Road and Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

called meeting to order. I have the 610. Yeah. 608. 608. Call me to order. You tell if there's anybody on um logged on other than there's not. You would see them on the screen. We can skip over the public comment. Uh I just wanted to introduce Rob and if we get set up, he can start talking about Robert Heram that is a senior planner for River Dog. Uh, and he's been working on the SS4, uh, SS4A, safe streets and roads for all. And was that just adopted by that your board?

Yes, it was adopted in February, so I don't even have the current final version up on the website or anything yet, but it will be soon.

Okay. Uh, and I'm going to jump ahead to some other things. Uh, because I'm try to end this meeting at seven. We have another group coming in here. So, uh, Ken asked me, uh, there's something he needed to check into at at the last meeting. And one of the things that we've done in the past is heard from residents of Brighton Road. We're going to ask that the speed limit be adjusted and and possibly a temporary speed pump be put on there. Rosemary and Michael are looking into that. like neither is here, but I I don't know that we're ready to go ahead with it now. I I will talk to them to try to get more information. Um, looking the past notes, um, Amanda indicated that Frank Peparo was going to buy some new speed humps for Sound View. So, I will contact him and see if we can purchase

[snorts] um, add them into that. find out who actually installs it would be my guess that it's public works and I can talk to Ed about that when we have a particular um feed purchase particular model and I had asked you to kind of address it with with the chief McCarthy and say is It's cool to put this on here at the beach. You guys are still going to be able to get there, right? Yep. Okay.

You know what kind of feed bumps Frank's looking into? I I'm going to find out. Michael was researching that. Yeah. He he he mentioned um a recycled reflective rubber hump from Oh, it's a hump, not a bump.

Hump. Yes. From from a company called Rubber Forum. uh and it cost uh roughly around $1,300, but I I I we need to get more information on that. So, and then the other thing I want to do is just check back with the folks that submitted the petition so we basically all ducks in a row. So, we'll have the information uh we can revote on it again in April and and then I can go to the board and make April if I want to start checking things off and put things on the progress column. The other thing I wanted to mention is is u we never did get a vice chair and that's fine. Um but one issue is I'm going to be traveling during the during the the uh date for the May meeting. So um would you all be amenable to changing the date on that May meeting? It's not a big deal. The only practical implication is that when you do that uh it then becomes a special meeting which um if anybody went to the FOI hearing that leaves you unable to amend or change the agenda. You have to go with exactly the agenda you post. Uh but it's not a big deal. So I I will be away

12th May 12th. Yeah, I won't be [clears throat] assuming I'm going to be traveling because we're supposed to have a flight that goes through uh Qatar Qar Air, which is currently airspace is closed at the moment. I'm hopeful things will be a little quieter in six weeks, but we shall see. U [clears throat] maybe we can shoot for something later in the month. Are we allocating? I think so. Okay. I mean, I'll just tab through if you don't mind me. He's dropping in.

Oh, yeah. No, absolutely. So, anyway, I I'll distribute some some dates or we can do a little poll, whatever. We could try to reschedule that. Anyway, before we get back to the main agenda, I'll turn it over to Robin, you could uh do you want to basically introduce yourself and your your work on the plan, Robin? Would you talk about it?

Yeah, sure. Um, as Genan mentioned, I am Rob Harma. I'm the senior transportation planner at Rivercog. Um, I'm really the only transportation planner at Rivercog. So, there is no director, there is no assistant, there is no intern. So, if there's pretty much anything you guys need, you can just contact me directly. I'll have all my information in there later. Um, this is uh basically a I don't know. Do we want to just get right into the Yeah. So,

so I I went back and forth with Rob a little bit about what he talked about. Uh, and as I mentioned, he has a new plan and and one of the requirements for um speed camera enforcement or ATSC enforcement is that by DOT is that you have must have a safety plan. And it seems that pretty much every town that we've surveyed or that I've talked to has used their Rivercock plan as quote their town plan. And and in the process of compiling this, uh, Rob has a section on old line within the plan. Um, and I thought maybe he could go over that, uh, and talk a little bit about what's in the old line plan. Um, so we don't duplicate any of the planning work that he's already done. And also, I asked if he could talk briefly about, um, the accident experience that Wing W has had over the last couple years. I I kind of view uh this committee's uh consideration of speed and camera enforcement as kind of a three-legged stool. We we have the public's um perception that there is a problem in town. Pretty significant majority think there is a problem in town. Uh we have some speed data. We need more speed data. I was hoping that John Evans would be here or Martha uh to talk about where where we are with our cameras, whether they've been installed on uh the new locations that that we've suggested. And then the third one obviously is is, you know, does the accident experience in town u merit that counter measure? You know, it's I I think the ATSD work really well, but we don't want to have a solution in search of a problem. So anyway, that's that's kind of a leadup for you going what you got.

Yeah. Okay, we can flip our slide here. That was just kind of our brief overview. She was listening. She got it. Oh. Oh, are you that she downstairs listening? Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, that

we can just leave it there. Cool. That's uh good. Um, if you're not familiar with us, I don't know if you're familiar with Rivercog. Uh, we have 17 towns in our region. We're the Council of Governments. We do all sorts of regular planning. The MP does transportation planning. Um, our board is basically made up of the 17 uh chief elected officials and town managers in the region with the uh MO board, the transportation board also including uh the chamber of commerce and the uh estro transit district. That's kind of who we are. Um before we get to that, let's see here. Um the SS4A is is a new program. Um if you're familiar with federal transportation and planning legislation, the bipartisan infrastructure law came out. Uh when was it? I 2022. Uh pretty much the uh transportation infrastructure has kind of remained the same since 1991. You know, every 5 to seven years there's a new infrastructure bill passed by Congress. That's where the NPOS's get their funding and a lot of the transportation funding comes from. Uh we had applied in 2022. We were awarded the grant in 2023. So through two years 2024 and 2025, we uh kind of hired FHI um and they had had VHB as a sub consultant to uh put this plan together. Uh so we've been working on that. We just wrapped it up. As uh Greg had mentioned, it was adopted by the MO board last uh last month. Uh the new plan, so we still only have the drafts on the website.

So, can I just stop you? Yeah, sure. Absolutely. That's the easiest way. The the MTO board is kind of like your governing board of the towns or what is that?

Um yeah, it's the uh like I said, the 17 um chief elected officials or town managers for each town as well as the transit district. It used to be uh Nin Town and Estuary. Now they obviously merged into one new group as well as the Middle Sex Chamber. So that's kind of what the MO board consists of um as our bosses. So you know Martha's Martha's pretty much there every month. So that's great. Um it changes, you know, as a CEO has changed. Some are quite active, some are not active at all. Um like I said, Martha's very good. I think she's probably been to most of our meetings. I've worked with her with the Halls Road project and things like that. So, um, that's where that stands. Uh, what else did I have on here? Okay. Yep. So, let's see here. This is basically a new program. It's under the byproduct SS4A's discretionary grant. Um, is a series of core, you know, core programs that have been in since 91. This is a new program. Um, the bipartisan infrastructure law expires in 2026. So hopefully it will be renewed uh as this specific program because in order to apply for uh you know funding to actually construct these projects the action plan needed to be in place. So during the first round pretty much across the country everyone was doing action plans rather than implementation plans because just because the order of the way everything is uh so basically uh basically the SS4A oops that's kind of our cover of of our plan that'll be obviously revised to December. Okay, if we could switch she's here could swap. There we go. Uh it follows a new safe systems approach. Uh this has been adopted by federal highways. You can see they have this wheel that's everywhere. Safer vehicles, safer road. It's uh safer people. It's kind of a This came out of I want to say Scandinavia in the 80s or 90s. It's

really just kind of catching on here for the most part. Uh

I mean, I won't read it out. You can take a look at it all later. Uh basically our our vision is to uh it's to eliminate uh traffic fatalities by and injuries by 2045. um encourage transportation agencies and towns to uh basically align their programs with vision zero. Uh a big part of it is to you know position the towns with receive. Oh yeah absolutely and looking at the stuff I would if you haven't looked at I recommend you all take a look at the plan and and and check it out. But how how is this coincide or how does this coordinate with visions there Rob? Um, as part of the plan, uh, one of the things was the, uh, as there was SS4 plan kind of, we didn't make it up. Federals have a federal FHWA has a list of like 10 various steps you have to go through to do these plans. So, the SS4 plans across the country are all going to follow basically a similar format for a COG or an agency like us. It's a little different for a town. Um, Middletown was awarded one a year or two ago. uh they're doing more of a corridor study kind of approach but uh basically uh you know organizations like us uh you know look at all the towns in the region and basically it was to set up uh the towns to apply for future funding whether it's through SS4A or through a variety of state programs um there's community connectivity there's LAIP there's um all sorts of various state programs we could talk about later you know as you have any questions as we go through

well I I I Hope we can touch later on the third point up there which I'm sure someone the town would be interested in. Yeah. Yeah. Actually um Matt to kind of change subjects. This kind of the third meeting. I mean a plan was just adopted. I was meeting with Killingworth first selectman about uh various traffic calming measures they're interested in. Um Chester is just creating their own vision zero committee. Uh we just met for the first time last month and then this meeting here um an old line with this group. So, I mean, being that we just adopted the plan a month ago, I mean, we already have three towns, you know, interested in learning more. So, that's a that's a good thing. We may have a fourth time.

Yeah. Yeah. Like I said, Middletown's doing their own plan, but it's a completely different approach. They're looking at 1766, uh, Route 3, and I want to say Sab Road, but I'm not sure. I don't want to interrupt you, but I I I would I would be very interested in having you talk a little bit about what type of traffic caling measures Kelly is doing. That's something that our first Martha has mentioned a number of times and one of the [clears throat] our member who was at the work emergency was looking into that. Yeah. Yeah. We can talk about it a little bit. Actually, one of the things at the end is like a list. I didn't put all the links in, but there's a great federal highway resource. I'll let you continue.

Yeah. All right. Sure. I think that's uh the wheel and then we're going to go through uh basically uh what we have basically the plan the plan itself that's online if you haven't had a chance to look at it is an introduction it's pretty basic talks about you know what SS4 is a description of uh you know the project the visions goals etc similar to any opening of a plan uh the safety assessment um is really a crash analysis um I can go I'll go into that in a little more detail um the appendix does have that and greater you greater detail. Um the uh access and need assessment is kind of just what it says looking at populations less like or less likely to drive um you know elderly youth um uh one you know zero car car households u limited English proficiency uh thing. So that's all kind of mapped out in the plan. Uh public engagement was big um played a large role in this plan. One of the factors is public engagement. We'll get to that when we talk about the uh the corridors. Um we did have a mapping tool which we promoted across the region for it was probably up for pretty much the light life of the study where people could go in and put pins on a map and describe what their problems were or issues in the region. Uh we had a numerous popups at farmers markets at uh Fourth of July events, things like that. uh the bus and train stations. I try to get the word out uh there.

Can I Sorry to interrupt. Pain. Let me know. No, no. I'm really curious about the pops. Is there a way to to export what's on the map to like an Excel? So, this is the location. This is what the person thought there was an issue. Um yeah, it's somewhat in the appendix because all the things in the map Yeah. All the things in the map are broken up by town, by number of sponsors per town. what their issues were. So, if you do go to the appendix one, there is there's four different sections and that is all mapped out there. One of the maps if you hover over the dots, it will tell you y certain information.

Yeah, it could be the crash map or it could be this one. I don't think this one's actually live anymore because you know the stud is closed down. But uh yeah, that is I'm just curious if if so, as I mentioned, we did a survey and one of the uh questions in the surveys is where do you think what do you think are some problem roads, problem locations, intersections? I'm just curious about how the two your response and this response uh coincide whether they different are different or not. So

Oh yeah. Yeah, it's definitely there. It is in the appendix. It has both the pins on the map but all the locations as well as like not summary of everyone but it does I forget how it's broken down by I think like go bike issue, pet issue, intersection. It just uh it's pretty thorough. I mean like I said it is in the one of the appendix documents, not in the actual plan itself. Yeah, good question. Where do you actually pull the information from? Like whatever it might be biking or accidents or whatever it might be or walkways or something like that. How do you pull the information?

Everywhere. We'll get to that. We'll get to that in a minute when we talk about the information because there was five different legs that this came from. Uh the prior plan has a lot of good information too only kind of use two but I'll I can mention that briefly in a minute or two as well. Uh just going back to after public engagement is a regional focus corridor is what we're going to talk about. Uh oops around here. Yeah, there we go. Uh yeah. Okay. Just trying to figure out where we are. Yeah, the action plan is the uh recommendations. There's design recommendations, policy, education, enforcement recommendations, which I have later slides of. Progress and monitoring, that's basically we're going to update the data pretty much annually. All the crash data that is in our dashboard um that I probably won't be able to pull up if I don't have access here, but uh you could do it yourself. I can give you the link easy enough later. Uh the municipal profiles, these are in both plans, the SS4 and the other one. This is a section for every town. Uh I'll get into that in a minute, too. And like I said, there's appendices with existing conditions, detailed safety, uh analysis, uh the map tool, which is what Greg was talking about, which shows all the locations, uh basically policy recommendations, and the focus corridor selection. We can move on. I do have the next two slides are the uh oops, there we go. the municipal profiles for old lime. Uh the first one is basically okay crashes is fatality and serious injury. So this is really just the number and the locations from uh 19 through uh 23 was it? Yeah, 19 through 23. This is a Yukon crash data from the Yukon repository. Um anyone can get an account and look at it themselves. Um it's pretty detailed spreadsheet data. Uh one thing that we

did use was the uh roadway safety management system. This was a also through Yukon DOT had hired them to come up with a system based on uh basically all the federal requirements. Uh the three things that we were talking about for the corridor study selection are next in line which is the high injury network. Yep. Um, so is you said there's something that details more where these crashes took place.

Uh, yep. Well, the dots in the map are just fatalities and serious injuries. We do have all the crashes. Uh, but SS4A is the primary focus is fatalities and serious injuries, not all crashes. Um, the next slide after this, I mean, we don't have to skip there yet, but there's the high injury network, which basically looks at uh there's two different metrics. It looks at severity. Uh, so that was one of the inputs. critical clash crash locations um is basically all the data. So it includes it includes more of the uh so locations that would not you know have injuries but just crashes in general. So like less more crashes less severity uh vulnerable road user crashes is like ped non non non vehicular crashes. Uh so those are the three main crash uh data that

I was curious as to what roads were identified for the level of seriousness in that. Okay. Uh we looked at everything with the exception of limited access highways. So 991 and 95 are not in the plan and everything else is.

So then what else did I have there? public input that was from the survey as well as all the meetings and the access and need uh you know is the maps that are in the plan um for the um you know the various demographics that you know are likely to have limited access to transportation. So those are like the three main inputs that were put together to come up with the uh profiles. We can flip slides. You can kind of see. Oh, there it is on the top. Um, that shows the critical corridors and which of the metrics we used to find that the other. So, that has the three uh three crash datas. The corridors that

the only street and intersection that came up. Uh, yep. An old line. There was three or four times that didn't have any. Um, I can't read it. What's that? It's uh Huntley Road and Poo Gul Lane the cross street on 156. Yeah, that's the only road. Surprising. Yeah, cuz basically that was using all these, you know, there's the five different metrics and there were I looked at this and I was like, well, there got to be other streets on this, but that's the only

Oh, yeah. Yeah. We can look at the whole thing like I said, but the data I mean basically most of the uh the recommendations apply everywhere, you know, pretty much. But that's what came up using this set of metrics. The previous plan had 156 in route one. Uh which we can look at next too if you want to do that. I think it need more detail. There's only like one accident that Yeah, there wasn't very that I was I know I know this accident like Yeah, [clears throat] I could definitely give you probably four more roads that definitely got more priority. Yeah.

Yeah. because that was I think most of that was small fender benders on the ramps and at the lights it was just a ladder ends but there was a high number but there wasn't much of severity in that region or area but like I said we can talk more uh here's the design recommendation it's just a list things such as design standards speed management uh infrastructure improvements the next design what did we have policy recommendations again zero complete streets report on some towns you had spec specific remedies whether it was a dock sign here or change of an intersection there. Yeah.

But that was not elaborated on gold lines. No, that was uh what did we have? There were 10 locations that were picked out to look into a little more detail in terms of text and then there was three that actually had concept plans developed. Uh I forget what they were off without looking at them. Uh so those were why were those locations chosen?

Um they were based on the like I said the metrics there was 10 high injury networks. There was 25 critical crash locations and then when you added in those other uh metrics that I looked at uh that's just the way it came up. It's all in the uh in the appendix. You can have the rank list. I think the one that even we were talking about on 156 was ranked like 22nd out of 25 because I think we ended up looking at 25 locations. Uh I can't remember specifically but uh so we had policy recommendations and then enforcement and uh education recommendations. Miss can I interrupt your second?

Absolutely. So um as we look through this so as we go and look at the appendix or whatever if we have questions or whatever can we address them to you? Oh yeah, absolutely. Like I said, the way we can do that is is rather than like nine of us writing to Rob, if you could write to the committee email address and I'll kind of Andrea and Sophie have the same question. I don't he's get it twice and we can forward that on to but if you look at it and have any questions, send them to me and I'll I'll see if Rob can answer. Yeah. Yeah, sure.

Okay. So, that's kind of the SS4A plan. Then it looks at the next plan. If we flip, that's the RTSP, which is the regional transportation safety plan. This is kind of the precursor to the current plan. It uses 15 and 19 data rather than the 19 through 23 data. Um, it only looks at u the uh basically the high severity crashes. Um, this did not really have a public involvement aspect other than going out and meeting with all the towns. uh most of the recommendations I mean it's only five years old so it's everything here is probably hasn't been addressed yet either so it's really would be just as irre or relevant it's just has the older data is a list of uh I think just some of the things that came out of some of the meetings with the towns the crash locations curious I I did did anybody from line work with you on this or did you kind just kind of do an overview of the town.

Uh, nope. This was actually VN engineers that did this. These were done your consultants. Yep. This was done statewide. So unlike SS4A or there's a few times that this was kind of an update of the SS4A plan using different methodology. Uh, this was VN engineers. Uh, there was a town meeting in every town. I think it said who was there uh current planner at the time and from here too far away I mean it went out to everybody that's who probably had shown up back then uh there that was route one and route 1562 if we flip

so route one yeah town the crashes route one town woods Boston post road near hillside near sill lane and mile creek road yeah we flip the next two it goes into those two locations in a little more detail. Oops. Maybe the next one. That was the previous map. There it is. Which which one was that? Was Route One and the next one was uh Route One and the Town Wave.

But those were the kind of the locations that came out of that study. And if we uh keep going, I think there was a recommendations that were made for that site. Who were they presented to? Um this one? Yeah. Or the other one? Um the the one that just showed Lazville because it said like flashing speed feedback signs was one of the recommendations and clearly we don't have that. And so this came about before in 2019 because this is the old

uh Yeah, this was from 2021 I want to say this one was adopted and the other one so it was about 5 years ago. Yeah. at the town basically. I don't remember who was here at the time uh spying you there at the time. Would that have been through the police department or first selectman's office or um yeah I don't remember who was involved. I mean it went out to everyone the public meeting you know at the municipal offices but given that this is a state road. [clears throat] So did this information also get sent to the state?

Oh yes the state was actually the ones who did this plan. Um unlike the SS4A I think if you go to the next slide um this follows a whole different thing. This follows the state's uh highway safety uh improvement plan which is a different thing. So this uh has the recommendations that the uh it follows the state plan. They recommend that top intersection right?

Yeah. So this has the state has in their highway safety plan emphasis areas. This uses the same one and it bases uh you know the recommendations on a 3D process which is you know education, enforcement and engineering. Uh so it's kind of I I don't I didn't come up with and put in all you know all the various recommendations but just an idea so you can go back and and look at it. So So that's just kind of a brief summary of the two plans. Um don't know if there's any you want me to go back a slide? Uh nope. You could actually move up one one or two.

Yeah. See, so it uses different emphasis areas. As I said, it's you know, not the safe systems approach state plan approach. Uh DOT actually had hired the consultant to do these for all the regions uh back then. So that's where they came out. They were supposed to be updated every five years. uh most or a lot of the cogs are updating it with the SS4A plan instead because it uses the same you know Yukon data just in a just addresses things differently. So can you we talked about some of the data sources in the appendex or you going to jump uh yeah because we can skip the ATSDs if you guys are good with that.

I think I think we're all pretty familiar with that.

Yeah. Okay. So this is uh just some other sources not really in the appendix but just that we have obviously there the RTSP is the older version of the uh safe routes to school plan. Uh we do have a bicycle and pedestrian master plan that also has vulnerable road user crash data. Um I think it was from 17 through 19. So there's heat maps and you can see the whole region in the town. Um it does have all sorts of uh countermeasure design guidelines for bike bike facilities. So if you're interested in that, that's a it's a good resource. Um you know, it talks about everything from sheros to dedicated bike lanes to off-road bike lanes to everything and has various metrics for the towns, you know, based on traffic volumes and things like that and you know what would be the best fit. So I mean it's just a good resource. Uh the MTP is the metropolitan transportation plan which we are in the process of updating or just starting to that should be out in about a year that discusses uh basically all the federal safety performance measures. Um so all those metrics are shown in there. Uh Yukon crash data again that's uh basically a web tool that you know the town can uh you know do some of their own work and look at all the crash. They can it can be queried by road and by crash type and all that and you know spit out

how how does that the Yukon crash data repository is that done by is it T2 uh office T2 is the is an office that gave this time two of the speed warning flashing signs. Yep. Yep. They do. They've been doing that. It's through it's all together um at Yukon. You have a contact at Yukon that you can reach out to. Yeah, I do. It's pretty good. They've been helping actually when I was talking about meeting with Chester not long ago, they've been helping him put some of that data together and also the uh the other Yukon stores uh which does have a great uh great crash data.

And where do they actually get their information from like Yukon? Um it's all from the uh all from the police reports. Uh they started in about 2015 when the police reports kind of changed before basically all the towns kind of had their own report. Uh then they made things all consistent across the state. I want to say it was 2015. I'm not sure if that was the exact date. And then again maybe in around 2019 or 2020 it was revised again. So basically pretty much all the state police, all the local police, everyone submits all the crash data to Yukon and they kind of have been compiling it uh into this database for you know the last 10 or so years. So that's pretty much where that comes from. uh DOT, the safety engineering unit. I mean, they have all sorts of information about traffic cominging measures and safety uh safety things that you see there, rumble strips, uh roundabout, surface treatment, flashing beacons, things like that. As well as links to their strategic highway safety plan, which is, you know, the one that our plan mirrors and the uh strategic highway uh implementation plan, uh you know, which is again all the basically safety things the state wants to implement. I mean, so you could look at that. Uh, we do meet with them once a year as a cog. So, if there is things, you know, you'd like to get in there, it'd be great. You know, you can let me know and we can talk to them. They don't do it directly. They do have a consultant on. I want to say it with CDM Smith for the last few years. I don't know how long their contract's on for, but we do meet with them and if there is, you know, locations of concern in the town, we can talk to them then. [snorts] But when getting back to you, so when the town was given the two uh warning devices, uh

it was expressed to Martha that Yukon would talk to the town and make recommendations on particular occasions to install them and talk about their uses. I don't think there was ever that followup with that. They were just basically delivered to us. Yeah, that's happened in a lot of towns. I think it was they there's been a few road versions. Is that the uh the speed signs the side of the road? Yeah. A lot of towns even have I think there's a second round. So you might have two, you might have four. Some went to the first select and some went to public works, some of the resident troopers. So they could be anywhere. I've had towns calling me going, "Where are my signs?" It's like take your public works director, you know. So

well, we had a couple and then we had had the two additional ones. Um so I It would be nice to to be in contact with you. We could talk to for that shout out, too. Yeah, I can look it up and get back to you. If you could email me, that would be terrific problem. Yeah, the person that's been doing it for years, retired or moved on about a year or two ago. So, I think that's probably why there's been a lot of confusion as of late. I forget her name, but she was good. Um, I forget where she moved to. She did a lot of that. She did a lot of the ADA work, too. So, um, that was she was good for that. I I I mentioned uh maybe in an email that I talked to Anukica Mahar and we've been

she's been referenced to us by some of the vendors uh that are doing the ATSD program. Uh do does Rivercog have any intention of of kind of coming up with a recommended vendors list or you referring people to Capric or

Yeah. No, we don't have one. Um I think they're the only one in the state that does a lot of been just a lot of the vendors have been just been cold calling towns and it's probably you might be familiar with. Um I think in Middletown they did help once they had them on they helped to develop the plan. Uh yeah but we haven't really worked with that a whole lot and that type of thing. So but what else did I have? Oh the uh traffic calming primer. That's a great resource. It's from Federal Highway. Um I can I can send, you know, direct links out to that too if you wanted to send out the whole group. Um it's uh it's basically broken down by uh various uh sections and it's it's really good because it just talks about like various things you can do as speed tables as you were talking about, speed bumps, things like that, when to install, what type of roads, what kind of volumes, but it's in uh it's in layman's terms. It's not in engineering terms. So, it's it's it's a really good resource uh to review. Also, uh through the Yukon, not only getting that data, you can get they do have their own dashboard as well. Again, if this was working, I could pull it up and show everybody. Um but I could send the link over to Greg and you can forward it to the to the group if you wanted to do that, too.

That would be helpful. It's similar to ours on our SS4A website, but it's I looked at I looked at Yukon's crash data thing. it it's somewhat intuitive, but it's not not particularly easy to do the searches you want to have done. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It's it's a pain, but that's to get the detailed information. If you're just looking for a snapshot, like I said, the dashboard is great. Um, when you log in, it just shows the town, but you just put your own town name in, and it'll bring you right down. And on the top, there was um You want me to go to it?

Do you want me to try to go to it? Yeah, if you could really quick. Um, I can tell you what you can Google search. Uh, I had it here because I don't have the actual link. Um, it is really good, but I can't find it. Give me one second. Uh, yeah, just just uh Google CT roadways or CTR SMS. DT C RM B R SMS

R SMS we have to jump to this fairly quickly and cover because I I'm going to pass over some of the things on the agenda because of the absence of people. But Sophie wanted to have an opportunity to talk about license plate readers versus the cameras. Yeah. If it doesn't come up, like I said, I can send you I'm getting ham radio and a Wikipedia thing.

Yeah. No, that's okay. I mean, if you guys are fine, I'll just uh send it out. It does have the crash data. You can search it by year. Um, I think it defaults to like 2015 to current. So, it's a ton of data on the top. It goes back to the HPMS. So, I don't think it has serious injuries. I think it's only fatalities only, but you can you can sort by, you know, fatalities. I think buses, trucks, young drivers, old drivers. I mean, it's it's really good. It'd be handy, you know, if I could pull it out. But that way you can look at the data without going through all the tables. It just shows up right there. You can click on each individual crash location and it'll give you the basic information that's tied to the uh pixel file. So, it's it's really good. I can send it out and you can play with it.

Yeah. Does anybody else have any questions for Rob or about the plan or any of the topics we talked about? Well, thank you for your presentation. Yeah, I'm sure. Like I said, reach out anytime. Um,

you know, looking at other roads as well. plumbing too. I mean, yeah, like I said, most of the countermeasures would apply anywhere. I mean, it just depends on the situation. That's how the four that where the plans were drawn out were actually more like infrastructure improvements where you could say, "Okay, we're going to put in sidewalks." Uh, you know, to make a plan that says, "Put up a stop sign." Can't really draw it out and you know what I mean, do it. So, it was more the in-depth ones. That's how the three that were designed there were pulled out from. So, I do remember that. Remember what it was. Durham Sabbrook and can't remember what the third one was offand but well this gave a little more detail as to like a traffic light or flashing light than what I read in the report.

Yeah. Yeah. It's an overwhelming amount of information. That's it probably be easier. I mean if people want to just talk individually or if you have any questions on any of the things after you look at it. You know a lot of this is pretty generic. You know it's things that you know could be implemented in any town. you know, various safety counter measures and enforcement and education things. Uh, so I mean, you just take it from there and, you know, if you have a specific locations, I mean, I do have traffic counting equipment. I haven't used it that much lately, so it is getting old. So, if you did want speed counts, I mean, you can give me a call. I can put the tube down and you can get, you know, speed counts and line counts for a specific location. Uh, I do. Do you think you do those on on state roads? Not really supposed to, but I can. Yeah,

I mean because the state does their own counts. I mean, I don't know if you've seen them. Roughly every three years they do it and they've seen last year they had the counters at the entrance and exit ramps entrance ramps uh to 95. I haven't seen too many actually on route one or 156. I don't have I don't remember there being any more several years. Yeah, they used to be on a three-year cycle this day, but I don't know right now. They do have I can send that link too because there is a website through DOT that does have all the volumes whatever they have for their home counts. I've done them

be helpful. I'm cur I'd be curious to see um how much the volume changes seasonally because obviously being a beach community we have much more traffic in the summer. Yeah, there was a lot when we did our route one study, but that didn't include old line. That was Clinton, Westbrook, and Old Sabbrook on route one. And I forget what the number was. It was it was quite significant. The difference in the traffic from summer and nons wasn't in that study, but that was that was old. That was probably like 15 years ago or something. So, but

so I I want to move along and get let Sophie have the floor. I I just wanted to lead into that. I wanted to thank Andrew for sharing a story that was uh she published this week that the state's police council put forward a policy regulating uh when agencies can what they can do with automatic license plate cameras and it uh under the new guidance data can't be searched for civil immigration matters reproductive health or gender affirming health service cares uh and if police threatens share data with out of state agencies. Those agencies have to agree with the written policy. Yeah. That hasn't gone through yet. Yeah.

And they're also two separate bills that are sort of similar, but not Do you have any idea if if uh the police in town is using them? Sophie, I know I know that the state police are using license plate readers out of true because I got stopped by one. I had a I had a mix mix up with my license registration. Uh and I had a form that said you registration has gone through but it didn't actually go through and I was shocked when a crew pulled me over 95. Yeah. You would have to recently about a year ago maybe

you would have to ask the police department if they have automatic license plate readers in their vehicles when all of the information that led to this new um these new guidelines came out. Old Line was not listed as one of the towns whose information was being accessed by um out of state agencies. It was not being used for out of state. So it was clear of that is what you're saying. I mean, who knows? It just wasn't listed. And I have no idea if they have or do not have

Yeah. like that that that's something maybe we can we can ask Derek McGregor about, but I would take that with a certain caveat because what the town police department and the constables do may not be what the troopers are are doing a lot of uh Westbrook and the troopers are on these on really on our roads and roads during the hours that the local police aren't patrolling from midnight to the morning. And I would say that because this was signed off by police commissioners, these guidelines, there are actually plenty of towns and municipalities around the country that are moving to get rid of all of their automatic license plate readers because they do not trust that there is any protection for people's privacy. Um, so that's also something to think about. Anyway, so I wrote this up before our last meeting because I have a lot of thoughts on this subject and I wanted to like I wanted to you like get them down so that I was not just speaking off the cuff because I not infrequently get like I find it difficult to speak about certain things. So, I figured I'll just read it to you guys and then you guys all have a copy and you can think about it and look at it. So, I want to briefly talk about the differences between automatic license plate readers, ALPRS's, and automatic traffic safety enforcement devices, APS, because this committee has heard several times that these devices are different and the public should be made aware of their differences, particularly when it comes to privacy concerns and the sharing of data. To the best of my knowledge, the main difference between ALPRs and ATSEDs is the triggering mechanism. ALPRs are

constantly capturing data, and ATSEDs only capture data when a traffic violation has occurred. The technology behind the two devices is basically the same. Both devices can identify license plates, speed, direction of travel, location, and other PII associated with the owner of the vehicle in question. We know that data captured by uh personal information. We know that data captured by ALPRs is frequently shared out of state and with the federal government. We know that the current federal government is data hungry. We know that legislation in Connecticut currently limits the sharing of data captured by APSed. But again, the technology of ATSEDs is essentially the same as the technology of ALPRS. How do we know that the federal government will not want to collect the data obtained by ATSEDs in the future? Yes, data is only obtained by ATSED if a traffic violation has occurred, but the data obtained is the same as the data obtained by an ALPR. And we know that out of state law enforcement and the federal government are interested in collecting this data. There are the cost associated with an ATSD program. It may not be a monetary cost, but there is a cost to a person's privacy when data about them is collected. We know that such data is sought after by government and industry alike. Although ATSEDs and ALPRs are currently defined and treated differently in the eyes of the law, there is no guarantee that that will remain the case, particularly as the technology behind the two types of devices is virtually identical.

Thank you. I I I would make one comment. I had a a fairly long discussion with Chief Glenn from East Lime uh and they're in the process of putting together an application uh to use ATSDs and it's interesting in in that the public I think perhaps like this town I'm not sure but the public at East Line was very supportive of the ATSEDs particularly for some of the roads we share like route one which was turned to be real headache for the town. On the other hand, there was a really strong negative opinion about flop cameras and license plate and the police department and the government east in East Line had to specifically address that and say these were these are not for the same use. Uh and and uh that was an issue that um was brought up repeatedly by the public and town meetings that it had to be addressed. Which is one of the reasons why I think it's so important to acknowledge that they are the same technology basically because many people, police departments included, are always happy to say, "No, they're two different types of technology and they're regulated differently and the data concerns are not the same. You all are scared about Flock and what data they're sharing. This is not owned and operated by Flock." But it's like, well, if the technology behind the two devices is the same, it doesn't really matter if they are currently being defined differently and regulated differently because unless this is codified in law, we trust and believe that it will never change, then we're saying that two things that are essentially equal are always going to be treated differently, which is not true. Like

so do you say that there were some bills in the general assembly? So do you know? Well, that's what the article that Andrea shared with us is about two different bills that each have the support of the I don't know what they're called the commission of or others.

Yeah, we should try to track those and I think that's an issue depending on on where this committee goes that this town will need to address as well. So, it's kind of a nice segue because we're getting close to 7 o'clock. Um, maybe about three weeks ago, I talked to Martha and uh she said that uh she hopes the committee could kind of come to a decision one way or another on whether to recommend ATSEDs. uh because she said it's going to be a process be once we make the decision if it's a positive decision that we recommend the town look into that then it's going to be a process that's going to be drawn out and I don't know that it's going to be um realistic for the town to to have the board's luck and vote on it to have a town meeting to pass an ordinance to go through DOT before the summer season but I think that's one of the issues before this committee that we should address. So I hope we can address that this year.

Then to clarify the automatic traffic safety enforcement devices would be like that the solar panled um speed. Thank you. Speed signs. Correct. I mean just Yes. These are these are the devices that can actually issue a civil [snorts] ticket and find you

and they can do more. So I I talked to weather fields and wheal talk about technology and combining technology. Weatherfield actually is going to have three different devices. They're going to have one for speeding. They're going to have one for running red lights. And it's interesting that uh they have one intersection where they where there's been a lot of crashes and DOT is letting them it's a four-way intersection with the state highway and two local roads. DOT is going to let them put the red light cameras on the two roads but not on the state road. And then they're going to also put in devices that are going to monitor noise because they're having a lot of issues with with uh vehicles that are modified to make basically make a lot of noise. I'm not sure what they people do with mufflers, but there's been a lot of complaints. So, three different devices some some intersections some sections of the road may have three different devices.

Could be some bars in that area too with the guys in Harley's and all that stuff coming in. Yeah. When we talk about it, we should be aware that we don't just say automatic cameras. We should be very specific about what we're talking about, the language we use. Yeah. So, we can Great point. Because there we have something of it now in town that it's just basically caution. It's like a yellow flashing light. This speed, you know, the next step would be if if the committee chooses to go, it would be could actually issue tickets. So,

well, I guess last time mentioned that those devices do collect data that just the ones that will display the speed, not issue a civil ticket.

I I you know, I I I don't know. So, Sophie's points are really well taken. I I would just suggest that there seems to be a lot of public push back and a lot and a lot of public concern about the license plate readers. So I would be [clears throat] frankly pretty surprised surprised if the representatives don't respond to that and and strongly consider some type of legislation to limit that they're how that data is collected where it's where it's divided. Yeah. In terms of the speed feedback signs that we already have in town,

I'm think that the data that they collect, they can do direction of travel, so they do know which way. They obviously know speed and they're keeping account but they don't have cameras so they can't do license plates, right? Um and they're definitely logging kind of day too, right? Yeah. But there's still data being aggregated. It's just not identified. Yeah. You just don't know who it is. Yeah. Okay. Well, I I don't have anything else. Does anybody else have at our 7:00 point? I will send you all some some info so to kind of prep us for the uh April meeting and I thank you for taking your time and coming over here. Oh yeah,

your willingness to Oh, that couple of our additional questions. Anything I get from Rob, I'll share with you and any questions you have for Rob, if you follow through me, I'll make sure they get to him. Yeah, I'll send those links over and you can share them with the group and uh if there's more questions, we can go through. And I just have a question. Is our next meeting the 7th or the 14th? It would be the second time the 14th. So the second Tuesday would be the 14th because the first is a Wednesday. Yes. Okay. That's what I have now. Just clarify.

Yeah. Yeah. I think it's actually one of the my own personal views one of the few months I get weeks between meetings I a week between meetings I have to chair rather than back to back. We have open space before the entry I attend. Mhm. So, uh, Amy, are you there? Can you log off? Can can I have a motion that the meeting be ajourned? Second. What time do we have pass? 7:04. Good. Great. So, that's the meeting is formally. Thank you all for coming today and appreciate your time.