temple said. Other cities with school zone beacons in north Alabama are Huntsville, with 48 devices, and Madison, with 21 devices, he added.
"The infrastructure's in place to notify when you're entering a school zone ... but it's not enabled," the CEO said. "You could (download the app) but we haven't turned them on yet. Decatur's shown interest, though."
While Decatur police have not received any reports of areas with unsafe road conditions for children boarding or exiting school buses, spokesperson Irene Cardenas-Martinez said the Decatur Police Department would be interested in seeing the technology welcomed into the city's school zones.
"We feel like this might be another good layer of safety; it would be a positive," she said.
The department recently posted a request for more crossing guards ahead of the upcoming school year, but even with the technology enabled, Cardenas-Martinez said police would still feel crossing guards are necessary.
"I think having a physical person there is beneficial, and I don't think it would take away from their duties, so I think it's still important to have those crossing guards present," she said.
Temple said the beacons are based on previous systems Applied Information developed and Temple Inc. installed in traffic light boxes that network with vehicles at intersections letting them know of light changes ahead of time to reduce roadway congestion. These systems have been installed in some cities.
"It's not vehicle detection, like you arrive, and it changes the light green," Temple explained of the earlier systems. "We provide that as well, but this is more tying the motorist to an intersection, letting them know how long until the light turns green."
Child safety
Since the Alpharetta school safety pilot took place in May, other school districts in the Southeast have shown interest in the school zone and school bus alert system that displays "what the future's probably going to bring," according to Temple.
"There's been a lot of requests for demonstrations," he said.
To Temple, the biggest beneficiary of the connected vehicle technology isn't the motorist — it's the children riding on buses or walking in school zones that feature the beacons his company deployed.
"Their safety's not really thought of until now," he said. "Drivers now more than ever are distracted, and you've got to kind of further connect them with what's going on around them."
The CEO said he has two children of his own, an 8-year-old and a 4-year-old, and that their safety getting on and off the school bus has always been important to him, making the school zone and bus devices more meaningful to him.
"It's definitely personal when you have children," Temple said. "When your children are that age, you're definitely passionate about it."
©2021 The Decatur Daily (Decatur, Ala.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
