We can get everybody to come out.

Go ahead and get started.

Five, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen.

Five, eleven, twelve, fourteen, fourteen.

Okay.

Vice Mayor Bobby Buckley.

Here.

Council Member Chuck Bongiovanni.

Here.

Council Member Monty Lyons.

Council Member Jim Torkison.

Here.

A quorum is present.

Thank you.

We have one item on the agenda presentation and discussion on the traffic safety signage pilot.

Thanks, Suzanne.

You were doing this.

Well, I guess it would be evening after five, wherever you want to mark that, right?

So thank you, Mayor and Council members, for us allowing us to come before you to get to that next stead stage of that question that we had back in May on what can we do to help with some of the safety on our transportation system here.

So the team has been working very diligently, and that team includes PD, it includes traffic engineering as well as we have OCE that has been here helping us as well through that, and some guidance from our town manager's office to present to you tonight a pilot program for some traffic signage that we think will improve the awareness of how drivers' behaviors can also support you know reducing fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways.

So our why, and we always like to start with that is you know, every loss, every every life that gets lost on Gilbert's roads, we recognize alters a family, it alters things that it is a tragedy, it is forever, and it also ends that future in an abrupt manner.

So you know, what we believe is that safe mobility is a fundamental expectation for all in Gilbert, whether you're commuting in a vehicle or whether that means you're walking or cycling.

Our transportation system includes all of those items and should be safe.

So that's why we did our dedicated to addressing traffic safety through collaboration, innovation, and commitment to provide safe mobility on traffic systems for all users to reach the end of their trips safely.

So we're here to basically do that.

That's our why, that's what we're always looking at.

But we also want to I want to point out we recognize as we presented to you back in May, it's not just engineering that solves the problem, it's not just enforcement solves the problem.

It takes all of us, inclusive of the driver, to make a difference to help us with this safe transportation system.

So just an update on some current status.

In 2024, we had approximately 3,615 traffic crashes in the in the community.

Of those 15 crashes resulted in 17 fatalities, too many.

One is too many.

Factors that were cited to do that include anything from field failure to yield the ride-away through some speeding, just disregard uh traffic signals.

Um, and this comes from what happens every time PDE has to basically look at a crash or come up on a crash.

They have to document what it is that caused that, and that is then shared with our traffic department to look at it and say, what can we do in that enforcement area?

What can we do in the engineering area and how do we get there?

So this is where that's at, and I'm going to tell you that we've also looked at our surrounding cities with some of this.

This is about 0.41% or 0.45% of our traffic crashes end up in a fatality or a serious injury.

So it's not good.

It's not some place that we want to be, but I will tell you that we are not at the high range within the state.

We are really kind of in the low range of that of the state in that in that statistic.

Um we have everything from 1.15% all the way down to less than I think four point four percent in there, and we're closer to that bottom line of that.

So our goal with this pilot program, and I think we had a lot of discussion back in May, and we did some follow-up with you on some emails.

Our goal was really to develop a signage pilot program that is looking at reducing unsafe driving behaviors by our people that are in those vehicles that may be crossing roadways by walking, etc.

etc.

And provide you provide them with some thought-provoking traffic signage.

The content on that signage should make drivers pause, reflect and adjust their habits, thereby decreasing traffic violations, accidents, and fidelities.

And I think that was the direction you guys gave us back in May to proceed with that.

And so the team has worked very collaborative and worked through some innovation methods to basically develop a signing program that we can hopefully start providing awareness to our citizens how they can support an ability to reduce those fatalities and serious injuries.

Some of the parameters that were set through this was messaging messaging must be able to be, I guess, perceived or received by not just an older driver but a younger driver.

So we're trying to look at every single audience out there and give them an opportunity to see something and understand that I gotta think about what I'm doing.

What am I doing?

We want it to be impactful, but we want to also be considered in the fact that some accidents have have changed people's lives, and it has been a tragic thing.

So we're trying to do that with our parameters as well.

We have set a duration of about six months for this signing right now, starting October 1st, is when we would like to launch this and then continue it through the six busiest months of the year, and we would be working around the election cycles as we move through that.

So we did identify, I think when my email to you back in June, we identified at least one or two intersections.

We've expanded those intersections to ten.

Four of those actually have data tracking available to us today.

The other six do not.

But we looked at it from a perspective of saying where are total crashes occurring, what is the severity of the types of accidents and incidences that are having, how many of those involved a left turn challenge, and how many of them may have occurred based off a red light lining running.