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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Transportation Advisory Committee - 12/19/2011Transportation Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes Monday, December 19, 2011 I. Call Meeting to Order - Mr. Daniel Carrizales, Vice Chairman, called the meeting to order at 2:35 p.m. II. Approval of Minutes - Minutes of November 28, 2011 were approved. III. Presentations and Discussions - a. Monthly Traffic Fatality Report: Capt. Vesely reported one (1) new fatality, which brings the total to thirty -four (34). He said the fatality occurred on November 28 at Doddridge St. and Staples St. Capt. Vesely said there was an individual driving northbound on Staples St. He crossed the intersection at Staples St. and Doddridge St. where it becomes Weber Rd. and lost control of the vehicle. He then ran into a bus stop bench, driving over an individual sitting on the bench waiting for the bus. The individual was killed instantly and the driver continued into the parking lot of the Walgreens and struck two other vehicles in the parking lot before coming to a stop. He said an investigation had shown the driver did not have a driver's license, he had an identification card and it appears that he had and identification card instead of a drivers license because he was prone to seizures. Capt. Vesely said that the driver was going to Walgreens to get his seizure medication and apparently suffered a seizure. He said they would be presenting a case to the District Attorney's Office very soon after they get all the medical information from the driver. They are hoping to get a case filed against him for criminal negligence and homicide because he knew of his medical condition and knew he should have not been driving but he did it anyway and somebody died as a result. b. Monthly Bicycle and Pedestrian Subcommittee Report: Ms. Beard said there was nothing to report because the December meeting was canceled. c. Police Department Traffic Enforcement Complaints: Lt. Sherman reported that as usual they address these complaints as they come in. There are only three complaints so far in December. Mr. Jacobi inquired if the big winner is still school zones. Lt. Sherman answered yes; this is standard across the board. Mr. Cardenas said to look at the last three complaints. Mr. Jacobi questioned if these are phone -in complaints by citizens. Capt. Vesely said yes this is correct and the majority of these complaints are those that are actually phoned -in directly to him then he sends them out to the appropriate beat and traffic officers. He said Lt. Sherman gets them and correlates them into this list for review. However, some complaints come from other places. d. Top 20 Traffic Accident Locations for the Month: Capt. Vesely reported that there have been the same locations as they have had before, although, the number two location is at Staples St. at Williams Dr. He said they are seeing the traffic backing up towards Staples St. and people are trying to go through Moore Plaza. In addition, he said that Staples St. and Williams Dr. is their number one producing red light camera location. He said other than that the top five are pretty much Page 1 of 5 the same. Capt. Vesely said the number six location, Doddridge St. at Staples St., is a new location they have not seen before. He said everything else is pretty much, what you would expect. The locations we really pay attention to are the top five locations because these are the perennial favorites where we have the most number of accidents on a monthly basis. e. Update on Red Light Cameras - Student Guardian and Renewal of Contract: Capt. Vesely reported right now the City of Corpus Christi is in negotiations with the Redflex Corporation to extend the contract for ten years. He said we have had the contract for almost five years and the relationship between the two entities has been very beneficial. We have seen decreases in injury accidents in each of those intersections where we have our thirteen red light cameras; however, it has also been cost positive for the City as well. He said after the contract is signed there should be some additional red light cameras and we will see where those will be placed. The studies have already been conducted and much depends on whether TxDOT agrees to place them along some of their major intersections where we have the majority of the accidents. He said we would see how this plays out because currently there is a Municipal Maintenance Agreement (MMA) between TxDOT and the City of Corpus Christi that is being worked on. Capt. Vesely said the other thing he wants to report on is called the "Student Guardian "; he said this is the latest technology by the Redflex Corporation. He said they were able to finagle through them to beta test the "Student Guardian" here. Capt. Vesely said beta testing is the last testing you do to check all the kinks to make sure everything works well. He said the State of Washington and Maryland have beta testing and now Corpus Christi would have the third beta test. He said they are going to place somewhere between two and ten cameras on the sides of school buses at no cost to the City. This looks for violations of flashing red stop signs. Initially, during the 90 -day test period, there is no cost to the City. There would be no violation notices sent out. It is more of a study to see what issues we have and see if it would be beneficial to us. Capt. Vesely said he does not recall any injury accidents that have been related to children at school bus stops where a child has walked in front of a car that is not paying attention. However, this does not mean that we should not be vigilant and try to protect our children from this type of accident. He said right now everything is kind of wrangling around with City Legal, CCISD Legal and the Redflex Corporation. Mr. Scott Eliff is on board as is the Transportation Director for CCISD. Capt. Vesely said we would start with CCISD, just to see how it works and if it works well then certainly, we will do that. This is something we are doing to protect the children. He said this is a potential solution and it seems to have the support from everyone at City Hall and CCISD. The system works in such a way that the bus drivers have to do absolutely nothing more than they normally do, they just drive the bus. There are no flashes like the red light cameras; it is all done using infrared photography. Capt. Vesely explained how the infrared photography works. He said this is a positive thing the Redflex Corporation is trying to do and he is glad that the City is interested in doing this. Mr. Jacobi commented the number of accidents at the red light camera locations have decreased and maybe there are some rear -end collisions that are increasing but for the most part, they have decreased. He said over the past year period the number of vehicles passing through these intersections seems to have increased to some degree. It is a more valid figure rather than just the number of accidents; it is the Page 2 of 5 number of accidents per vehicle crossing. He stated you will see a more dramatic positive impact if you look at it that way. Capt. Vesely said this is actually a good point. f. Update on Crossing Guards Issues: Capt. Vesely said the City of Corpus Christi has made an agreement with the CCISD and Flour Bluff ISD that the City of Corpus Christi will continue to fund the Crossing Guard Program as it is for the remainder of the school year. At the beginning of the next school year, the program will be reduced from the current 91 crossing locations down to 28. He said 27 locations of these are CCISD and one is Flour Bluff ISD. Capt. Vesely said part of the City's mandate is to try to fill in the gaps where there are crossing guards now using volunteers. He also said that would try to educate the children and the parents on what is proper and improper for crossing roadways. Capt. Vesely said they would hope to reach every child that is in elementary school in the City of Corpus Christi, probably with a partnership with TAMU -CC education majors. He said they have developed a very kid friendly presentation. He said this is how the crossing guard situation has evolved over the course of the last couple of months. Capt. Vesely commented as far as costs go, instead of the $750,000 cost they are estimating, the cost will be around $200,000 to manage the same program, which will be paid by the red light cameras. The top 28 locations were selected with the assistance of Mr. Cardenas. He said we are looking at what type of street, whether they are residential, collector or arterial. Capt. Vesely said of course giving more preference to the arterial streets but also looking at the distance away from the schools, number of children crossing the streets and the amount of traffic signage and controls that would assist the children. The combination of all this is what led to select the top 28 locations and it was up to the City to decide whether they wanted to fund this and CCISD agreed this would be acceptable. Ms. Beard inquired if the top 28 locations would be announced. Capt. Vesely responded that they have already announced them. g. Presentation of No Cell Phone Use While Driving Campaign: Charlie Cardenas mentioned that TxDOT does not have such a campaign; therefore, there will be no presentation. h. Discussion of No Cell Phone Use While Driving: Mr. Cardenas said there was an article in the national news level talking about this item. He said this is an excellent article by the National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB). The article talks about some stories of some of the accidents and it mentions the blue tooth. He said it states that you are still a distracted driver while you are talking hands free; therefore, they want to do away with this and just use it on emergencies only. Mr. Jacobi said he went back and tried to look at some historical attitudes on cell phone use and texting while driving. He does not know if the method he used was very scientific but he went back and googled a few things and some blogs showed up. One blog he found had several years' worth of comments on it. It was striking how three years ago there were comments that said, "You are infringing on my rights to do as I please ". Mr. Jacobi stated that he saw over that period changing from "Let me do whatever I want" to "I'm an adult" and up to today where people are concerned about distracting driving. He said the Texas Legislature passed a bill; however, it was vetoed by the Governor on June 17, 2011. Mr. Jacobi said the concern that he has with the anti - texting is he does not know how it can be enforced. He said a police officer has to see it while it is happening. Ms. Cudd said it would be very difficult to enforce and we need to do more education. Ms. Page 3 of 5 Beard agreed and said the National Traffic Safety Board (NTSB) did call it distracted driving. She said her grandchildren are more of a distraction in her vehicle than her cell phone will ever be. Capt. Vesely said it would be a very difficult law to enforce. However, if it would become a law, some people would not do that violation just because it is against the law. Ms. Cudd commented it sounds like the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is going to put some pressure on the states to do something. Mr. Jacobi inquired if cell phones are confiscated during injury or fatal accidents to see if there may have been some texting. Lt. Sherman said there have been a couple of cases where they have done this. He said they are specific cases where the cell phone was found opened on the floor right in front of the driver but not just generally. The committee continued to discuss this item and a brief question and answer period followed. i. Unified Development Code (UDC): Mr. Cardenas said there are no driveways to approve. j. Discussion of Stop Light at Sinclair St. and Alameda St.: Ms. Beard said some people from Driscoll Children's Hospital had mentioned that traffic backs up leaving the non Sinclair St. side of the hospital onto Alameda St. She said they would like it checked out. Mr. Cardenas said once school is back in session a study would be conducted to see if it warrants a signal. He said, currently there is a flashing beacon for pedestrians there. This is an advanced warning for motorists that a pedestrian is about to walk in the crosswalk. He said the way the traffic warrants work is that you have to meet one of the eight warrants that are out there. There is a warrant for peak hour flow, eight -hour flow, school zone flow, pedestrian warrants, etc. and there are about eight of them but you only have to qualify for one to warrant a signal. Mr. Cardenas said he would check this intersection. k. Temporary Traffic Signal on Staples St. @ Moore Plaza: Mr. Cardenas said the studies were conducted this month and it was bad timing for it because it met the warrants for the counts. He stated only the left turns were counted and there was a lot of traffic coming out of Moore Plaza. Mr. Cardenas said this certainly affects the Williams Dr. traffic. He said if and when TxDOT does the ramp reversal on the south side of SPID and they do the ramp configuration as they did near the Mall, they would do the same thing on Moore Plaza. He said this would free some of the traffic at Moore Plaza and more likely, that signal can be eliminated with ease at Staples St. He said it is going to get worse for the next two years on Staples St. from Williams Dr. to Saratoga Blvd. due to the construction. IV. Staff Recommendations requiring Committee Review for Recommendations / Actions - a. Appointments to the Bicycle and Pedestrian Sub - committee: None V. Identify items to be placed on a future agenda • TAC Vacant Position • Ocean Dr. and Sinclair St. • Erosion Problems along Ocean Dr. Page 4 of 5 VI. Public Comment - Ms. Katherine Lopez commented on the "No Cell Phone Use While Driving ". VII. Adjournment - Meeting adjourned at 3:40 p.m. Page 5 of 5