DC introduces tech to prevent school vans from speeding  

Some of DC’s school vans could be getting a bit safer, thanks to technology from an Ohio company. 

The vehicle technology firm LifeSafer teamed up with DC Public Schools and its public charters to pilot “intelligent speed assistance” devices. The products are designed to prevent speeding in 10 of the system’s DC SchoolConnect vans — a program providing transportation to and from school for students of all grades, including kindergarten, in Wards 7 and 8. 

The tech, installed under the dash of the car, uses a combination of onboard maps (which don’t need an internet connection) and GPS to maintain speed. It also automatically updates when speed limits change, explained Michael Travars, LifeSafer’s president. The car doesn’t abruptly stop either, but the tech prevents the car from going faster. 

“It just works. There’s no beeps, there’s no whistles, there’s no distractions,” Travars said. “It just keeps your vehicle going at the rate it should go.”

This pilot comes soon after DC missed its Vision Zero goal in 2024 to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries in the city. Deaths hit a nearly 20-year high in 2023 and 2024, though data from Vision Zero’s crash analysis dashboard show severe injuries decreased since 2021.

Installing and using this tech costs nothing for the district’s government, per Rick Birt, the director of DC’s Highway Safety Office. It’s been running since January and is set to conclude at the end of the school year in June. No timeline has been set for possible procurement, Birt told Technical.ly. 

The no-cost aspect stood out to DC for piloting the tech, as did its success rate. LifeSafer previously deployed its devices in a variety of use cases, including government vehicles and known reckless drivers, in New York and London. Those cities saw speeding reductions of 61% and 66%, respectively, over six-month pilots.

“We wanted to make sure we had a technology that we knew could be trusted,” Birt said. 

The devices could help the district tackle speeding, one of Birt’s priorities and a major cause of traffic deaths in the US. Speeding killed more than 12,000 people in 2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

The installation takes about an hour and the devices are very difficult to tamper with, LifeSafer’s Travars said. They incorporate a display showing the speed limit and the vehicle’s speed, but that component can be taken off if it’s too distracting to the driver.

It works even without GPS because it also uses onboard maps where there’s no internet connection, like under a bridge or in a tunnel. There’s also an override for the rare circumstances when a driver would need to accelerate to avoid a crash or get on a highway, Travars said. 

This speed assistant is one example of how the DC government turned to tech for transparency and accountability, per Charlie Willson, the director of DC’s Vision Zero office. 

“We’re always thinking about new and innovative ways we can try new things,” Willson told Technical.ly. 

The DC government also deployed more automated traffic enforcement cameras over 2023 and 2024, and the city displays those locations in a data portal for residents to monitor.

The LifeSafer tech could be used for other DC government vehicles, which total to 6,000. But the district has no specific plans yet, per Willson. 

The goal with these devices is to set an example for other drivers in the city, the Highway Safety Office’s Birt said. His office also deployed traffic signs detecting cell phone use or if someone isn’t wearing a seatbelt.  

“If our drivers are modeling the behavior we want to see in our roadways,” Birt said, “that’s how we change the culture.”