School Zones

I just loaded the section I needed and added my own alert "school bell" wav. I also used the "Tour Guide" option . Still messing with it, but there is a lot of info here to search through.

You may want to move over to this thread http://www.poi-factory.com/node/41301

A do-it-yourself "school zone" alert for Garmin devices that don't come with Garmin-supplied School Zone alerts:

What follows is what I use for an all-USA "school zone" poi. If creating your own local School Zone file where you use actual School Zones rather than Schools (buildings) for POI locations, my procedure will not be needed. But if you're using a POI file that uses locations of the school buildings and you want to use it for School Zones alerts, you will likely need to follow my procedure.

First, download the Schools POI file from The Factory with its 170,258 schools:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/17

Unzip the file and use the csv as you would any other Custom POI.

Rename the file to include TourGuide; i.e.:

Schools_TourGuide.csv

Download an icon and audio file from The Factory and rename each to: Schools_TourGuide.bmp, and Schools_TourGuide.wav (or if your nuvi can handle it, Schools_TourGuide.mp3). For TourGuides to work, an associated audio files is required--it is not an optional feature.

Load to your GPS with POI Loader in manual mode and set an alert distance for the Schools_TourGuide file. I use 550 feet. I find that if I use a larger value, I get false positive alerts for schools on adjacent streets parallel to me. You can tinker with this setting but for me 550-600' is what works best for me. If you live in a rural area with small towns rather than large cities, a larger radius should be tried.

Make sure that alerts are turned on with your GPS, then either take your GPS out for a drive or run a simulation past some schools and see if you get alerts.

For beginners, I do NOT recommend starting with this Custom POI installation. I assume folks trying this are already familiar with POI Loader in manual mode, familiar with installing bmp icons and audio (remembering that wav files and sox.exe are required for most new nuvis, while mp3 can be used on several older nuvis), and understand the special nature of TourGuide compared to other POI files. For those needing help, a search through The Factory's FAQs and message archive is where you need to start, then come back and ask questions as needed.

Why TourGuides? With this schools POI file, the locations identified are the actual school buildings which are oftentimes set back quite a ways from the roadways, meaning that driving past the school will not result in a GPS alert. As an approximation of School Zone locations, using the Schools file as a TourGuide with a 550' distance will set a radius large enough to include the streets adjacent to the school and will offer an alert. I find in general that I get an alert about 50-100 feet before I see most schools' 15mph School Zone warning signs. I'd love more of a warning but that increases the number of false positive alerts.

Note on the Schools POI file: 1) the file is USA only, 2) the file is a zip and needs to be unzipped, 3) the description states that changes are made to this file 1-2 times a year although I suspect it's much less frequent that that, 4) The Schools POI file does not appear on your "My Favorite Files" list at The Factory so you need to check it on occasion for updates, and 5) there's no indication of revision dates so you almost need to download the file every now and then and see if the file size is different than the one you're currently using. If different, it's time to install the newer version--if not, then you can keep using the older one already installed to your GPS.

More discussion:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/39621

This is the guide I went by, OR. Very informative. Thanks, CraigW! You really have a knack of explaining things very well. Thanks.

Craig does have the knack of explanation

John

There are plenty of signs and many have flashing lights at school zones. Is that not enough alert??? Paying attention to the surroundings will should be a common practice while driving.

This is a good suggestion; but, unfortunately, some schools (without flashing lights) put their school signs behind trees (I can show you at least two in the Mesa/Apache Junction area).

In addition, here in Mesa there are multiple school zone speeds (i.e. 15 mph, 35 mph, 45 mph, etc). I made myself separate Mesa school zone POIs for each mph, and add school zones when I come across one; then the POI announces the zone with the speed limit.

And then, sometimes one inadvertently just plain misses one! When it comes to the 'health and welfare' of our young ones, any available help should be welcomed.

RT

I agree, even zones without lights at least have signs.

That said, I did load a school zone alert POI and got rid of it a few days later, too many school zones in Philadelphia the GPS never stopped alerting (well it seemed that way).

Craig, your FAQ on getting the Schools alerts working is excellent - no surprise there. I've downloaded the School .zip file and an icon .bmp file, but I can't find an audio file. Can you (or anyone else) help?

Phil

I use an old wav file that came from The Factory back in the days when the alert sounds library offered both wav and mp3. Currently, The Factory has four files available, all mp3 that will need to be converted to wav:

http://www.poi-factory.com/gps-sounds

•School 1 Alert Sound
•School 2 Alert Sound
•School Zone 1 Alert Sound
•School Zone 2 Alert Sound

I agree with the "know your surroundings". I am an middle school educator, but maybe I am a bit more conditioned. However, in a new area sometimes it is hard to know "when" the school zone speed applies. In our area many of the signs say "when children present". Does this mean at 6pm at night when the school is closed? What about weekends and when school is out for the summer. My take on this is, "give our kids a brake!" When in doubt slow down. You'll only be adding a few seconds to your trip, and saving a trip to the judge.

Thanks for the info. Now, how do I convert an mp3 file to a .wav file?

Phil

charlesd45's faq offers instructions on self-creating and converting audio files:

http://www.poi-factory.com/node/25730

Thanks for all the help!

The 2597 has them built in.