Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

http://66.194.250.96/picktown/documents/meeting_minutes/doc2903.htm

Mr. Etzbach stated Pickerington was looking at a combination of red light and speed systems and they see an impact on public safety when you have speed enforcement systems in the ground. He stated with these programs is you are seeing fewer accidents resulting in fewer emergency responses, fewer officer time responding to accidents, etc., it frees up the officers to focus on more pressing issues in town.

B. Mr. Scott Seaman, W.E. Stilson Consulting Group. Mr. Seaman stated Stilson provides engineering services to the City of Pickerington and he personally maintains the traffic signal system. Mr. Seaman stated the City had requested he look at what the impact of possible red light cameras would be on the traffic system as far as operations, would it cause delay, would it make improvements, etc. He stated he had presented this to the Service committee in November and had distributed that information again this evening. (Attachment 1 to these minutes.)


SERVICE COMMITTEE OF COUNCIL

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2008

REGULAR MEETING
7:30 P.M.



Mr. Seaman stated basically their traffic model starts at Stonecreek and goes south. He stated the intersections to the north are included, but when they did this they were in ODOT control and in about another week ODOT will be providing current traffic count information and re-updating the model under ACS light and including everything up to I-70 he will have a comprehensive model. He stated in the model he had included eight signals from Stonecreek to Diley and 256/204 based on the Hunter?’s Run traffic impact study, which had current traffic information and projections. He stated he ran two models, one with existing conditions, and the second adding the one extra second of yellow time as required by House Bill 30. Mr. Seaman stated the data shows a ten percent overall increase in vehicle delay at the signalized intersections for the corridor. Ms Frommer stated a lot of data was presented, and the question would be if the priority was saving a life in an angle-crash situation versus traffic flow. She stated the information was provided so Council could see that putting the cameras there increases capacity, the ability to make traffic flow in this corridor, which you have stated is your goal. Mr. Wisniewski inquired if anyone had the information regarding what direction, etc., the red light cameras would be, and were these calculations based on going just north/south or were they based on both directions. Mr. Seaman stated his data was based on the entire intersection with one additional second of yellow in each direction. Mr. Seaman stated he understood HB 30 required the extra second on the entire intersection, not just the direction the camera would be in.

Speeding tickets from cameras

Continued:

Drobina inquired if we went with red light cameras it would impact our ACS lite, because the idea of the ACS Lite was to move the traffic through the corridor quicker. Mr. Seaman stated the ACS Lite looks at the volume in real time data and changes the length of the green at the intersection and along the whole corridor as traffic moves through. He stated you don?’t want people to drive erratically or cautiously because of the red light cameras. He stated he does not know what driver reaction would be, but it did seem to be contrary to what we are doing with the ACS Lite. Mr. Seaman further stated from a warranty or service standpoint, if RedFlex came in and tied into the system since ACS is highly dependent on vehicle detection, if there is a detection error who would be at fault? Would it be ACS Lite, the City, the camera stuff? Mr. Seaman stated the corridor has been timed for the rush hour in the morning and in the evening and you have offsets for all of the signals during the peaks. Mr. Wisniewski would still like to find out how wide our intersections are, from where it would be considered running a red light. Mr. Seaman stated in Ohio it is from the stop bar, and if your bumper enters over the stop bar while the light is still yellow you are good, if it enters when it is red, you are ticketed. Mr. Wisniewski questioned if our timing now allows someone to get through the intersection on a yellow light, and Mr. Seaman stated that is why we will be updating the entire corridor with the new yellow light requirements. Mr. Wisniewski stated he also wanted to make sure that RedFlex would be using certified equipment in their red light cameras for their speed cameras. He stated they were involved in a lawsuit right now for using uncertified equipment in their speed vehicles. Ms Frommer stated she wanted to make it very clear once more that W.E. Stilson was not recommending that you should do this or that you shouldn?’t. She stated if Council told them the goal was to move traffic, she could react to that and say red light cameras were not a good idea, however, if Council said they valued the safety component above all else, they could react to that as well. Mr. Wisniewski clarified that our engineer was stating that the red light cameras would decrease the ability to move traffic through the corridor, and Ms Frommer stated that was correct.

been told but ignored advice

So the idiots on council have just spent, I believe, a half million to install an ACS system which for us laymen is are smart traffic controllers that adjusts the green light timing on the lights up 256 to move the traffic along faster. These smart controllers adjust the timing on their own and on the fly.

So now FIX, SABATINO, SANDERS, SAUER, and SMITH want to negate this ACS system by installing these RED LIGHT/SPEED cameras at three intersections. Sanders wants to change driver behaviors. Hey gal this is NOT junior high these are people just like you trying to get to work on time. I think if Pickerington is going to tax them then the city has an obligation to make their trip to work as expedient as possible.

SABATINO wants to ignore the state law and the required timing of the yellow lights.

FIX is counting the money the city will levy against it own citizens and delay them getting to work at the same time. I understand he is now the head idiot.

SMITH and SAUER don?’t have a clue.

I think the reason there is a safety committee and a service committee is to play off of each other and apparently these two committees are having a power grab. Clearly if safety is the reason then lower the speed limit to 25 MPH and you will get the same result with out the aggravation. If optimum traffic flow is the goal then forget about these red light cameras. Clearly they will slow the traffic and may interfere with the operations of the lights and the timing.

So these idiots on council then say we will pull the cameras out if they do not improve safety. What happens if drivers find different routes to work and avoid these lights and these intersections? I know I will avoid them. So are we going to do a traffic count first and see if we simply shift the problems some place else? OR are they going to depend on REDFLEX for its safety data? Oh!! but they save money by having the company do the study and provide the data. They would not lie would they? This data NOT worth the paper it is written on?

Remember the definition of running a red light (from the minutes) is your front bumper over the stop bar when the light turns red. Now how many of us have done that?

There is no way that I will ever support a tax increase while these idiots are in office wasting our money.

Waste of time

How about you stop wasting time and energy putting your opinions on this website and go to a council meeting and voice your concerns?