Finance Committee — 10/06/2021 Page 5
Mayor Donchess
Thank you and | think Mr. Hudson you're on this one as well.
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Yes Mr. Mayor. | know a little bit more about this one so hopefully | can do a better job explaining. We've been before
you before with these traffic cameras. It’s a newer technology for detecting vehicles. The older technology was loops in
the ground and when a vehicle goes over it, then it senses that. Those are prone to damage due to (inaudible)
operations, utility cuts, and those sorts of things. These new camera systems they have many additional features
including the ability to count traffic continuously so we can better adjust timings and signals as well as enable us to remote
in from our desktop. If an issue comes up, we can remote in and see what’s happening without actually having to go out
and visit the location so you can respond more timely to issues.
There are some different camera systems out on DW Highway but those are reaching the end of their useful life so we’re
trying to replace those because they’ve been problematic. This contract with Electric Light, they will replace the systems
at five locations along DW Highway and they’re including a discount for salvage of some of the existing equipment out
there as part of their pricing.
Mayor Donchess
Questions? Comments?
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you. Mr. Hudson the cameras that out there now that are at the end of their useful life, do they also do counting of
traffic?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
No they don’t. It’s kind of an added feature of these 360 degree cameras. Those cameras just look at — and they’re
usually single cameras. The newer cameras look at a circular area. They can see the whole intersection basically. The
old cameras, each camera would be per approach so it kind of replaced detector and all it would do is tell you that
somebody was there or not there. We have had issues with those types. The 360 degree cameras are better because
they're downward facing and they don’t suffer from some of the solar glare and other issues that the other cameras do
suffer from.
Alderwoman Lu
Thank you. Could | just ask for a follow up?
Mayor Donchess
Yeah.
Alderwoman Lu
Are they connected in any way to the electronic systems that switch — that control the right turns, left turns, etc.?
Dan Hudson, City Engineer
Absolutely. That’s their primary function and as vehicles pull into a zone — you’d actually go in and you draw a box on the
video where you want it to detect. As vehicles pull into that detection zone, that sends a signal to the traffic controller
which then will call the phase and trigger the phase. We found that they work very well. We recently replaced one at
Silver Drive on DW Highway. That’s kind of a challenging location due to a short-term lane but what we’ve been hearing
is that just making that change to this new camera system has improved operations. It hasn't solved all the problems but
it's made things better just by replacing the camera. | would note, too, that the funding for this was money that was
escrowed for this specific purpose.
