A resolution approving a proposed Automated Photo Red Light - Photo Radar Traffic System Management Program Agreement by and between the City and County of Denver and Xerox State and Local Solutions, Inc. Approves an agreement with Xerox State & Local Solutions Inc. in the amount of $6,417,923 with a contract term through 9-3-21 for the provision of services for both the Photo Red Light and Photo Radar programs (201627552-00). The last regularly scheduled Council meeting within the 30-day review period is on 10-3-16. The Committee approved filing this bill at its meeting on 8-31-16.
It's a much needed sidewalk they're partnering with See Dot, who's picking up most of the tab. So thank you very much. Okay. Great. All right. Now we are going to go to the bills for introduction. 759 was that one of them? Oh, I'm sorry. You're right. 759 Resolution. Councilman Flynn, what would you like to do with that thing? Mr. President, I'd just like to put this up for a vote. All right, Councilwoman Gilmore, would you please put Resolution 759 on the floor to be adopted? Yes, Mr. President. I move that resolution 759 be adopted. Great. It is moved in second to Councilman. Councilman Flynn. Thank you, Mr. President. We have such a lengthy agenda tonight, and this is a topic that we've debated quite thoroughly. And I've had the benefit, and I want to thank the traffic and the police staff who met with me to talk about this issue. And we're at the point now where I just wanted to vote. No, I don't oppose. I'm sorry. This is the photo red light and the photo speeding radar van contract because they're packaged together unlike previously. I just want to make it clear I do not oppose the photo speeding van. In fact, I wish we had more of them. I wish we had them all in my district. As a matter of fact. But at the risk of snatching victory from the jaws of defeat, I don't want to go on and on and debate this again tonight. I just want to make note that I believe that having advocated with the staff unsuccessfully, that we follow a new guidance from the Institute of Transportation Engineers. And I do understand their reasons after meeting with them this afternoon. I just want to register my no vote in in in protest of that and and continue to advocate that we adopt a practice that in some other locations, particularly in California, where this new guideline has been has been codified in their state law that has reduced red light running, reduced accidents and enhanced safety without having to while reducing punitive fines. In other words, we can get compliance, we can reduce accidents without without fining people over it. So with that, Mr. President, I will forego talking about all the material that I've emailed folks over over time and just continue to urge the the traffic engineering staff to work on this. Thank you. Councilman Flynn. I really appreciate that. Thank you. I knew you would. We also have. Oh, councilman new. Go ahead. Well, question is Steve Hershey come up. Steve, if you could, could you address the national standards for especially the yellow light situation and the length of time and how we manage the length of time of those red lights and of the young lives in particular, and any national standards that you have. Sure, Councilman. Currently, the city and county of Denver has adopted the Federal Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices. That is a federal manual that comes out of Washington. It's adopted by sea dogs, also adopted by the city and county of Denver. In the manual, it advises that cities or counties or states use an adopted practice to calculate yellow and all red times. We've adopted the city standard, and the city standard is a formula which uses speed, grades and other factors to determine how long yellow times should be in California. They have their own mutes. The federal government allows the state to adopt their own multi-city in California has done that. Colorado has not. So we felt it was in our best interest to keep our practices consistent throughout all the intersections in the city and to follow the guidance in the manual of uniform traffic control devices from the federal government. So that's the process that we are currently using. You'll be continuing to evaluate this. Yes. Currently, we have a study going on that's looking at violations at a myriad of other intersections around the city. We are following what's happening when we adjust yellow times. What happens to compliance initially and then also what happens to compliance over time so we can get an understanding of is it an immediate reaction? Are we immediately seeing compliance? But then drivers are drifting back to old bad habits or is this a sustainable thing? And currently we have some data to support that. It does seem to bounce back and the drivers do seem to violate. But we're continuing to study that and we've made that commitment to Councilman Flynn that we would not only continue the study, but that we would be upfront and share all of that data with him. Yeah. Thank you, Steve. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you. Thank you. Yep. Thank you, Steve. You may want to sit up here just in case. Steve, I think you might want to come to the front desk. We got some more questions. Council Councilwoman. Councilman Espinosa. No questions. I just wanted to segment support. I mean, explain again. Did he call now for a vote? Yes. Yeah. Why? Once again, I'll be abstaining because there's technically nothing wrong with the contract. However, Councilman Flynn did bring this up last year, and I'm not quite satisfied with the fact that we don't have a we didn't have a better answer at committee on on on why we haven't further pursued these real. What he has is really hard data on the benefits of extending these these yellow light times. So in support of the fact that the research that you guys are doing and the transparency you've you've offered, I won't be voting no, but I will be abstaining from this vote. Thanks. Thank you, Councilman Cashman. Thank you, Mr. President. I also want to lend my support to Councilman Flynn for the hard work he's done in bringing up this issue, as I understand it. Councilman, the issue has to do with where? You'd like to see the yellow lights timed pretty much in conjunction with the speeds that people are actually driving, whereas our traffic engineers want the yellow lights timed according to the speeds as as our speed limits are signed. And for me and I'm taking the time to talk about it, because traffic in the city and county is the most frequently mentioned issue to me by my constituents. And I think we need to address this issue in a two pronged manner. The if people are driving too quickly, then we need to employ whatever traffic calming measures that we can, whether it's electronic signs telling you how fast you're driving, whether it's striping, narrowing lanes or whatever. But we need to address it to control the speeds. For me, the red light cameras are to control safe passage and safe stopping at intersections. So I think I think he's right on the money. And I hope you will continue to to look at this. In addition, I just wanted to bring up I know a number of us were surprised in committee to find out that in the entire city and county of Denver. I don't know what people listening and watching on TV I think we're doing, but we've we don't have dozens or hundreds of these cameras. We have four we are monitoring four intersections in the city and county of Denver with our 685,000 residents and millions of visitors every year. We have, I believe, five photo radar vans that we kind of shift around the city. We have I don't know how many trailers, speed trailers with the signs that tell you how fast you're going and urge you to slow down. So I think we really need to if we've decided that this is an effective program, I think we need to look at a substantial expansion of this program. People are driving like lunatics in the city. We have too many people. We can't our roadways aren't handling it. People are cutting through our neighborhoods at speeds far exceeding what they should be driving. So I just wanted to give that a little bit more time so people understand the scope of what we're doing here and maybe will let us know what our constituents think we ought to be doing with this. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Steve. You can have a seat. Thank you for being up here. All right. Madam Secretary, roll call. Flynn. No. Gilmore. Herndon. Cashman. Kennedy. I knew Ortega. Sussman. I. Black. All right. Clark. All right. Espinosa. I'm staying. Mr. President. I. Please close the voting, announce the results. Ten eyes, one knee, one abstention. Ten eyes, one day, one abstention. Resolution 79 has been adopted. We're going to the bills for introduction now and we're going to start off with Council Bill 760 with Council.