@iUWADOT SMARTER I SIMPLER | CUSTOMER DRIVEN hiowadoLgaw Director's Office 800 Lincoln Way | Ames, IA 50010 Phone: 515-239-1111 | Fax: 515-239-1120 May 6, 2015 Greg Reeder Director of Public Works City of Council Blutts 209 Pearl St Council Bluffs, IA 51503 Re: Appeal of Automated Traific Enforcement (ATE) Evaluation Dear Mr, Reeder: On April 6, 2015, the Department of Transportation (007) received your appeal of the lowa DOT evaluation of your ATE annual report. Specifically, you are appealing the directive to remove the eastbound cameras at South Expressway and 30” Avenue. {In considering your appeal, | have reviewed crash and violation information and considered your alternate proposal as described in your appeal. Below is that information. Number of Crashes In the appeal, the City correctly states that crashes for only the eastbound approach have reduced from 24 t0 15, However, those are only a directional subset of the total crashes for the intersection. The lowa State University study used total crashes at an intersection as their primary measure of effectiveness. ‘The researchers also reviewed intersection-wide subsets of total crashes (such as rear-end crashes) ‘without further sub dividing them by direction. Therefore, the primary measure of effectiveness used here «willbe the total number of crashes at an intersection. Following is a summary of data already provided in earlier documents, 1. Average annual number of crashes at intersection (from DOT crash records, all crashes withi {eet of the intersection) Average Annual Crashes Before 18.80 (2004-2008) ‘Average Annual Crashes After 19.25 (2010-2013) 2. Total number of crashes from crash diagrams (trom DOT, all crashes) Total Crashes Before 53 (2006-2008) Total Crashes After 53 (2010-2012) Based on this information, total number of crashes essentially stayed the same.Page 2 Number of Violations In 2013, the eastbound camera at this intersection issued 4,664 tickets which is 4.7 times higher than the average number of tickets issued at the other 11 cameras on the primary highway system (992) in Council Bluffs. It is true that this intersection has a high volume of trafic; however, this high number of Violations is a red flag and warranted further review. Based on information provided in the November 21, 2014 email from Greg Reeder to Tim Crouch, 80% of the violations from this camera were issued to vehicles in the right turn lane. Reviewing the crash diagrams, there were zero right-turn-on-red crashes in any of the three years before, or after, the cameras were installed Based on this information, itis concerning that so many of the violations at this intersection were issued to vehicles in the right-turn lane considering these vehicles produced zero crashes in the three years before, or three years after the cameras were installed, Council Bluffs Proposed Future Use o Camera 1am glad to hear the City is actively working with the DOT to implement an Adaptive Traffic Signal Control ‘System (ATSCS) in this corridor. This system will improve the flow of traffic and should also improve the safety throughout the corridor. On the primary highway system, | believe this type of adaptive signal system may enhance the efficiency and safety of the corridor to such an extent, that camera enforcement will not be needed in the future. ‘Your request to continue using the eastbound camera with full or limited functionality at this location cannot be granted as the above crash and violation data contirm the DOT's earlier position to remove this camera, In summary, your appeal to continue to use the eastbound red-light running camera at South Expressway and 30" Avenue is denied because the data does not provide convincing evidence that this camera is making the intersection safer. There is also a concern that most of the violations are being issued to right-turn vehicles that ‘were not involved in crashes either before or after the camera was installed. Eile Director PTAlp CC; Mayor Matt Walsh, City of Council Blutts Chief Timothy Carmody, City of Council Blutfs Steve Gent, Trattic & Satety, lowe Department of Transportation Tim Crouch, Tratfic & Safety, lowa Depariment of Transportation David Gorham, Special Assistant Attorney General, lowa Department of Transportation Troy Jetman, Disttict 4, lowa Department of Transportation