The Wake County Public Schools that follow the Traditional Calendar returned to school today. Be ever-watchful of those “Speed Limit 25” school zones, as the Raleigh Police Department will be enforcing these heavily as they do each year.

The school system has implemented an important change to the schedule this year . On every Wednesday schools will release 1 hour earlier than normal. On six of the Wednesdays school will release 2.5 hours early. These changes create a complicated, inconsistent timing schedule for the school zones.  New signs outlining when the 25 mph speed limit are enforced should go up soon, however these signs will be complicated to read and will provide a school-zone driver a distraction worse then texting!

In order for the schools to safely implement this inconsistent schedule, they should install dynamic signs that display the current speed limit. In Cary there have already been a few installations of a flashing red light to inform drivers. However the simple flashing red light is not specific, and requires much driver attention to understand the flashing light’s purpose.

What the school system needs is a simple box sign with LEDs arranged in the shapes of “2” and “5”, like the one shown above. The switching and circuitry would be just as simple as a flashing light, and would more efficiently and more safely inform drivers of the temporary speed limit for the school zone.

Now..if I only had the means and skills to build one of these things!

[ Wake County Schools’ Special Wednesday Release Flyer (.pdf)]