Community
Safe Ways to Share the Street
Curiosity Lab is increasing its involvement in roadway safety by partnering with companies creating technology to keep cyclists unharmed.
Whether you’re a cyclist or a motorist — or both — few people disagree that there needs to be a way for both modes of transportation to safely share the road. Technology incubator Curiosity Lab and the City of Peachtree Corners have partnered with several organizations seeking ways to make that happen.
Research and development does not have to be dry and boring. Sometimes it can be a fun as a bike ride. That’s why the City reached out to a professional cycling race coordinator to bring a leg of a well-known event to Peachtree Corners.
“We’ve enjoyed seeing Curiosity Lab continue to generate unique opportunities for the city,” said City Manager Brian Johnson. “And an opportunity kind of fell into our lap, through Curiosity Lab’s partnerships and interactions, for us to have a professional cycling race here in Peachtree Corners.”
There are generally three types of cycling races — indoors in a velodrome (think Olympics), a road race that starts at one point and ends at another (like the Tour de France) and a criterium, a closed race on city streets on a course that loops over the same space over and over for a period of time. That is what’s coming to Peachtree Corners.
The Curiosity Lab Criterium will take place Wednesday, April 26 from 3 to 10 p.m. at Peachtree Corners City Hall. With Curiosity Lab being a 5-G enabled, 500-acre living laboratory ecosystem designed as a proving ground for mobility and smart city emerging technologies, it’s the perfect location to test out safety features for road users who aren’t in automobiles.
Safe travels for everyone on the road
The acronym VRU stands for vulnerable road user — all the users of public right-of-way or roads that are not in automobiles and, as a result, are less protected. Pedestrians, cyclists, people on e-scooters, mopeds or motorcycles fall under that definition.
“There is a movement within the transportation industry to represent VRUs with technology to help automobiles or the drivers of automobiles …to make them more aware of the vulnerable road users,” said Johnson.
An example is the technology that allows cars to detect objects. If you’re backing up and something gets in the way, the car will beep to let you know there is an object in the way. However, if an object is outside of the range of the detection technology and is coming from a direction in which you don’t have detection, the automobile won’t know it, because its own technology isn’t picking it up.
Companies are working to make technology that will push messages to the automobile so that it knows there is a vulnerable road user in the vicinity and where it is.
“That message is called a BSM, a basic safety message,” said Johnson. “It can come up on the dashboard of the car, notifying the driver of that VRU.”
That technology is being deployed by a company called Spoke, which aims to transform road safety and rider connectivity by delivering a connected IoT ecosystem for vulnerable road users. Spoke has teamed up with various companies, such as car manufacturer Audi, Qualcomm as chipset manufacturer and BMC Bike, a Swiss bike manufacturer.
“All of those companies have a partnership in which they’re deploying this technology, and now they have a good location to deploy it for the first time on public streets,” said Johnson.
Now for the fun stuff
Besides the opportunity to put this new technology in real-world situations, sponsoring a criterium is a great way to bring a new group of people to the area and remind residents about the gem they have in their backyard.
The Curiosity Lab Criterium is part of Speed Week, a premier week-long event on the U.S. Pro Cycling Circuit that draws cyclists from around the world, including Olympic medalists and world and national champions.
In 2022, the professional men’s and women’s event drew cyclists from 36 states and 19 countries.
USA Cycling manages a criterium series throughout the entire country. The race calendar generally starts in the Southeast because the weather tends to be warmer than most of country earlier in the year. As former city manager of Anniston, Alabama, Johnson witnessed first-hand how the circuit works.
Amateurs, kids and spectators welcome
“When I was there, we were the very first race on the circuit,” said Johnson. “So I have some experience in managing — not directly, as there is a race director that actually runs the event — but by being the city manager of a city that had it.
“Back in the day, I used to race in them. As an amateur, you can race in them,” he added.
The daylong event begins with preliminary races for children, and then progresses with different categories for amateurs.
The criterium is more fan-friendly than a road race. Spectators can set up in one area and see riders go by several times. “This a very cool way to watch professional cyclists, especially when married up with things that make it unique for the family, like food trucks and vendors,” said Johnson.
The play-by-play announcer for the event will be Francisco “Frankie” Andreu, who was Lance Armstrong’s first roommate back when they were racing in the Tour de France. There will be bike manufacturers and displays of lots of cool new technology.
“It’ll be kind of like a mini festival,” said Johnson. “What this does is it gets the community a pretty unique, cool event that we wouldn’t have had, had it not dropped in our path.”
The Gwinnett County Public Library is now accepting applications for its next New Start Entrepreneurship Incubator Program (NSEI).
NSEI provides business education for formerly incarcerated individuals through in-person classes, online coursework and a robust network of mentors and community partners. NSEI is specifically geared towards the reentry population, which, in Georgia, is disproportionately minority populations and people of color.
This six-month course is designed to help community members who have served time in jail or prison create and sustain their own businesses.
“Formerly incarcerated individuals are an overlooked population of aspiring entrepreneurs, often lacking the means, access and support to launch a small business successfully,” said Charles Pace, executive director of the Gwinnett County Public Library.
About the program
NSEI originated as a grant project in 2021, funded by Google in partnership with the American Library Association.
Coordinated by a team of five library staff members, NSEI includes cohorts of 15 to 20 students who attend monthly presentations by local business experts on topics such as finance, marketing, licensing and writing a business plan. Following each meeting, participants complete assigned online coursework and receive one-on-one support from experienced small business mentors. The library provides free laptops and Wi-Fi service to those who need them.
The program’s culmination occurs at Launchpad, where the aspiring entrepreneurs pitch their businesses to community business leaders.
As of this year, the program has graduated 35 entrepreneurs in four cohorts. And the Gwinnett County Public Library Foundation has awarded $8,000 in start-up funding through the Launchpad event.
For more information, visit gwinnettpl.org/adults/new-start-entrepreneurship-incubator.
Olympian Jasmine Jones, a standout alumna of Greater Atlanta Christian School (Class of 2020), returned to her alma mater on September 12 to speak to and inspire the next generation of students there.
GAC staff interviewed Jones and also took questions from the students during a Q&A session that included every grade level.
As a member of the U.S. Olympic team and a 12-time Georgia state individual champion during her time at GAC, Jasmine’s visit was a homecoming filled with motivation and reflection. She spoke passionately to the students about the importance of perseverance, goal-setting, and embracing challenges, drawing from her journey from GAC to the University of Southern California and the global stage of the Olympics.
Jones qualified for the Paris Olympics on June 30 and made the U.S. team in women’s 400m hurdles after placing third. She went on to place fourth in the women’s 400m hurdles final at the Paris games.
Students and staff at GAC cheered Jones on during the Olympics. And they cheered her again as she took to the school’s stage to address the audience. Before and after the event, Jones posed for photos, gave high-fives and took time connect with some of GAC’s enthusiastic students and faculty.
Her words — and her accomplishments — left a powerful impression on the crowd, reminding everyone of the heights that can be achieved with dedication and faith.
For more about GACS, visit greateratlantachristian.org.
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