Okay.

We're going to go ahead and get started.

Study session.

All call orders study session council study session for May nineteenth, twenty twenty-six.

Councilmember Bobby Buckley.

Here.

Council Member Kenny Bucklin.

Here.

Council Member Yan Kaprowski.

Here.

Council Member Monty Lyons.

Here.

And Councilmember Jim Torreson.

A quarum is present.

Thank you.

We have two items on the agenda.

First will be a presentation on e-bikes and the helmet ordinance.

Chief.

Hello, Mayor and Council.

My name is Mike Ankstead.

I'm one of the assistant chiefs at the Gilbert Police Department.

I'm going to be presenting this information about these e-bike ordinances along with Brenda Carrasco, who you'll see kind of midway through the presentation.

Brenda is one of our wonderful partners in the Office of Community Engagement.

They're becoming more and more prevalent.

And at that time, I think we had all kind of just seen a rise in collisions, a rise in injuries, and our community has expressed, had expressed and continues to express concerns around safety.

At that time, you know, leaving that study session, we kind of landed on four different focus areas.

Those having to do with helmets, speed, age, and then sellers.

So specific to helmets, kind of walked away with the question of you know, would council be inclined to enact an ordinance that required riders of bicycles and e-bikes under the age of 18 to have to wear helmets, or would council prefer, for instance, an ordinance that requires the riders of just e-bikes that are under the age of 18.

We discussed speed, and we and there was a discussion about you know whether a speed ordinance uh would be impactful on multi-use paths and government owned trails for e-bikes.

We had a conversation about age, and at the time there was some consideration uh not not just um with Gilbert with Gilbert's council, but really regionally, there was a lot of discussion about the prohibition of class three e-bikes being operated by uh juveniles under the age of 16.

And lastly, we had a brief discussion about sellers, the the folks that sell these devices, and uh enacting an ordinance potentially that would require the sellers of class three e-bikes to inform buyers of local ordinances.

Those were the issues last October, and um not only did we do a lot of work digging in on those four issues, but we looked at a lot of other issues that are really coming to the forefront regionally again with regard to these devices.

But before we jump into uh into some of the data and discussions, I'm about to hit the button and forward to the next slide, and when this slide comes on, I'll just forewarn you it's a video, and the video kind of shows the perspective of one of our officers as they're sitting in their patrol car and what they sometimes encounter on the street.

So I'll be quiet and play the video here for a second.

So this is really these kind of incidents where an officer, he wasn't necessarily responding to this call.

He's out patrolling he or she, and they they encounter this.

Um we're seeing more and more of this.

So we've seen a rise in organized e-bike and e-motorcycle rideouts, and it's marked by reckless riding on the public roadways, dangerous group behavior, um, certainly lots of incidents of these uh you know, primarily kids and young adults fleeing from police during traffic stops.

If you look at the different devices that are uh featured in this this random video that our officer took, um you'll see that there's a mix of different devices.

Within this uh group, you have uh electronic bicycles that follow under one section of state law currently, and you also see electric motorcycles which fall under a completely different category, but they're mixed together, and the challenge for the officers is trying to address all of these people that are riding um these devices in an unsafe way with regard to adult and juvenile bike collisions, and these aren't specific to elect electric bikes.

Um we get this data from the state when we go and take motor vehicle collisions, but it does show the you know there's been this dramatic increase, 2024, 2025, dramatic increase of adult and juvenile collisions, and we're looking uh when we looked at 2026, it's trending the same way.

And we're looking when we looked at 2026, it's trending the same way.

So it's concerning.

And with that, I'm gonna uh jump out here, and Brenda's gonna talk a little bit about uh our education efforts.

But before that, I've got one more slide here.

Um the discussion uh I had a second ago with regard to that video.

You know, there was this mix of different devices, not only elect uh electronic bikes and electronic motorcycles, but there were some gas-powered motorcycles in that group as well.

Uh, with regard to these two, though, these are the ones we see the most and have the most problems with.

The electronic bicycles, the class three bicycles actually go up to 28 miles per hour.

Um, they're pedal assisted, there's no current age restriction under state law.

So a four-year-old can jump on one of these and go 28 miles an hour.

There's nothing in state law that prohibits that, and there's nothing under um town code that would prohibit that.

And there's currently no helmet requirement.

Uh conversely, on the other side of the slide, we talk about e-motorcycles.

Um they can go the the particular device that's captured in this picture.

Uh they can go 60 miles per hour, no problem.

There are other electronic motorcycles made by Harley Davidson and Honda that can go a lot faster than that.

But for these specific ones, we see these a lot.

Um, state law requires that the riders be at least 16 miles or 16 years of age with a motorcycle uh motorcycle endorsement or a motorcycle license.

The actual motorcycle itself has to be registered insurance.

Um you have to have a you know a state license plate on it.

And the truth is most of these electronic motorcycles do not meet the requirements to be on US roadways.

A lot of them are purchased overseas or they're imported by a seller from overseas.

They don't meet DOT uh guidelines.

They don't come with a title, so if you try to get registration, you have to do a bonded title with uh MVD.

You're paying double what the bike costs to get it registered uh with no guarantee that you're ever gonna get it titled.

Um so I've met two people ever, and I've talked to a lot of people that have ever actually managed to get these registered.

Uh 99.9% of them that we see out in the community, there's no way to legally comply with the law, but we see a lot of kids riding around with them.

And currently there is um state law would require somebody under the age of 18 to wear a helmet.

And in I guess specific to the right side of the slides here, these e-motorcycles, all of this is already regulated by state law.

Most of what you see out on the roadway is already inherently legal.

So as we go through the rest of this presentation, you may notice, gosh, he's not talking a lot about these e-motorcycles, and those are a real problem, and that's simply because it's already illegal to operate these uh the way that these kids are operating them.

And with that, I'll turn the next portion over to Brenda.

Thank you, Chief.

Mayor and Council, my name is Brenda Carrasco.

I'm a senior marketing and communications officer with the Office of Communication and Engagement.

I'd like to share a little bit about our extensive outreach efforts that we've done ever since we were last here in the fall.

At that time, we had just launched our know your ride campaign.

This was a campaign that was created to close a clear gap that we had observed in our community.

What we found was that riders and families weren't fully aware of the laws or informed.

And uh subsequently that was impacting our officers and seeing issues out on our roadways.

In May 2025, we came together and stood up an interdepartmental working group that included our parks and recreation team, our Gilbert Police Department, and my team, the Office of Communication and Engagement, to build a new campaign that would help our community really understand the complexities of the laws that related to e-bikes and electric motorcycles.

The goal was straightforward for us.

We wanted something that was simple to understand without the legal jargon, information specifically about how e-bikes and electric motorcycles differed from one another, what the laws require, and what the div where the devices can be written, and most importantly, what the big differences are.

By August of 2025, we had a fully launched campaign created entirely in-house by our really talented team, complete with its own visual identity, new educational graphics, a dedicated website, Gilbert AZ.gov/slash know your ride, and new social media content.

And at this point, we're still going creating new content as we kind of progress through this uh next iteration of the campaign.

I want to talk about our social launch because this was a really key part of making sure that our information was reaching our residents.

Our social strategy was really focused around three key areas.

First was videos.

Our officers, here are some examples that we got screenshots of, but these are uh our officers explaining the laws in a way that felt personable and approachable while also giving the community a perspective of the issues that our officers were facing out on the roadways, which I'll cover a little bit in the next slide.

Second, it was our carousels.

Carousels are swipable informational posts designed to be shared.

So think about posts that are uh something that a parent would want to share with their child or a neighbor sending to another neighbor.

That was really our intent with creating carousels.

And lastly, question and answers.

Since uh fall of 2025, we have twice now opened it up to our community and asked what are the questions that they want answered and what are they maybe confused about.

We've received questions like how do you make a dirt bike street legal and our wheelies a crime, which shows us exactly where their mindset is and where the confusion may be.

And this is an opportunity for us to not only answer those questions but help us build trust and keep that conversation going back and forth within our community.

This next slide, I want to really focus on our video outreach strategy.

Um, what we've really focused on is finding um real opportunities of videos that our officers have encountered out when they're trying to bring enforcement um to these issues.

We can go ahead and play that video now on the right.

It looks like it skipped it.

Oops.

So this is our if you're run if you run your done video.

This is real footage from uh one of our Gilbert PD drones to this date, and it has 15.6 million views, which is our most watched Gilbert Police Department video to date.

What we believe made it work is that this is fully real video.

It's footage from a caller officers responding to that really showcased our community the issues that they're facing when someone is uh fleeing from them on an electric motorcycle, which is one of our most common challenges that our officers are facing out every single day.

It shows how we're leveraging technology to locate these riders safely.

And as you can see, this video is concluding with why we're asking our community to be aware of you know this is a real problem, and not only is it a real problem, there are real consequences.

So over on the left, there are two other examples of other videos we've done since, um, all focused on sharing what those outcomes are, and the key message that we want our community to know that fleeing from police officers is not only dangerous, but it has real world consequences.

This is uh not a surprise to anybody, but we've been in the news a lot for this same topic of um e-bikes and electric motorcycles, ranging from um a rise in collisions to our know your ride campaign to the tools that we're using.

Um the issue catches our our media partners' attention because it's a real public safety concern, not only in Gilbert, but in Arizona and the entire country.

But I think one important thing to keep in mind is that the Gilbert Police Department has offered a really compelling story to tell that we're not only trying to find a solution to this problem, but we're trying to really leverage technology, and I think together that makes a really strong story for our media partners to help us leverage that message to our community.

We can reach as many people as we can on our social channels, but having this partnership with these media outlets allows us to leverage that message even higher.

And lastly, I want to conclude with our community outreach efforts.

Of course, we focused a lot of our team's efforts on social media outreach, but there's a lot of really great work happening out in our community.

Over on the left, this is uh a fall festival at Morrison Ranch that the Gilbert Police Department was invited to.

And I think what I really love about this photo is that that's our our chief, Chief Bisegli, and he our the PD team had this great idea of printing out our know your ride materials and put them up on A-frames.

And what you can see is this group of you know young boys who are primarily the users that we see are riding these bikes.

Um, they approached him and started asking questions, and what we find is that they're really hungry for that information as well.

They want to know is my bike something that I'm allowed to ride on, and what are the laws?

So I think that was a really strong approach for the team to take and really answer the questions one-on-one.

Um the outreach has also been uh incorporated into our Gilbert PD teen academy.

Uh that this is a new program as of last week.

That's sorry, last year, that's led by Officer Emily King.

And this allows for really genuine conversation between the kids and our officers to explain the laws and the rules related to e-bikes.

We also time a lot of our messaging around school breaks.

This is a screenshot from our spring break safety messaging, and we try to be strategic when we're sharing this information, um, also including the holidays.

So if parents are thinking of buying their child an e-bike or an e-motorcycle, we're trying to get ahead of that and educating them with the information we have.

And then, lastly, of course, our school and community partnerships.

We can't do this alone.

So we have really focused on working with our school districts by sharing our information and having them disseminate it through their school newsletters.

With that, I'll give it back to Chief Isegli.

Okay, Mayor and Council, jumping back in here, e-bike and e-motorcycle enforcement.

Um we have, like um Brenda had just um spoken about, we have done a number of campaigns, not just education, but actual enforcement.

We've conducted numerous enforcement details.

We've uh seized numerous e-motorcycles and uh electric bicycles and written gobs and gobs of citations due to dangerous and reckless driving.

Um this video that I'm about to play is footage from one of our drones.

And similar to the video that was played earlier, it's really our the safest way that we conduct enforcement on these devices is to do it from the air, having our drone watch the devices and seeing where our suspects land or they stop and then making contact with them.

What we try to avoid, although you know the public would probably love to see it, honestly.

When I see like the ride out, I'd love to see the police officer jump the curb and go chase them.

The problem with doing it is it's inherently dangerous.

We don't want to hit a community member and and you know, seriously injure them chasing one of these bikes.

But you'll see in this video, we do um find quite a bit of success when we use our drones.

So our drones have uh forward looking infrared, so anybody, this is at nighttime, anybody that's you know moving and has body heat shows up as a white little character on the screen, and um we're able to safely track them without chasing them through neighborhoods and through green belts.

We've been fortunate over the last six months to partner with other valley agencies to include the state police on some of these efforts, and that it's really been a force multiplier in um uh taking large groups of kids like this and um uh taking them into custody or writing them citations and at least taking their devices into custody.

All right, and then jumping into the actual proposed ordinances, um, kind of the meat of this presentation.

So there is a uh a section of ordinances within our town code, uh, specifically 62104 and 62105 that I'll be speaking about.

Um, and these restrictions apply to over in the uh on the left side of the screen in the blue box.

It'll apply to bicycles, electric bicycles, electric miniature scooters, electric personal assistive mobility devices, electric stand-up scooters, motorized skateboards, motorized wheelchairs, and personal mobile cargo carrying devices.

All of those devices, the reason why they're listed is they're specifically described in state law currently, and those are for lack of a better word, the devices that are out there right now.

Um as technology evolves, um, the state legislature does add definitions of devices as they come onto the market.

Um but the first section is you can't operate uh any of these in a manner prohibited by state law ARS Title 28.

Um we're suggesting in this ordinance that you can't operate them where signage prohibits it.

You may operate these devices on sidewalks and multi-use paths and parks, although the operators must yield right away to pedestrians and give an audible warning when passing.

There are additional restrictions to uniformly apply um different codes to all of these devices, so we're treating them all uh largely the same.

Additionally, instead of just having lights on these devices, the lights the lights must actually be displayed at night.

They're kind of no good if they're not turned on, so there's a requirement to you you actually use lights at night.

There's some illegal parking provisions or that are expanded to apply to all devices.

Traditionally, they only applied to the bird type scooters, and all of the violations listed in this particular area are civil in nature.

The next section speaks to an age restriction if council was inclined.

So the recommendation is that no person under the age of 12 operate a class one or class two e-bike, electric miniature scooter, electric personal assistive mobility device, or electric electric stand-up scooter.

And the reason that the recommendation is 12.

I'm sure you've all seen youth, you know, a 14-year-old that is riding, legally riding, safely riding, maybe they're even wearing a helmet and they're they're following all the rules currently.

And what we're trying not to do is make the age so high that it's restrictive of kids that are obeying the law and it's a safe way to get to and from school if you live near school.

Um the recommendation is 12.

The recommendation is also that no person under the age of 16 operate a class three e-bice e-bike, and um looking around the valley without going through each city, that does seem to be something that other councils have been inclined to enact.

And again, all of these violations are civil in nature.

With regard to speed limits, the recommendation is that there be a 15 mile per hour maximum on all sidewalks within town boundaries, and a 15 mile per hour maximum on all town parks and multi-use paths.

Operators must travel at a speed reasonable and prudent under existing conditions and actual or potential hazards.

And the reason why there's a specific mile per hour and a clause about speed being reasonable and prudent is that although you may only be going 15 miles per hour, if you were to ride the device into a crowded sidewalk and run into people, you're actually going faster than what would be considered reasonable and prudent.

So there's kind of those two requirements.

The operators must control speed as necessary to avoid uh colliding with people, objects, or vehicles.

This applies to bicycles, e-bikes, scooters, motorized skateboards, wheelchairs, and personal mobile cargo carrying devices.

And again, all of those violations would be civil.

With regard to helmet requirements, uh we kind of discussed this in the beginning of the presentation, and this was something that came up back in October.

So the recommendation is one of two options if council was inclined.

Either option one, requiring a helmet be fitted and fastened.

We want the kids to actually uh wear them, not just put them on their head, but actually wear them correctly.

Um, but that would be for riders under the age of 18, including those on bicycles.

So it would be e-bikes and bicycles, the old pedal bicycles.

Option two would be to require the same fitted and fastened helmets for all riders under 18, but it would be just for electronic bicycles.

And at the bottom here, so that the real crux of the issue on this one is it's a council decision point.

Should the helmet requirement apply to all devices under 18 or the electronic and the pedal bicycles, or under 18 for all except bicycles.

So it's e-bikes and bikes or just e-bikes.

And of course, any other option that council would want to entertain.

So next section speaks to parental liability and reckless riding.

So under the parental responsibilities, the ordinance would indicate parents, guardians, and custodians may not authorize or knowingly permit a child to violate this article.

Um there are currently some related statutes under Arizona under state law that speak to like you know, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, things like that.

But this would actually codify it in uh town code and allow the officers to address uh similar type behavior locally.

Similarly, reckless driving, unlawful to operate with reckless disregard for safety of persons or property.

And the ordinance actually enumerates some of the different um examples of what reckless driving may be, although it's not exhaustive.

Doing wheelies, we see those in the roadway a lot, as you saw in that video in the beginning of this presentation.

Carrying passengers on single rider bikes, not using hands-free devices while you're riding, keep you know, keep your hands on the on the handlebars, intentionally swerving, and then modifying the devices to increase the speed.

Um, the a lot of our youth have figured out how to hack the battery and make it go actually a lot faster than it was ever designed to.

And that would be a class one misdemeanor.

Um, the next three components are uh DY, failure to stop, and business requirements.

So riding under the influence, this the recommendation is that that this become now uh against town code.

So it would make the DUI provisions apply to bicycles, e-bikes, e-scooters, and all human powered devices.

That would be a class one misdemeanor.

For failure to stop, if a writer unlawfully and knowingly refused to stop or fled from law enforcement officer or authorized traffic enforcement agent, as we saw in all of the videos that we showed you this evening, it would be a class one misdemeanor.

This will really help on that first video where there was multiple devices on the roadway and they were riding recklessly and taking over the street.

It is difficult for the officers to pick out which ones are e-motorcycles, which ones are bikes.

Currently, with this added into our ordinance, the officer would know it's he has he or she has free reign if they can to stop anybody in this group.

Business requirements.

There'd be a requirement for businesses to inform customers purchasing a motorized device about the rules within Article 4.

And the intent is to allow multiple options.

If they choose to provide the information via paper, website, mobile application, different formats, what whatever we can negotiate with the business.

The business is prohibited from selling or renting e-bikes or devices on town property or rights of way without permission.

And this is speaks to the Gilbert Transportation Device Safety Program.

So this would be a program optional for civil violations selected prior to court proceedings.

So this is if you think about if you were to get a speeding ticket and you haven't been to traffic school in a year, most people are allowed.

You can go, you can take your traffic school, you prove it to the court, they dismiss your citation.

This would be very similar where you go to a safety class and you get the civil fines are waived.

The court shall impose a fee for the administration of the safety program if the violators under 18, the parent or guardian must attend with the violator.

And it's similar to getting a speeding ticket under state law.

You're then if you haven't been to a traffic school or this safety program within the last 12 months, you're eligible for the program.

And the the whole intent is in this education is we just don't want to see people get hurt.

It's not just that it's you know annoying or or it's unsightly or it delays traffic.

We're seeing kids get hit, and uh it would be great to get the parents and the kids in the same room and do some education and maybe curb some of this behavior because we don't we don't want to see the catastrophic result out in the community.

So that's enforcement, that's the ordinance, uh the ordinance pieces that are being suggested.

But um, beyond enforcement, we have some elements looking ahead.

So kind of the rush on this is we are going into summer break right now, and we're trying to get ahead of this before all the kids go back to school.

Um the ongoing know your right education uh will be ongoing, but it's really gonna beef it up going into summer break.

And then these e-bike safety classes.

Um we're working on bringing together a working group to develop this parent youth transportation program for civil violations as an option for court order diversion.

And really, the whole I guess the main point of of this entire presentation and the efforts that council's been making towards these uh ordinance modifications, considering all this is we can't enforce our way out of this.

It takes a community.

You've seen their videos of our officers trying to catch up to these kids, and certainly if we can catch them, we'll write them a citation.

But I think we all know that's one small piece of the puzzle here.

We really if I could wave a magic wand, there would be a collaborative effort between parents and youth, the police department, all of the cities in our region to include ours, the schools, and they've been great partners on the education side, putting our information in their newsletters.

Our HOA partners have been wonderful.

They're begging for help in this area because not only are their property getting torn up, but they're genuinely concerned about the kids that live in these subdivisions, and then our businesses have been great as well.

So next steps, the practical piece of this.

Um we're requesting council approval for the ordinance adoption on June 9th.

Um that's the goal, and some of that again is being driven.

I know it seems kind of quick after this study session, but we are trying to uh get things in place before summer break.

Um the request would be an emergency clause to be enacted to begin education and enforcement immediately.

So if these became uh lawful ordinances on June 9th, the effort would be to make stops when we can when we see violations and immediately start educating face-to-face, writing citations when it's appropriate, um and and getting to work.

Upon adoption, uh extensive ordinance education will focus on parents, youth, HOAs, schools, and businesses, because again uh we can't do it alone.

And one of the council decision points from an ordinance standpoint, and I guess kind of a vote standpoint that'll come up uh at a subsequent meeting will will be should the ordinance include an emergency clause.

Do we does the council want this to be effective immediately?

And thank you so much for listening to this presentation.

Um entertain any questions if if councils inclined.

Questions, council.

Thank you, Chi.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Chief, um, so some of these electric motorcycles with no title, um, if we confiscate them and they have no title, there's no proof of getting them back, correct?

That's correct.

Yeah, unfortunately, we have a state law that requires us to seize them.

If it's of a motor vehicle, they don't have a driver's license.

We turn the a tow yard comes, tow company comes, picks them up, and they literally rot on the tow company property, is my understanding because there is no way to register it, no title, no way to prove who it actually legally belongs to.

Okay.

Um another question.

Um under 12 years old, we're looking at not operating in a class one or class two.

Does that include private property?

Yes, my understanding it would include any area that is within the boundaries of the town of Gilbert.

Okay.

And last question, um, would a business be able to sell to a 16-year-old if the parents weren't there.

Doesn't restrict that.

I think the only requirement we have with businesses is that they provide the information.

But uh I I believe the answer is yes.

I can go back and ask our legal folks.

Okay, I'd like to know that answer, yeah.

Not right now, but yeah, of course.

Thanks.

Councilmember Lyons.

Um, we did discuss the other day that I would like to see is some kind of driver safety program, you know, administered through our parks and recs division.

The parents can take their kids to when I was in the service before you could ride a motorcycle on military base, you had to demonstrate competency with it and stuff.

And I think that would be a good program to offer parents for their kids and know they know that they can safely operate these because they're far more powerful than a bicycle.

And I don't know if they necessarily realize that.

So I would like to see something along those lines if possible.

Councilmember Lyons, that's I understand, absolutely.

I have a question about uh the yielding right away.

Are equestrians considered pedestrians where they would have to yield right away to the equestrian Mayor Anderson, yes.

The short answer is yes.

Okay.

I've had a number of emails from horseback riders that encounter these these kids on these bikes and they don't yield the right away to them, and it's quite frightening for the horse, I guess.

Absolutely.

Thank you.

Councilmember Koprowski.

I just wanted to give you some feedback on the, I guess the council decision points that you had asked about, because I think you're looking for some input on those options prior to our meeting where you would bring this to council for decision.

Uh one of those items was about the helmet ordinance regarding only e-bikes or e-bikes with with including bicyclists.

And I would be supportive of the helmet ordinance with uh e-bikes including bicyclists.

Um you also talked about this emergency clause so that you could start doing education and enforcement immediately.

And while I understand the necessity for that, is there a way we could enact it with the emergency clause, but not and like not issue or collect fines for the normal 30-day period or or whatever that normal period would be.

So it's more of just an education touch point uh during that emergency clause.

Mayor Anderson and Councilmember Koprowski answers yes, we could structure the ordinance that way.

Okay, thank you.

And I do want to just mention that I think this is a very complex issue in our community, and I appreciate the complexities that you've incorporated and the thoughtfulness you've put into this ordinance, and I agree and support the fact that it's not just going to be enforcement alone.

Um but I recognize that this is just one piece of the puzzle.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I I wanted to ask a question uh related to what Councilmember Bongiovanny mentioned as far as a 16-year-old, if they can go in and buy one.

Um would these be considered if they go in and maybe they've saved up enough money to make a down payment or they can do that.

A legal contract, they cannot do a legal contract.

So they would not, well, supposedly, uh, if you're under 18, you're not of age to um sign a legal contract.

If they're so if they're eight sixteen and they do go in and want to buy one of these, is that really legal for them to do that?

I I don't think that a 16-year-old should be able to buy these.

That's just my opinion.

But I don't know if you guys have talked about that or what is in the books about them and buying them, all of them, you know.

I mean, the parents may take them away and then they go in and buy them themselves.

And 16 year olds, most of them are working, you know, and some of the fast food places are wherever, so they do have money.

And I think that's something we need to keep at the top of mind of what would we do, because that most likely will come up.

And then we go back to if they do that and the parents didn't allow the kids to do that, are those parents still gonna be liable.

Councilmember Buckley, yeah, I I think I understand your um your concerns there, and I uh it it's come to my knowledge that like um large box stores like Costco, for instance, right now, or they sell these electric electric bicycles.

I don't think there's anything that prohibits uh 16-year-old from going in and buying one.

There's nothing, I don't think Costco cards anybody.

I don't think there's a state law that that would prohibit it.

Um and there's nothing currently in our ordinance that would prohibit that, but um to your point, I I understand your concern.

Okay.

And the the other thing, and I and I talked to Chief Soberg just briefly earlier, and I I think you guys might have talked about this is um if these kids get pulled over, and I know Queen Creek is enacting theirs in a couple of days as well, but um I would like to see a zero tolerance in there, especially for the the ones that maybe have been warned already and uh are kind of the ring leaders of a lot of these get togethers.

Are we gonna do anything like that?

Because I I really would like to see something in there, that there's a zero tolerance for that.

And and it might at least deter some of the activity if they realize they may lose their bike.

Councilmember Buckley, yeah, I I understand your concerns on that too.

And um certainly the first video that we watched where there's the big ride out with the kids doing the wheelies down Higley Road, um, that'd be a great opportunity for the officer if they're able to safely stop the group to do a zero tolerance and issue citations and kind of you know lower the hammer for their own good, because we don't want to see them get hit.

Um there are we I will tell you I uh am careful with directing the officers on zero tolerance um specifically for an entire ordinance under all circumstances because there are times where a youngster um out in front of their house who's on a cousin's device or something like that, where it's a maybe it lends itself better to an opportunity for education, but certainly for the behavior I think that we're all here concerned about.

I I understand your point absolutely.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you very much.

Councilmember Buckley.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um totally understand where Councilmember Kabrowski is going in terms of the 30-day to give an opportunity for more education.

I would rather though not put it in the ordinance.

You put language in an ordinance that you're gonna use one time and now it's stuck in there forever.

Uh the chief of police has the ability to issue a directive to his staff.

And umce you have that emergency clause where you can take effect, but order a directive on this date, it's all on.

But what I like about that is if you do encounter in those first 30 days something that's so egregious that it needs to be dealt with right now, you have the authority to do that.

Those will be few and far between, probably.

But I'd rather have that discretion there, just where I sit.

Yep, thank you, Mayor.

Um just to go down the list to make it easier for you.

I think that I'm supportive of bike elements for bikes and for e-bikes under the age of 18.

Um helmets.

Um I'm okay with the speed ordinance.

Uh uh the class three e-bikes being operated by anyone under 18 or under 16, I'm fine with, but also but the selling of the bike.

I I really believe it needs to be under 18, or it has to be an adult in order to purchase that.

You know, Costco will just have to deal with it, or these companies will just have to deal with it and uh make policies.

I don't want to see a 16-year-old going in there, or if if if if a company like, you know, Costco, for example, not that they do this, but if a you know company like that who doesn't check and heck a 13-year-old can go in there and buy them then.

So I'd like to see an adult be present or adult to sign that form uh to make a safer form.

Other comments, questions.

Just for feedback, I support what Council Member Bucklin was talking about, the combination of what he and Councilmember Kaprowski were talking about.

Anything else?

Thank you.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Item two is a presentation on the traffic safety sign pilot program results.

Jen.

All right, good evening, Mayor and Council.

I'm Jen Harrison.

I'm the deputy director for our Office of Communications and Engagement.

I'll be joined tonight by uh Chief Jim Bisegley as well as town engineer Susanna Strubble to give you all an update on the traffic safety science pilot program we've been running over the past six months.

So just to kind of reset and remind you all about this program and why we started this program.

We know that each life lost in Gilbert's Road impacts families in futures.

And so highlighting the need for safe mobility for all, whether community commuting, walking, or cycling, um, is critical.

And so our commitment to traffic safety involves collaboration, which you will see throughout this pilot program, and innovation to ensure that all users can complete their journey safely.

So when we looked at the program pilot program details, the goal of this program as it uh detailed by the council was to implement a pilot program for effective traffic signage to promote safe driving.

Um we wanted the signage to prompt drivers to pause and reflect and hopefully decrease traffic violations, accidents, and fatalities as a result of safer driving from the signs.

Uh when it comes to the parameters, we knew that the messaging must suit all ages and audiences, right?

It's in the in the general public, we wanted to make sure it was all age appropriate, and we wanted to make sure it was impactful yet mindful and considerate of those who might have been impacted by uh traffic incidents or fatalities uh in the past in our community.

When it comes to the timeline, uh the signs uh went up the first week of October, so October 1st, 2025, and were taken down by April 1st uh of this year.

Uh we wanted to focus on the six busiest month in the months of the year.

So when all of our winter travelers were here in the community, um, and while also making sure that the signs were down before election season began and could not causing uh sign clutter throughout our community.

We chose in working with traffic engineering and the Gilbert Police Department, 10 intersections were selected based on crash history from 2022 to fall of 2025.

The analysis took place, took it into account total crashes, severity, incidents involving left turns, and occurrences of red light running.

So the four intersections that we were really tracking the data on were Lindsay and Ray, Williamsfield and Valvista, Higley and Warner, Elliott and McQueen.

Uh we were also had signage at six additional intersections, baseline and higley, Jermaine and Higley, Higley and Pecos, Lindsay and Elliot, Valvista and Elliot, Market Street, and Pecos, just so that we reached more of the community.

As far as tracking the impact was concerned, traffic engineering in the Gilbert Police Department was evaluating the available crash data in these areas of where the signs were located throughout the pilot.

When it came to the design approach, uh we knew that our message strategy, we wanted to be clear, direct, memorable, and seasonal to keep things fresh.

Uh we wanted to make sure that each sign because it's limited time, little bit of space, uh focused on a single concept.

So one clear, memorable idea per sign.

Uh we knew that multiple messages would dilute the impact and confuse recall and be just more of a distraction.

We also wanted to make sure the messages had an impact, that they evoked either curiosity or humor, mild surprise.

And then we wanted to make sure we had some repetition.

So featuring multiple boards, varying execution with consistent core messaging and brand colors that would help build kind of the familiarity and brand recall as we were going throughout the six-month pilot program.

And finally, we wanted to make sure each sign had a clear call to action, safe driving, put your cell phone down, buckle your seatbelt, so that we people knew the action that we wanted them to take away from each sign.

So we took a seasonal approach, like I had mentioned, to the designs created to make sure that there was uh fresh signs up every couple weeks, a couple months.

Um we had 17 designs in with that equated to 115 total designs that were printed.

Uh we did it over four seasons, so as you can see, there were some evergreen options like the no text is worth a wreck.

It's giving too fast, which I know is a favorite of Chief Solberg's.

And then we had some holiday fun and seasonal fun.

Um we did uh Halloween, uh, we did the holidays, we did the new year, um, and then the spring uh signs as well.

Uh we did attempt to do some more serious uh messaging with that 12 traffic deaths in 2025, safe driving saves lives.

Umfortunately, throughout the six months, it was we didn't have an opportunity to find the person and the that had been impacted by an accident in our in our in our community, excuse me.

So as you can see, we had some fun, we got some, we got punny, you know, you'll be sorry.

Tried to make them interesting, relatable, um, and shareworthy so that our messaging could reach beyond uh just the sign placement.

And now I'll turn over to Chief Bisegli for the findings.

Good evening, good evening, Mayor and Council, and now I will go through the uh findings from this pilot program.

So, as you can see during the uh pilot pilot program from October to December and January to March, if you look over the past one, two, three, four, five years, there was a couple years or more of an anomaly, 2022, 2023.

Uh, but for the four intersections that we got data from, uh the crashes actually went up one, so pretty much statistically insignificant.

Um, we noticed from 24 to 25 and 25 to 26 during the pilot period.

The graph on the left hand side shows each intersection individually, and you could see the plateau of the uh curves in the graph, pretty much showing no change over the pilot period.

Some other data we were able to get with the help of traffic engineering was some speed data.

This is speed data showing before and after the intersection.

From a queen and Elliot, there was essentially no change.

The average speed remained the same and consistent before and after in all directions.

Uh for Williams Field and Valvista, no change as well.

Every speed remained the same.

There was a slight reduction in speed at Lindsay and Ray, and a mixed uh mixed outcome at Warner and Higley.

And both of those intersections had some traff uh some construction during the pilot period, so that may have impacted the results as well.

I will give it back to Jen for the uh cost of the pilot program.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chief.

So, as you can see, the pilot program in total costs just over $20,000.

And that includes staff time, printing materials, and the use of our equipment.

Um, as you can also see, the streets team, a big shout out to them, they took on the brunt of this project in this pilot program, having to go out and install, to fix, to maintain to ensure that safety was always maintained as these signs were out and about in our community.

Uh also engineering team, uh, Office of Communications Engagement and Police Staff Time were all included in this overall cost.

All right.

We did do some community, uh, get some community feedback.

The police department back in uh December had posted in Instagram stories to kind of just see are people seeing these signs?

Are they changing behaviors?

Um, when asked, uh, have you seen these traffic signs around Gilbert?

Out of the 750 responses, 89% of people said that they had seen them.

So that was a good good result we saw.

Um, only 11% said that they haven't.

And then when asked, do these signs encourage you to drive more carefully?

57% of the people said yes, 36% said not really, and 6% said I haven't seen them.

So you we did see that people did acknowledge that the signs were helping them drive a little bit more safely.

We did open it up uh for future traffic sign ideas just to see what the community had to say.

We did got a few comments back, and uh people made mention that they felt like the signs were distracting.

Uh they would rather us focus our time on red light cameras and some other suggestions.

Uh we did have one person say be brutally honest as far as the the messaging's concern.

So a little bit of feedback there.

And overall, what we saw through social comments and things that were coming in was that the overall sentiment was mixed, right?

Some people liked the signs, they thought it brightened their commute, um, they love the seasonal creativity, and they thought this the safety reminders were helpful.

Then there were those who question the signs, right?

Costs first other priorities.

We were doing this um pilot program during the height of our utility rate conversations, water conversations, and so we saw a lot of comments around the signs being wasteful given the utility rate increases the community was seeing.

We also received uh comments about the signs being distracted, they're cute, but they're distracting, and they people question the effectiveness of them, were they actually working and achieving the goal um that we intended them to be, which we're sharing with you today.

So when we look at some of the program challenges and the lessons that we learned, um staff time was a big one.

Uh there are over 300 hours spent staff time across um the different departments from like I said, streets to police to OCE to traffic engineering, and the bulk of that was the 213 hours that the streets team did use um again, maintaining and and and setting up those signs.

They also had the maintenance and upkeep.

So sign conditions over time fading if we were up for longer time periods, if they were damaged, um, or if there is vandalism, um, those are all things that we would consider uh if we were to do a longer term.

And then tracking effectiveness.

As you saw, there was limited data available for us to track the effectiveness of these signs.

Um, it's not like a digital format where we can really track the ROI on our digital platforms.

But there's really no reliable measure method to measure the behavior change exists, and as you saw, the the community feedback was also very mixed.

Something to also take into consideration if this program were to continue budget, so the ongoing costs for materials, installation labor, and potential new tracking technology uh if to help us better track the effectiveness in the future, would all need to be budgeted if if we were going to continue.

Um, and then land rights and easements.

So we only had 10 intersections that we did across the community.

Um, and we did have one business challenge, the ownership of the easements, right?

Each sign was placed in town-owned easements, but one owner did challenge us and say that they own that land and they didn't want the sign on their property.

We didn't contest it, um, but if we were to expand this program, we could potentially see more um challenges like that arise that we would need to probably figure out how to address.

And then, of course, if this program were to continue, we'd want to look at standardization, right?

A style guide and placement criteria that would improve the scalability if we were to continue.

And with that, I'll turn it over to Susanna for the recommendations.

Thank you very much.

Now I have to figure out how to run this.

So our recommendations are that the data and community feedback yield is really inconvenient inconclusive results on this.

Um, but what we do know is that um safety on our roadways is very complex and complicated.

It takes more than just signs, it takes a whole lot of other efforts that need to happen.

And um, as a community, we continue to take a lot of um stock in in looking at and always putting traffic in uh in a safe condition as as best as we can.

So staff recommends just continuing to proceed with several ongoing projects designed to support the four E's for traffic safety, which includes education and really the signs sit.

Messed up there, sorry.

The the signs do really kind of fit within an education type criteria.

We're going to continue to raise awareness about significance of traffic safety through our existing channels while it while also actively seeking new opportunities for expansion, including leveraging media and other digital non-digital platforms.

Um enforcement that the PD does, there are several enforcement initiatives in the works, the e-bike ordinance, which you just have heard tonight.

In addition to that, red light camera discussions over the next month, you're going to hear some more input on that.

And then weekly enforcement initiatives that the PD holds on a regular basis.

And then also to add to that, one of the four E's is emergency response, making sure that we are able to get to any accident that happens in a timely fashion, continuing to monitor and provide assets within within those emergency response vehicles to meet the needs of anybody that gets engaged in it or that may be in an accident.

From an engineering perspective, we have a whole lot of safety items going on and safety on our transportation projects is really key and primary to everything we do.

But we have almost 80 projects that are ongoing in the community that are working not only to work to make sure that the capacities, et cetera, on our on our highway or on our roadways is meeting that, but also to be done in a very safe manner that we possibly can.

And it's addressing not only the vehicles, but also addressing our our pedestrians as well as multi-use paths, bicycles, et cetera, assuring that we have safe crossings at all intersections, but also wherever our bicycles are or pedestrians may be traffic passing through our trails or through our trail roadways.

So we're going to continue to advance in the use of technology, and we've made some wide strides or some large stories on that this year.

In the fact that we've upgraded our advanced detection cameras and working towards making sure we're gathering the data to better understand how our traveling public, how our pedestrians, how our bicycles are using our our street system and our transportation system.

That information is then shared into what we consider an autumn or what we is defined as an automated traffic signal performance measures.

We take that data and we can now start searching through that data and saying if we're seeing a lot of red light runners here, what's happening, what's the time frame of that, how can we analyze that in a deeper manner?

We're also continuing to basically enhance the mapping we have of all of our systems, and then we are in the in the process right now looking at some crash analysis software that allows us to dig deeper into any crashes that may happen in the organization.

In addition to that, we continually look at traffic impact studies with new developments as well as any other project that we're basically doing and modeling in areas to make sure that we're meeting the needs of the community in capacity as well as ability of free flow but also safety at those intersections.

We do do annual safety audits at different areas.

We're looking always at school safety and congestion assessments and continuing to review and communicate with our with our school system to understand better how we can meet the needs of our pedestrians.

We have trail crossing safety study that is underway again, looking at almost I think another 12 crossings that we're looking at and making sure that we identify the right improvements for those.

And then we also are launching a low-stress bicycle network to assist in getting our our folks from one place to another in the bicycle realm.

So one other additional issue is that we all recognize that there are projects, but we also understand that safety is really a comprehensive long or long-term goal that we should be meeting at, looking to see how we are really performing as it relates to safety, understanding how we are making an effect on our crash data as well as on our any fatalities that may happen.

So I think before you tonight, we do have a request to go after an application to acquire some or to uh apply for a grant that will help us basically look comprehensively at our transportation from a safety action plan.

And it will help us evaluate the entire roadway network, not just high crash spots.

It will prioritize safety for all users and all traffic modes.

It also will use a full range of engineering tool tools in addition to adding the education, in addition to adding the emergency response, in addition to adding the education, will be all part of what will be looked at at this study.

Um and it will rely on continuous annual data-driven and analysis.

So it allows us to say how can we look at all of this and continue to show that we are making an effort in in improving safety on our our roads.

So what we do know is that safety remains at the forefront of everything we do.

Um staff continues to expand and evaluate us very evaluate various opportunities to ensure we're addressing traffic safety, not on an individual basis only, but also comprehensively in the community.

And with that, we thank you and open it up for questions.

Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, quick question.

Um I don't know if I heard you right or my math is wrong, but you mentioned 10 intersections, but we only see data on four.

That is correct.

We monitored four of the ten intersections that were the highest that had all of the pieces of the intersections that we identified there.

I can go back to that slide if you want me to.

Okay.

So did we just now take data on the other six intersections?

Or am I hearing it?

We have not pulled that data.

We do have it available, but we do know is there was like four or five different criteria.

Those four had all of those criteria on them.

Okay, thank you.

Councilmember Lyons.

I I didn't notice it, maybe I missed it, but on the responses from the public, do we have the quantity of the negatives versus the positives?

Mayor, Councilmember Lyons, um it it leaned a little bit towards the questioning the program, but it was pretty even when I said mixed, it was about like 47 to 53.

So it was pretty even, but it did lean towards questioning the program more than liking the program.

All right, thank you.

Councilmember Buckler.

Thank you, Mayor.

So I appreciate the efforts on this, and you know, it's always worth looking to see if something creative can work, but the results being statistically statistically insignificant.

Um the amount of spend there when we're in a significant budget shortfall.

Um I'm in favor of just discontinuing it.

It was worth a try and it didn't work, in my opinion.

Um I like your plan that you outlined, but it's missing one element that you don't control.

And um, which is probably why it's not in the plan, and that's what this council controls.

Um we still uh have the shortest staffed agency in Maricopa County.

We still are behind the curve with our police officers with uh the same number or close to the same number of motor officers we had 20 years ago or more.

Um people don't pay attention to signs, including the speed limit signs.

Drive around Gilbert right now.

And the risk of getting a citation is less than it used to be, it appears.

Um, because nowadays the patrol officers are running call to call to call.

You know, in the earlier days they could help in do enforcement.

Um and that time is just not on the books anymore because we are close to 300,000 people with big city problems.

So what we need to do is generate kind of revenue that can produce uh more staffing to the police department and provide more motor officers to increase that probability uh and that fear factor that I might get a ticket if I'm driving around here too fast, like like it used to be councilmember Koprowski.

Thanks for presenting on this.

Um this pilot program, you know, came from others on the dais, and I supported it.

Um and I actually loved it.

I thought the execution was great.

So I just want to give props to the staff for executing this for the creativity and the signs.

Um when you actually showed that cost, yes, like any additional cost doesn't seem like it's worthwhile.

Yet when we really think about how we measure the effect of safety countermeasures, we're usually looking at like a benefit cost ratio, and for $20,000, if we even prevented one serious injury crash, that would be a 10 benefit cost ratio, which is far higher than we would normally get from any other investment in a safety project.

So from that perspective, I think that it's a tool in the toolbox, maybe not something that we repeat every year, but if we see changes in the community, if we need to get additional attention, um I think this is a tool in the toolbox that I'd be happy to support again or like to see in the community again, but totally understand that yeah, the receptiveness is mixed, and um and and I'm glad to see other efforts in that safety realm moving forward, but thank you.

Councilmember Torgison.

Yeah, I'm just curious.

Uh we decided that two of the years were anomalies that were high, two out of the five, or two out of the four previous to this year.

What would make those anomalies as opposed to the other way around, since it was evenly split?

Right.

Um councilmember Torgenson, I I think I'm understanding that you're asking why is it that two of those years were higher and then the next two years were small were uh relatively the same and a little lower.

Um you know, I think with the complexity of the traffic, I don't know that I can give you that answer.

What I do know is that from the previous year we did see almost exactly the same matching at that same time.

Um certainly um there's probably ways for us to go go in and look a little deeper.

Um it takes us looking at this point in time at each individual accident and each individual intersection um pretty extensively.

So the two years that were higher were significantly higher, like 30% higher.

So why are why is that the anomaly?

Or is the anomaly that you had a slower year and it was matched by a slower year?

And the other part of that is the graphs, let's say you look at Williamsfield and Valvista, it showed a market decline, a market decline.

So I'm wondering what contributed to that, even though the overall statistic was virtually the same.

Why was that intersection, which might be the worst intersection in town for this?

Why was that so far down?

Granted, it's $20,000.

Money could be saved everywhere, but to what Councilmember Kaprowski said.

Is it are we getting a better benefit out of it than we would otherwise?

So I'd like to know how that declining number at Valvista and Williamsfield played in when you're looking previously was so much higher, and that worse intersection was so much lower.

Was it just sensitivity to the deaths that have been there by the general public, or was it something to do with this?

I'm gonna call a friend here.

I believe I believe one of those two.

Oh, that intersection, Councilman Jorgeson may have been one where we were also seeing the fact that we had some construction going on there, traffic was slower, there were some other items there too, and that would would help justify some of that as well.

I I know that intersection is terrible because I've literally put my hand on the steering wheel.

My wife drives because watch this person's gonna run a red, and they do.

Yeah.

Uh and and I certainly believe that with some of the new software that we have in place and then the change in the cameras, we have a better opportunity now to look at our day of data in a little bit more in depth and start answering some of those questions, maybe a little more with that complexity that's there.

I'd appreciate that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I see me here.

Thanks, Mayor.

Um so I I was the one that brought this forward many months ago, and so maybe I'm a little biased, but I agree with um Councilmember Torges and Councilmember uh Koprowski that it does seem like a real small amount if we did save at least one life.

I'd like to see the other the other intersections um data on that before you know I want to give my recommendation per se, but I'd like to take a look at that.

Thanks.

We certainly can um find that information as well, Vice Mayor.

Thank you.

Any other comments, questions?

You have the information you need.

Yes, we do, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

With that, we're at the end of the uh study session.

We'll adjourn the study session and and reconvene at 10 minutes.