About the Survey

The survey was conducted August, 2019 by Quenzel & Associates, a Fort Myers based marketing and consulting firm on behalf of SolarGuard, the company behind School Bus-Stop Safety Lights.

Quenzel Marketing Agency anonymously polled parents of children in school in Lee County, Florida.

Download a copy of Quenzel Marketing Agency’s Voice of the Parents’ Research Study.

Following are the key observations resulting from the survey.

Traveling Safely To and From School on Lee County Parents’ List of Top Concerns

Parents of Lee County school children rated traveling safely to and from school as one of their top concerns surpassing such child safety and health issues like bullying, depression, stress, drug abuse, lack of exercise, unhealthy eating, suicide, and teen pregnancy.

52% of Lee County parents reported their child rode a school bus. 49% reported those school bus stop pickups occurred during pre-dawn hours, according to a survey of Lee County parents with school-aged children.

The survey also asked parents to rate five potential solutions being considered for installation by local, school and Lee County officials to enhance child safety at school bus stops (permanent benches, sidewalks and crosswalks, permanent streetlights, traffic signs with solar-powered flashing beacons and a galvanized steel pole-mounted, solar-powered, streetlight with built-in amber/white flashing LED safety lights).

Parents were given a summary of the proposed solutions under consideration and asked to rate each solution, on a scale of 1 to 10, in terms of the overall effectiveness of the solution to keep children safe, the cost-efficiency to purchase and install the solution, the time required to install the solution, the solution with the least traffic disruption during installation, and the solution best suited to adapt to the estimated l6,000 changes made to bus stop locations each year in Lee County.

The various solutions ranged from about $1.5 million to over $300 million in costs. Installation time frames ran from 6 months to 5 years.

Given the level of concern around child safety when traveling to and from school, the growing population of school-age children, and the ever-increasing level of vehicular traffic in Lee County;  parents showed strong support for an effective, fast cost-efficient solution that would cause the least amount of traffic disruption during installation and would be most adaptable to the frequent movement of school bus stop locations made each year.

Lee County parents rated Fort Myers-based SolarGuard’s School Bus-Stop Safety Lights, the solar-powered, streetlight with built-in amber/white flashing LED safety lights mounted on a galvanized steel pole, the clear #1 choice in all five categories:

• most effective for keeping children safe
• fastest installation time
• lowest cost to purchase and install
• least amount of traffic disruption during installation
• best suited to adapt to the l6,000 changes in school bus stop locations made each year in Lee County

Importantly, when asked to consider all aspects of each school bus stop safety solution (effectiveness, cost efficiency, installation time, impact on traffic during installation and adaptability to bus stop location changes), and to rate the Overall Worth of each solution; parents of Lee County school children overwhelmingly supported SolarGuard’s School Bus-Stop Safety Lights, the solar-powered, streetlight with built-in amber/white flashing LED safety lights mounted on a galvanized-steel pole:

• 70.3% rated SolarGuard Worth/Well-Worth the Tax Dollars
• 66.3% rated permanent streetlights Worth/Well-Worth the Tax Dollars
• 55.4% rated sidewalks and crosswalks Worth/Well-Worth the Tax Dollars
• 55.4% rated signs with solar beacons Worth/Well-Worth the Tax Dollars 
• 52.5% rated benches Worth/Well-Worth the Tax Dollars.