Road and Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Well,

I will say let's start. So, I call the meeting to order. Is it 6 o' 61? Um there's no public comment, so we can skip by that. Uh I I just want to let everybody know that um this is a busy night in town hall. Uh a lot of meetings going on. There will be a meeting in here at 7 o'clock. So, that is kind of our limit. The meeting will run. Um, so I I want to uh do one little bit of of kind of housekeeping. So um I'm happy to continue as chair. However, I'm not going to be able toend the main meeting and I think it's probably a good idea to have someone that kind of can sit in for me if need be that will serve as vice chair. Is is anybody interested in serving as that? I would not think it would take a lot of your time, but you may have to cher someone is interested, let me know. We could vote on it at our next meeting. I won't be uplifting to anybody in particular. [laughter]

And and I wanted to also introduce start with John. So as as you remembered Christine Zelic had ended up a meeting and um probably facing a lot of the same issues facing you know shared ro and so forth and um maybe you could just tell us what you do in town John and and uh what what l's plans are to do. Well, thank you for including me. Bubba city director and fire chief of the town. Uh when Matt Weber was trooper, Matt and I worked with together with looking at we actually did a collaborative of buying the same speed signs so that we had better buying power and can monitor them the same way. So the newer tropical object signs that are here in town, we have the same. We have uh some of the some of them came from a grant two we purchased ourselves. Um what we're looking at is the same quality concerns. Speeding um which is probably number one. We don't have the benefit of resident trooper. Um so on town roads I'm the only traffic authority. Uh so it's kind of limited what we can do. Um most of what we're looking at is probably targeted enforcement with state police and and then trying to move the signs around. They do the data does support that they work extremely well. Um I can prove that. So, just so you know that if you put a sign up and you put it into stealth pump, this group in there, but you can collect data without it being obvious that it's on and then you turn the sign on, it shows the delta between how quickly it causes people to slow down is 10 to 15 miles per hour. So, it's significant particularly in this school zone.

And sorry, when you say when there's a an active flashing fine showing that the people comply more than what it still collecting data, but the lights aren't on.

Correct. And there are other ways to collect the data without the sign being up. But I think that the from all the research that's been done, they are effective. Um, and they collect a lot of data. I know that several signs we received and also Old received are through a grant that Yukon is paying for the monitoring because they're doing overall traffic study for the state. Um, and uh, and look things. The other thing I was going to share is that the ones there's some ones where you can do the signage, you know. So, I've done a lot of testing with little thank you and a thumbs up. Some of those positive reinforcements actually do make a difference. Believe it or not, people like it. They comment on it. You go down line fire station. That one's programmed pretty well for you're exceeding the speed limit quite a bit. Delta goes red. You bring it down, it says thank you. If you actually go to speed limit, it gives you a thumbs up. I know it's silly. We're a society, we're a society that likes those little things and um it is effective. So

whatever I can share, I mean we obviously work closely together um you know the ideas whatever we learn we share with you and vice versa. So before you leave John if you have a card I can if you give me an email address I can share some of the committee stuff with it interesting. Um, and our other guest this evening, and I thank him for taking time. My schedule is is trooper first class McGregor. He's our new resident trooper at town. Uh, and what can we introduce him? So, maybe he can just tell tell us a little bit at this point about what your experience with the state police has been and we'll go around the room and we'll let you know who we are. [clears throat]

Um, almost 13 years. Started in Colchester, then Montville, and then the past five years did a major crime like the central district covering the whole middle of the state. Then I landed here about a month ago, per se. So learning everything and trying to sort everything out and meeting a thousand people a day and trying to do the best I can and figure this out here.

So I I had a chat with Derek a while ago. One of the reasons I came on this committee is Um, I had some experience uh in traffic safety. I worked civilian with the state police department in a public information office for a number of years. I I probably wrote and I got the department about 25 different grants in my head. I'll date myself. a lot of that was trying 50 bike programs and so and I so I I did have some some practical experience in trying to reach out to public that's why he volunteered for the committee uh training I'm actually an assistant chief of the fire department um figured I have a little bit of insight on the fire side also said before I work for one public work so I understand like the whole roads and signage and that Rosemary Pavano, president um of Old Lime and I live on Sain and um this committee was formed shortly after a car hit our house and

that was our house. You were there [laughter] my pajamas. You may not recognize me. [laughter] A little upset. Um but um yeah, Martha um put the committee together after that and um started a just a great conversation about public safety in town and so um

uh I'm Bradley. I'm also I'm new to the committee so I'm learning as well. Um I was um born and raised in Albam. Um I live here again now on Benny Road um which is off of 156 which is one of the neighborhood but it's one of the one of our topics of conversation. Um uh yeah I don't for transportation a lot. So I'm hoping to explore uh ways in which we can make those folks uh safer. Uh I'm Sophie. I live on McCertie and obviously deal with a lot of the speeding that goes on there. Um I walk my tiny little dog who doesn't like the grass.

I'm Mary D. I've lived in town for 50 years. My kids were raised here in most of the online schools and I lived on Ferry Road down by the the D and that's a a busy road where people don't stop at the stop sign that will stop at stop sign and my father broke his wrist jumping out of the way and speeding cars. So a little vested interest in speeding on a perry road. I'm Andrea. I live on the corner of Smith at 156. Um, another hit spot several times. Um, your garage,

my garage, uh, the fence. When we put in a, um, the house itself before we bought it. And when we put in a fence, the people at town hall at the time said, "Oh, now you won't see the next car coming through your window." It's like comforting. There's a BM up on the corner. I know you're familiar with They will become familiar with it. not um [clears throat] it's also a matter of the crosswalk is also an issue and apparently there was to be a crosswalk um automated uh lighting system

lightning system uh put in in the fall that may still be on the docket coming up for some time but it's obviously the state road at a very crazy intersection with my creek

my name is Danielle Um, I live off a four mile river road and I'm a cyclist and a runner and just love to see those kinds of ways to move around our town done safely. So, in essence, um, we're we're folks that live in town but are are concerned about safety and power will try to do our bit of to help make the town safer and and yeah, I my personal point of view is is the safety of the town is the principal responsibility of this in town. uh and and we'd like to do whatever we can to support you uh make your life as easy as possible and and hopefully work with you as a as a partner there. Um one of the things we're going to talk about this evening and I hope you schedule be able to pay for some of the media. We've been talking to a lot of the towns that that have either applied for uh have been approved or are actually operating hammer safety forcement. Uh and pretty much in every town we've talked to uh the police have been a really integral part of that processing both putting the application together um and then overseeing it. Um, one of the one of things that the team asks for is it's a pretty rigorous application. You have to justify why you want to do it and and in particular justify why you think camera enforcement is needed at a particular location. And most of the times the police department to kind of

pick out where they think is a dangerous location. you've had accidents where they believe people are speeding and so forth. I know that you're you're new to town. Uh and I'm not going to put you on the spot to sit to ask you for some locations, but may maybe one thing you could do I think would help the committee and would also help uh you and your officers is is maybe just ask start conversations with the various officers say, you know, where do we have problems in town with people speeding? Do we have problems with people running lights? of what are the locations and so forth. Can you tell me a little bit about share with the committee a little bit about what your staffing is, Derek? I think the time is also looking to hire an additional officer, too. Is that correct?

We got four full-time right now. ones in the academy graduating March 18th and we're looking to hire another one. The application process just closed February one. So I'm in the process of going through applications and working towards interview academy before he'll be five or she be five. He'll be the fifth. Okay. And then we're going for the six after that. Yeah. I'm curious, John, in New York town. Do you just on state police patrols um going through the town?

We do. We um can do target enforcement through D. We have real problems. So, we'll hire the state police to do that type of patrol. Um [clears throat] I have calls to the con so I have limited powers, but I can do enforcement on towns, but that's very controversial in most towns because generally when you do that, you're catching your own residence. So, And we found the same thing when we got targeted enforcement with statements when we put people in our reset. So it's kind of it's always hard to manage because everyone admits the problem but a lot of people are contributing to the problem. So,

one of the things I wanted to ask I've been asking Martha about this, but I'm really happy that we have both of you here today is um we've been kind of going around circle about getting data from the warning devices. Um you tell us where we're at. Are you training an officer in a line with that or Derek here? I'm more than happy to train him. I work also officer. Um because when I when we put the signs here in town, I have them up and running. Did the initial reports for Martha. Um and it's I think it's pretty important for law enforcement to be able to access that information. I suggest everyone knows it's pretty pretty comprehensive nowadays. Uh you can it there's lots of ways to analyze the data. You can look at your average speed during the time of the day. you can um uh what's very helpful is to see particularly at a problematic road what are your pain points. So normally it's going to be the time when people are commuting to work or coming back so that if you have to do enforcement you can say take resources and say we're going to put them at this intersection at this time when it's really health problem. Um it's [clears throat] at some point if you would like and I would defer to Eric I can come in and show you the level um all the signs that we have including ones through the grants and you also receive that are cloud-based so um it's a service that's if you pull data remotely um you can change the messaging so for a school if they have a special event sign is very very sophisticated nowadays not all of them can do messaging the smaller ones with the white display do messaging the bigger ones with just the larger numbers that the state provided us um only do collecting data. But I'd be happy to show I've done the reports and created a template for line police that shows that they can use for presentations. You might have seen some of them where PD logo and it and it shows some of the

stats. I haven't seen anything recent. Okay. And and Martha has told me she was negotiating with you because obviously you're not from town but you're doing work for the town. So I understand that I'm happy to do it. There's li people have stopped and said why are you in our town doing science? I'm happy to do it but there's liability. So now we have a new you know resident something I would defer to him as whether I support or I train people and happy to do it but it is timeconuming.

So would that be your decision to have say be trained and and kind of share that and compile? [clears throat] Yeah, I think it's we have to get our own access to the the cloud, our own account to access our science to collect all that data and then I work with John training one of the guys or myself or one of us to figure out data all the information and where to locate the signs, how to fix them to the brake ps. So you have to install these quick stop sign poles and go all the locations. Therefore when you move it to locations already got to be in place. There's a little smoothing part here but

yeah the pole stationary. You can't just pull the pole out. So right but the unit is mobile so it can be moved around. You can you can move it. Um they're designed to actually purchase both towns purchase the brackets. So that allows you to move but you have to remember we're moving. You're also moving the photo voltaic panel that charges them. Um the panels are so good nowadays that you don't have to if you put them in the right location they will forever operate there is actually the chart will tell you how much sunlight whether or not it's efficient to keep them going. Um there it's they're impressive. U you can also law enforcement can roll up to them if they have an MDT mobile computer in their vehicle like I have.

You can communicate with them with Bluetooth. So if you choose not to do the cloud which has a service you could officer still roll up and pull the data and program them next you sit right next to the sign. One of the things I talked to Mark about I guess did you create or build trailers to to make them a little bit more mobile. So um I inherited the the first sign we had in our town which was a Decator. Um it was on a hand truck was really a hassle to move. So I built the first trailer that we have here on Bill Hill. That one

Lars made the M trailer I built myself. I had a budget this year for us and the the goal was when Matt Weber was here was to create a joint venture collaborative and and basically share assets. So um the trailer would be something that we could it's a lot easier when they're on a trailer because if you're putting a a speed sign on a state road you have to request an easement. It's not that difficult, but you have to go online, connect a DOT, request the easement, have the town put in breakaway signpost, and then uh install it. So, there's a lot whereas a trailer, you can move it around more readily

and uh we'll we'll get into that in more detail. I I talked to uh Weathersfield's town manager and I talked to Chief Costa in Middletown and they both said it was as much of a headache to get the state to let them put a post in the ground was to get their ATS approve. And the other advantage like they've had a lot of snow this year obviously. So the the PV panels will get covered in snow and then signs stop working. If they're on a trailer, you know you're going to have major storms so they don't get plowed in. It's nice to pull you put them into a public works garage or whatever.

We weather this field is approved and have everything they're ready to go but waiting for the ground to put their post [clears throat] to go along with the breakaway science. I mean basically it's two posts that ends up going to the ground. You got one's about 26 28 in and then the other side that you see the sign post that have to bolt to it. So like it's not like a simple like oh let's just move this one post because now you got about an 8 in piece of post sticking out of the ground that you have to remove all. So like I think the trailer is definitely much more universal for our town because you know it's not like you're looking to do a few different spots. So if you just do it at one spot.

Hi this is uh road safety. Are you water pollution control? That's gonna be an American Nation room demo. It's at 6:30, I think. Yes. So, yeah, I think we do the trailer side of it. I think it makes more sense the work effort that you actually have to put the and then you know rocks, you know, not as simple just one post you're good. You actually got to hold two together. Can I ask a question? If you have the breakaway posts in the ground in multiple locations, how easy is it to just switch the signs between them every couple of months, you still have to go through if it's on like a state road.

Good news. But once the post in place and of course chief would know, you know, then you don't have to move it. The only concern is if you take the actual upper post off, it's a hazard. The short piece that sticks out of the ground, that's the breakaway. The way the signs work which is really useful is that um when you deploy them they have mapping software. So you drop pin you can put the latitude longitude save that spot. So what happens is if I let's say billhill I I have that marked I keep it there for two months then I move it I have another pin drop but if I decide to come back I can have that data still there from the last time I deployed it. And then you can also make a comparison. So you always want each lo location you always want to mark and keep it because also per committee or for law enforcement if they want to go back and say when we had it on Bill Hill can you pull the data from 2024. Do we see that a change? So in our town the biggest impact would be the fact that the bridge was being repaired up in so we had massive amount of traffic going through our town and a lot of people going through areas that would normally not get traffic. Okay.

So, um I I I hope that we can work together and work together so we can see how we get that data flowing and um I would love to to sit down with you or talk to John about interpreting data because you mentioned Mark that you need to look at it. So, I want to make sure if we're drawing conclusions from that they're the correct assumptions. So, one of the one of the the the issues. So, um backing up again the various things we're looking at Derek are uh speed street speed camera enforcement. Um that could include red light enforcement. We haven't really gone into that yet. Um terms of pedestrian and bicycle safety because a lot of that is a lot of infrastructure improvements can be really expensive. Old line has a lot of roads with really narrow shoulders. So we're we're thinking about maybe going to the school system starting with that and then maybe doing some kind of community outreach has volunteered to do with the superintendent and you interested with her rather that would Michael Fox who was a member was not here tonight was was going to also do some research talking to the beach communities about one road bright road which means the work. Basically, all the residents on that road came to the committee and filed a resolution saying we would love to have you put some speed pumps in here because people are just going too fast. The roadway is actually fairly narrow and somebody's parked on the road. Uh bit of a danger. Uh and

we're also we're also working into something that Markler traffic approach said Rosary. We'll talk a little bit about that. But one of the things we did after last meeting was uh reached out to the police department. And uh each of us that talked to a police department share with all of us really a brief little synopsis of what we learned. And I I'll go first just as kind of a template u so we know what what to kind of address and also to for a time frame because again we're we're somewhat limited in our time. I spoke to uh Chief Eric To. I don't know if you've known him. He used to be the co at

and they've they've had really what I would call spectacular program. I would say their program uh it's been a great model for all the other. So hi down the hall. Down the hall to the right. To the right. Thank you. They they have the the main camera on Route 66 which is the state road and

the location where the camera is has a tremendous traffic volume. They were getting 180,000 cars a week each direction on that roadway and a cheap speed is just out of control. One of the things they were asked and I think it's pretty much everything [clears throat] they asked is you know why don't you have an officer dinner said to have somebody 24/7 like a camera would just be prohibitive cost you know it takes the department away from other areas that that that mean attention and control and so forth. So, they took in $1 million in fines in the first few months with their speed camera. And now that people are aware the camera is there, they've had a 94% reduction in speed. Uh, and they're using that money uh as towns are required. It can't be used for the general fund. using that money for a lot of infrastructure improvements uh which will also help safety and the police department itself is going to buy um warning devices built in the trailers so they can move them around and the other thing cost so he's going to train officers in and spotting and and dealing with distracted drivers of all they are using a company called Dra uh we found them to be really interesting. Um they helped the the city with their application. The police department flagged the locations they thought will and then Dapper went and did some of the u engineering studies that do need to do location.

different outlines of of of the location and so forth. Um, Middletown had a because of the volume of of enforcement, they had 11,000 appeals at first. They had four attorneys and two officers working on them. That's dropped down to about 700 a month, which is still fairly high, but they're they're writing a lot of Webfield. Websfield I thought was interesting because uh they they are part of the uh capital region council government. uh CROG went and and certified three different vendors, but they wanted to talk to all the people that that submit bids and they end up going with a company that wasn't on the list uh because um they're the only company I know of so that is doing three types of camera reporting doing speed, they're doing red light, and they're doing voice. and they chose a company called Sightstream because this apparently they're having issues and complaints with uh cable riding either on or exiting or entering the Berlin turnpike with with mufflers that cause a lot of noise and they were kind of set for that. Um they went to DOT and told DOT this is what we're going to do says do you have to come for no because we get a law passed uh that addresses that. Um people will find notes on that. Um they again had to go to gu the three locations they're going to start with are all on state highways. Uh and they're using red lights on two sons highway route 99 locations. They're having red light cameras along four directions. Uh DOT would not approve speed cameras on two local roads only on the state road. Uh they're going

to have [clears throat] two cameras on a post. Um they're u going to uh have it calibrated. So they're going to give people a little bit of a a lead. So they're not going to catch yellow people going through yellow light. And they're going to give people a slight little tick before they start them going through the red light. They Tom Mander said, "I I hope we're not going to have many many appeals." He says, "It's got to be pretty black and white. You either are going over the speed limit or you went through a light or you didn't. They're going to see how the um hearing officer handles going hearings can handle that. And I talked also to Chief Kevin Glenn East. East Lion is going through the process of applying now who's involved in it who met with this committee. No, they have they're taking a little interesting approach. They're going to ask for approval of 10 locations and they're going to bounce the cameras around from location to location so people aren't um expecting them at one particular spot. Uh and they are definitely going to try to get a camera at least [clears throat] one or two cameras on route one which he said is is one of the primary problem areas in the town. Um there was a lot of um concern about privacy when they went uh before town meeting before they got the ordinance passed. A lot of it had to do with the use of license plate readers and flop cameras and and people confused what the town is is looking to to institute with those type of cameras. They made sure that people knew they were not different. It was just for all of you. There's just a story I think I may have shared where even some out of state uh departments are pulling data from those cameras and that was a

concern by the people in town. The other thing to do is is Bo was pretty explicit that he's going to start at least anyway a a grace speed of maybe around 15 miles an hour. You have to you have to give people at least 10 miles an hour. He's going to go even over that uh to get so people get used to that. And the other thing that he and Wfield are doing I thought was interesting. You have to give motorists um notice that you're doing this and do a public campaign and sign so they both contact all the all the companies that have GPS app. Uh so it'll pop up your car approaching a speed camera. Mary, would you like your cameras?

I did uh two different towns. One was Washington um and they installed cameras in May of two 2025 and since then they issued 14,000 citations uh $73,000 of which they collected $528,000. and they used a collection agency which they were very happy with and they said that agency was able to get a fee of 25% of the collected fees. But what they said is they're doing what they call sort of a soft approach. The collection agency would write a letter first, right? And then follow up with a phone call. But after that they said they didn't they didn't they didn't want to be nags, right? So that was still a pretty good 528 out of 703. So they were pleased with that. And they also said they use what they call more userfriendly citations. And the citation explained that, you know, this would not affect your insurance. It wouldn't be points on your your license. It wouldn't go to DMV and all the information would be destroyed within 30 days. So they thought if people could understand that they wouldn't be, you know, big brothers watching me kind of a fear. And then just like you said, Greg, they could use the revenue for certain things, right? they can't use it for anything that they want. They could use it for um road maintenance, road safety, and he said it really helped and also for staff who needed staff to to look at stuff, but he said it big up his other budgets to do other things because safety. Um they said the first cameras they put in were so successful that the speeding dropped so much that they moved the cameras to somewhere else. So I think what everyone was saying was the camera cameras works, the tickets work and and they're sort of training people to to obey the rules and they both said they were very happy with Dagma and they were also extremely happy with the VIP.

They said they're very very easy to work with. Um, okay. That was Washington. And then I spoke to the gentleman at Beacon Falls in Jerry Smith and they're almost the same position as old and he said he was a console and they received lots of complaints about feeding. So they did a a preliminary test, right? And they were able to demonstrate with alarming statistics the extent of speeding on the town roads. Uh they said they clocked 13,000 drivers going uh over the speed limit of 40, 10,000 going 5160 and 33,000 going 61 to 70. So they've had they the data they need to you know to say that we really need this. They said the the town meeting to approve it was not well attended but people did not seem to object. So they were able to and they worked with DAR which were also helpful. They had their their state trooper did all the vetting of the vendors when before they chose DRA. Um, so so they just went um they just went live on January 26th. So they don't really have a whole lot of data first, but they said they've already issued $2,500 in tickets since January. That was just two weeks ago. And the objections are the ones we hear all the time. They said, "Oh, the town is trying to put money." And they explained that's not what it's about. It's not the money that's collected has to road safety and and traffic safety issues. So that that seems fine to them. Um let's see. And the privacy concerns that we've all talked about were a concern, but they pointed out that the the data is destroyed. Um and just like other towns, they said, "Oh, why can't you have your local police do it?" And they said, "Well, that's prohibitive. You can't have a cop working, you know, around the clock in those And he also noted that, and we know

this, that New Haven has fully embraced the speed enforcement. I I haven't been there lately, but someone who was said, "Oh my god, there's bumps and bumps and lights all over the place in." And then he also noted that uh Kent voted no. A couple of people told me he's left the town. Kent voted no. But anyhow, they're very pleased with what's what's happening and, you know, they're new to it, so we'll see. Great. Thank you.

Um Yeah. So I spoke to the town manager of Marlboro and they went with DACA and they were very pleased with DACAR with the help in getting the system up and running. They've been less pleased with DACA in keeping the system running. They've had some issues. Um they're not willing to say that they wouldn't recommend DACA. They're basically trying to renegotiate their contract. Um so that I mean and yeah they had reductions in speeding and made money. Uh I spoke to the chief of police in Milford. Their program is not actually up and running yet because they have the same issue of frozen ground. Um they went with Ultimate. They're happy but they're still they still have to do like their PR campaign to inform the public. Um, and not for right now, but since everyone has sort of talked about Big Brother and privacy concerns, I did do a sort of prepared state because I didn't want to just off the cuff say my piece on that. So I wrote it all out because I do think that a lot of people when you talk about privacy concerns say well there is a difference between automatic license plate readers and the automatic traffic safety enforcement devices that we're looking into. And so I did research on that subject which I'm happy to share with you all. Um,

after I I wanted to I I thought it was interesting at one point I note is that it was Dapper that was getting paid even though it was in the field.

That's they're trying to Yes. This is in Marboro and they're trying to renegotiate this contract because Dra gets its $15 for every violation regardless of whether or not a fine is collected for that traffic violation. And that would be a problem in and of itself, but they're having a lot of issues with the quality of the image being produced not being good enough to move forward with a citation or a traffic violation and DACA still gets its $15 and the town can't do anything. Um, and the $15 seems to be coming from the town. Like they have not done what most of the other towns that we have looked into have done where um the money is just coming from the fines and then money is going to the vendor. It seems as though Marboro is paying that.

That's a great point. That's something I think Tom if line goes forward or line goes forward, it really needs to be negotiated or discussed with any vendor. Um I I don't you're the law allows the $15 administrative process fee, but there's no appeal. I I don't really see why the company should collect that money. Um it's interesting and and there's a two-part process in Weathersfield where um Syream will hear an initial appeal and and basically talk to the people virtually and and if they can't agree. Yeah. Yes. I admit I was going through past letter then it goes to the PE where they have a actual formal appeal where they have a hearing officer. But interesting Weathersfield got to mention this. What is he is going to give people a little bit of grace if there's circumstances that warrant it. For example, if someone said, you know, my wife was hurt or my husband's having a heart attack or was taken because of the hospital, they said, we're not going to we're not confronting people with that. So that's obviously a subjective call, but you know, that's that's how Tom is approaching it, which I think is fair. So Andra,

I spoke with Greenwich and Stanford. I spoke with James Smith, who's a sergeant of the Greenwich Police. Um, and their program, um, fully live January 8th, so their data is a little newer. Um, they went with Blue Line Solutions. Um, they like how they took a holistic approach, not just focus on revenue, was more in line with the town values. Um and they [clears throat] uh the vendor helped complete the application along with the traffic engineer and in with people in town hall and police. Um they [clears throat] have um I think it was this one that had uh the um the this uh appeals. they have it. It takes a lot of um it it takes everybody. It's it's a it's a laborious process. Um in January they had 5,000 um uh citations uh which was low because of uh school break. But it's a very tedious process for the um police to go through the citations and to um check the description, check the plates of the vehicle, the description of the vendor to about the violation and approve or disapprove whether it was an actual violation. Um, and that was kind of a a learning curve for them, not realizing that it was going to take so much manpower. Um, and some people they were just stupified about their comments. like people would write they're still getting some complaints even though it's been very effective um

because there have been noticeably slower speeds but um people um either you know PTO people will ask well what's the speed limit so that kind of gives them pause it's like really [laughter] really um and u not even aware that there's a school zone uh so That's few people but it's just still kind of shocking response. Um I think they have 10 cameras, 10 roads and six schools that are um cited uh and they and the blue line solution help them with all the media education um beforehand. um and Stanford u they have a transportation planner so he prepared the entire application that's his job of course these are much larger towns cities you know to us so um they use some data crash analysis school walking data feed monitors that recorded speed u and he would recommend strongly helping the vendor having the vendor help for um for compiling the application and they're using sight stream. Uh they had a competitive RFP bid with five other vendors not at liberty to say three were interviewed and um um it's a full term full service. So that just kicked off also early January. So they don't have that was approved January 7. So they haven't really been on the ground much to give data.

Thank you. I apologize if I have fire department to excuse myself, but I'll grab a card before. Thank you.

You're stairs. Yeah. up the stair to your right. Okay. Do [clears throat] you know if police department work with some of these vendors like other I'm not sure vendor names I know my brother's a chief in Rhode Island and he just went through this whole process with the Rhode Island state law is you can put the cameras have to be within a quarter mile zone. That was quite nice. But they're moving forwards, moving out of that to go anywhere they want. Like he told me, that's all I know. What he told me

is vendors require three densities. It requires um municipal ordinances for speed violations, which don't have them just right now. um municipal court and a municipal court judge. And what they do is they have they have a traffic court, but they'll hire a judge who I think he goes to their town hall, presides over the fight ticket, the appeal process, and talked to him the other day. He said they have to schedule a secondary day of court cuz at first there's thousands violations coming in and everyone's going to fight those 100%. And so they they have multiple days and it's uh it's a whole the whole thing. But I guess he said you need those three things for vander to actually whoever it may be. The reason I asked this is Chief Costa and and Chief Glenn both said they had worked with the with the company said Choke previously worked with the company and familiar with that um and I can't think of his name but I know that Al retired chief from Brford on their staff working with obviously maybe known by by other people wanting community.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that I it's really there's a limited number of towns that have resident troopers that are going through this process. You mentioned

Yeah. in Washington. You you got you had the two resident trooper towns that have have been approved. Durham is voting on an ordinance I think next week and fillingly is talking to ultimate about a program. They're in the same same very early part of the decision process that we're in. So um so just to kind of sum up I I As I said, I think that rightly looks to you to to maintain safety on the road. we have like to help you out or if we can't but if I also think in terms of the decision of the student it's my own personal opinion and I I can't speak for everybody else but I would I would consider what your thoughts are really have great ones would be in my point of view on board with the program be much easier. So for me personally we proceed with that. So

we work together on that but I don't think and just terms of the process going we've talked to different people. Um, one of the things I want to do in the next month is try to get some work with uh the Connecticut crash to repository data and try to find out some of the the accident experience in this town and the injuries in this town and and zero where they're going to be located. next month. Rob Herren, who's a traffic planner for Riverco, is going to come and talk about the old line portion of their plan. Towns that apply for a enforcement program must have a safety plan in place. Uh, pretty much every town I've talked to seems to be using their COD plan rather than coming except for something like New Haven, which you're right. I drove in New Haven the other day and I I just blew my mind how many speed humps they had. And I talked to an engineer in New Haven and they [clears throat] were paying something like $10,000 for speed hump. They got a giant grant, I believe, to help defay some of those costs.

I'd be curious to learn, you know, what response or reactions the the ambulance police and responders first responders have to those. They're they're they're fairly elongated. You you can go over them maybe 25 miles an hour, 20 miles an hour without much jolt in your car. You're going faster than that. I imagine you're going to know you slow down.

So before we I wanted I want to let you have a chance to talk about that. So just as a as a preface to that um one of the things that was noted to us in our in our survey is is that a lot of people mentioned that uh they thought there were some safety problems parents either either dropping off students or picking up students at the end of the school day at Wild Creek School and Martha suggested maybe traffic coming would be something to look at. Um so I just started to compile and I also have some copies um just visuals of what all these different solutions look like because um I know we've been running around a lot.

Yeah. And so I just thought I I went through um the DOT website um that Robert had sent you, right? Um which is a great resource and I'm push to um it's definitely worth some time looking at that. Um it's the Federal Highway Administration um primers. So, it's a whole guideline that goes through different solutions and um how they're applicable and research and data on um how those work. So, um I basically just studied through those and kind of imagined what would be applicable old lime. A lot of them are for more urban settings and just sense for what we're dealing with. Um and um so most importantly is the um basically the the importance of the truck plumbing solutions are that um if you know if you're driving um and you're at a speed of 20 miles per hour but less than if a pedestrian is struck then typically they're not permanently injured. And so anything um over 36 miles per hour um really results in a fatality. So the whole um the whole goal of traffic calming is just to reduce fatalities in different ways. So um

hi Terry, we have it to sound

um the the um first the painted crosswalks are something that um I know Martha was um pretty jazzed about um solution for old line. So I did some research about that. this was not on the DOT's, you know, recommended website. Um, and I think the I read through some newspaper articles and a few different and, you know, they're very mixed reviews about what kind of solution this is, not necessarily like it was good in in fostering community and bringing people together on a shared project, but in terms of safety, it was sort of mixed. So whether that was more distracting or, you know, some of these are like, is that a crosswalk? So, um I think it could there's there's basically no data that supports that it's helpful in any way except for raising morale. Yeah.

Um then, um I wanted to just go through the bumps, the humps, and the ski tables. And I'll go through that kind of quickly. Um the speed um humps are um both seat in length and between um two and four inches in height. Um it's a speed hump. Um and then a bump is much shorter between one and two feet in length and can be as much as six inches high. So basically the recommendation is that those um that the bumps are in a very like a residential area. They're not on you know a road that's traversed very much or parking lot or something like that. Except just in terms of you know your your concern obviously you know for first responders that were just not inappropriate for the areas that we've indicated except maybe um right um then the speed humps um those um are just much basically much longer um because we all know um and we're very in terms of the data we're very effective in slowing um the speed down. Um the speed tables um are basically what we see in New Haven. So those are um much longer and um as you were saying like they basically if you go um 20 miles per hour, 20 25 miles per hour, there's no damage to the vehicle just because of the way that they're pitched. But if you're going over that, you're really jostling. um the speed cushion which is sort of what I landed on as my favorite um and um it's what you know we had been talking about you know Sophie you had mentioned this a few times um that they have these basically the cutouts in the center where emergency vehicles and

trucks and buses can pass through um without having any damage to the vehicle and um like very much like speed table the profile is such that when you traverse over at at 20 25 miles per hour, you're going to be okay. But anything over that I'm guess those are particular like say 40 foot versus 25. Yeah, that that I don't know that particular but I feel like if this is you know solution that we're leaning towards we should just kind of deep you know dive into that. So, do cars generally go in between the spaces or

No, they would be they would be crossing over, you know, their lane to do that. So, only be in an emergency situation where, you know, the siren is on and then they traverse that um that cut out. I see. And any damage to the person inside or the vehicle itself.

Um the the raised crosswalk I thought was also very interesting. So it's it's basically a speed table with a flat top. Um so it would go over the crosswalk. Um so for example at the school if they wanted to you know um implement that it seemed like a very good solution. The crosswalk is already there. Um, but it would just mean us together. And um also I think that the pavement markings are worth looking at as well just to you know we talked so much um with public works about signage and um that maybe just having I think maybe to Martha's point about like h having something on the road like an artwork that's you know just kind of had your attention maybe something like this could be much you know more effective in keeping with the historic charact. wrapping up real quick before the next meeting. I'm gonna try to get some data. Would you like to continue and I I will share with you the engineer from video what they are using uh after about six call I got the right person really helpful to talk so I'll share that information with you and we'll see you all in March. I think that you want to say something before we

Oh, well just at um I think it was the speed bump. So I live on a private road, so they just do it really over there. We have some of those temporary speed bumps installed. Not now, not during the winter months. Um plowing. Um but if in the springtime they go back, want to like see what they're like, you know, by all means. Does it slow people down? It slows me down. Well, the beach white sands has right bumps and edem removable from there. They

broke an axle on one of his bars was full of sand. Thank you guys. Okay. Okay.