[Music] Do you feel [Music] Something [Music] [Music] up. Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. N. [Music] [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Hey, [Music] hey, hey. [Music] I don't know. I don't want you. I don't know. I don't want you. [Music] I don't know. Love is real. I don't want you. I don't know if love is [Music] [Applause] love. [Music] I don't know. I don't want to wait for [Music] I don't want I don't [Music] [Music] Down. [Music] Okay. [Music] [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] [Music] The study session of the Aurora City Council uh is called to order. Um would the clerk please call the role? >> Mayor Kaufman here. Council >> member Bergen here. Council member Kums, Council Member Gardner, >> Council Member Gardner uh will not be with us this tonight. >> Council member Hancock >> here. >> Council member Dinsky. >> Council member Cass >> here. >> Council member Lawson, >> I'm here. >> Council member Medina >> here. Council member Mario, >> Mayor Proen Sunberg >> here. >> Uh there's no mayor's update. Are there any issue updates? Uh seeing none, is there any objection to moving the consent calendar forward? Item number 2A through 2C. Seeing none, the consent calendar, item number 2 A through 2C will move forward. Um, item number 3A, transportation safety update. Uh, Council Member Stephanie Hancock. >> Be good if I turn my mic on. Thank you, Mayor. Um, uh, I'm going to turn it over to Carly Compazano. Um, this is coming out of our transportation meeting this past week and, uh, she will give us the color commentary. Thank you, Carly. >> Thank you. Appreciate it. I will share screens. All right. Um, hope everyone can see that. Um, so my name is Karly Campano. I'm the deputy director of transportation and mobility in the public works department. And with me here today also who will be presenting on some targeted APD slides is Commander Matt Brookcker. So he's on the line as well with Aurora PD. And we are going to be presenting on transportation safety updates. Uh so here's an agenda of what we will cover. Uh first I will go over uh trans transportation safety in general. Give an overview on background and um just some information about that and how we approach that. Uh then I will go over some crash data and metrics both at the state level and then at Aurora specifically. Uh and then from there we will go over different strategies with how we address transportation safety from the engineering enforcement and education sides. Um and then I'll go over some next steps and what we plan to do going forward. So I wanted to start with just an overview of the three E of roadway safety. You might have seen these before, maybe heard of these. Uh but the three E are education, engineering, and enforcement. Um so if you think of these strategies as kind of like uh legs of a stool, if any one leg isn't in place, you won't have the optimum uh transportation safety. So this was a concept developed a long time ago. uh to try to explain the nuance complexity of this topic and the um relationship of these different items. So on the engineering side, engineering means changing the built environment. Uh so that's a lot of what we work on in the public works department. Um on the enforcement side, uh enforcement means issuing citations or warnings for violations to encourage compliance with the law. Uh, and then education is providing information that increases driver awareness and motivates folks to alter their behavior. So, those are some u foundations. Uh, next I'm going to go over the safe systems approach. Uh, this is kind of a newer approach uh messaged by the Federal Highway Administration or FHWA. And this really centers around the concept that humans are vulnerable and they're going to make mistakes, but the punishment for a mistake shouldn't result in serious injury or death. Uh but that this approach also stresses and emphasizes that responsibility is shared. Um it's shared between um roadway practitioners and design. It's shared between road users um enforcement postc crash care, all of those items that it's really a shared responsibility to um be committed to transportation safety. Uh so from here I'm going to go over some um some data on the next few slides just to give you an idea of what's going on and what what trends we're seeing. And so all of the data that I'm about to show is related to fatal crashes specifically and roadway fatalities. Uh so to start off this slide shows uh fa fatal crashes directly from the Colorado Department of Transportation. So this is statewide data from the state's website. Uh all of my data slides are also going to have uh sources at the bottom. So if you are inclined to go look and see um you know see updates on there or some more background it's all linked at the bottom. Uh so this is statewide data. What I want to emphasize here is that crashes have increased over the LA fatal fatalities have increased over the last 10 years. Um the the bigger increase really kind of started in 2020 and then coming out of the pandemic. Uh the statewide we saw an increase in 2021 and then a pretty big increase in 2022. Um, I didn't include all the federal data with this. I was trying to keep it a little bit shorter than we did at TAPS, but federal is very similar in the trends that we're seeing. Um, so then in 2023 it decreased a little bit and then the trends have been decreasing a little bit also in 2024 and then in 2025 as well. Um, but the state is really good about um updating their website in real time. So if you ever want to go look at it, you'll get the real time counts on their website. Uh so then in in Aurora, our fatal our fatal crashes have increased here as well. Unfortunately, uh definitely coming out of the pandemic, we did see a pretty sharp increase, especially in 2022 and 2023. Um the 2023 spike was a little different than what we saw statewide and national. Um there are probably some different reasons for that. One of which we had a much higher crash rate on the interstates than that year. we had 10 fatalities that occurred just on on the interstates. Um, and then more positively, there was a little bit of a decrease in 2024 that brought us back to the 2022 level and then this year has been on pace to be lower as well. Um, but one caveat is that I did pull this data for this meeting about 6 weeks ago and we did have a pretty bad August with some motorcycle crashes as well. So, it's relatively up to date, but it's a little bit higher for 2025. So, that's uh that's just an overview of really just the raw data. Um, and next I'll get into a couple slides just on takeaways and trends. So, some emerging trends that we're seeing statewide, but are consistent here in Aurora as well. Um, like I said, cr fatalities increased in 2021 to 2023 and have decreased the last couple years, so 2025 and 2024. We're seeing patterns of people not wearing seat belts. Uh no seat belt use accounted for about half of our fatalities. Uh speeding has increased a lot uh since 2019 and uh speeding accounts for 30 to 40% of our fatal crashes. Uh impaired driving has also increased steadily uh lately. It accounts for at least a third of fatal crashes. Um that statistic also tends to be under reportported just because the data is not always available at the time the report is done. Um but impaired driving has definitely been an issue that's increased. Distracted driving has increased. I think anecdotally we all kind of understand that and what cell phones have done to driver um drivers paying attention. It's a lot harder to quantify though probably also for obvious reasons. Um and then a lot of crashes, a lot of fatal crashes are involve uh young younger men. So men under 44 make up a really large proportion of traffic fatalities and overall uh men represent 75% of traffic fatalities. Uh so this is my last slide on data. This is more Aurora specific metrics. So this is all pulled from our APD data from 2024. So speeding was about half of our fatal crashes. Pedestrians accounted for a third of our fatal crashes. Motorcycles were about a quarter of our fatal crashes. We're seeing um no seat belt and helmet use um accounting for about a third. And then DUIs and impairment are about a third. Um and then a lot of crashes also occur in dark conditions. And you'll see that these don't add up to a 100 just because you know a lot of crashes involve more than one of these conditions. So you could have a motorcycle crash that's a DUI that occurs at night. So these are just overall takeaways and patterns but they don't necessarily add up. Um so next I want to talk about what what do we do about this and there are a lot of things that we're already doing and then some things that we're planning to do in the future as well. Um so starting off on the engineering side which is kind of more under our purview in public works and then in in transportation engineering as well. Um, so when we're trying to decide how to correct for a um a safety issue or a crash pattern um or how to decide if there is a crash pattern, we do a very detailed review of the crash data and we really rely heavily on what we call proven safety counter measures. So on the FHWA's website, they have a list of a lot of different strategies that are proven to reduce uh crashes overall or reduce fatal and serious injury crashes. Um and so things like roundabouts, you can go on um click on one of these on their website and see that roundabouts um are proven to reduce fatal and serious injury crashes by 78% when compared to a signal. Um so that's just an example. There's a lot of different strategies, but we try to deploy resources and decide on projects in a data driven way. Um in the public works group as well, um we are working on a safety action plan in coordination with Adams County. So this plan includes evaluations citywide of um of of crash data and of our roadways. Um so doing that detailed analysis, engaging stakeholders, identifying safety countermeasures, and then deciding where they should be deployed and then proactively, you know, even if there's not a crash pattern somewhere yet, should this also be deployed somewhere else citywide or should it be our new standard? Um so the safety action plan will be ready by the spring. So, you'll definitely see that come back here for approval. Um, and we'll have a really good project list coming out of that with prioritized some prioritized needs from safety and then a more transparent way to show um show crashes and projects in the city. Um, and then another thing that we do in the public works department, we're always reviewing safety. Um, but we we don't always have um a crash that needs to be corrected by a huge project. Sometimes there are quick action things we can do. So in our in our team, we're constantly reviewing crash data, seeing if there's a pattern, and then we try to see what we can deploy cheap cheaply and quickly first. So if there are changes we can make to striping, marking, signal phasing, adding turn arrows, sometimes putting in allway stops if they're warranted, um improvements by schools, all those things. We can normally do a lot of that um year round using our internal staff resources to deploy these things more quickly. Uh so from there uh the next few slides I'll turn it over to Commander Brookbacher if you're a on and able to unmute. >> I am uh good evening mayor and councel commander Matt Brookacher Police Department special operations. I'll try to go through a few of these things. A lot of this stuff you guys have heard me talk about in the past. Um but we have some updated information on there. Um obviously through enforcement our primary uh traffic enforcement group is our traffic section. However, it has been uh very clearly made uh that all members of the Aurora Police Department's mission is traffic safety. Uh and with that, we have seen an increase in ticket generation uh and strict enforcement specifically in problem areas. Um talk a little bit about just special operations. Our motorcycle enforcement team, uh we have eight officers on the team. Two of them are assigned specifically to the interstates. Um by this point this year in 2025, um just over 11,000 traffic summones have been issued. Uh over almost 19,000 traffic stops have been made uh specifically by the um the Special Operations Bureau. I have some uh numbers specific to that. We've issued uh 6,587 summons year to date. uh and in the last eight weeks uh we were up 32% in our in our uh ticket issuance. So strict enforcement is definitely ongoing. Uh in 24 uh the traffic section in implemented a new uh strategic plan focused uh more on being data driven uh which is a a thing that you guys have certainly heard from the police department a lot is looking at uh where are we having problems and where to put our attention at. uh we continue to do that and we have monthly uh discussions about where our hightra and uh uh traffic crash areas are and then we're also doing more than uh one month uh or one a month I'm sorry multi- um operations per month to target uh specifically aggressive driving. Uh our SOS initiative uh we have officers that come in Saturday and Sunday uh specifically dealing with street racing. Uh however, they've also morphed into dealing with other traffic related issues uh and generate quite a bit of volume of contacts each night that they work. And then our grant funding, that is a big thing for us. Uh almost 300,000 in 2025 uh that we are using to fund additional overtime for enforcement. That's usually done by our motor officers and our other traffic officers dealing with traffic safety, click it or ticket uh and then DUI enforcement. And then the last thing is we collaborate a lot with our PIOS. You probably hopefully have seen some of the messaging we put out trying to get people to slow down, pay attention to driving, put the phone down, and engage in the act of driving solely. Uh automated enforcement uh council, you've heard a lot of this from Lieutenant Aler. You're going to hear a little bit more tonight uh on a finalization of an ordinance. Um however, this new program uh is in actually the final stages at this point. We should be going live in October starting with the warning process and then in November hopefully going to actually issuing summones. Um so 30 days we'll be doing the warnings. Um vehicles traveling 11 or over above the speed limit. We're going to be targeting residential areas, school zones, work zones, uh areas like that that are a bigger concern. And then you can see $40 state capped per uh citation, 80 in school zones. Uh and then anything that's over 25 miles an hour, we're going to have to send an officer out and uh physically issue a summon for those charges. >> Thank you, Commander. Um so I'll take the next couple slides from here. Um so on the education side, education is kind of the last piece to talk about. Um so on the on education, um we're working on regional efforts with Cedot and Dr. Cog, the Denver Regional Council of Governments. Um, and we also continue to work with them on um, crash reviews and engagement. Uh, our city council, uh, council member Hancock and mayor were very involved in this, but we had a, uh, safety summit with the NTSB in April, which I think was really positive and gave us some really good momentum towards safety and and good optics. Um, and then other targeted uh, transportation engagement are going on through our some of our other plans with connecting Aurora and the safety action plan as well. Um, so this is my last slide. I kind of want to tie it all together. Um, just given a lot of the crashes that have happened over the summer and just uh emphasis on transportation safety, uh, we kind of tried to package some of these strategies and some future strategies into what we're calling the Aurora Safe Streets Action Plan. And so I know we're getting close to time, so I'll kind of focus on a couple of our newer things that we're working on. Um so on the engineering side um we are going to advance some technology projects that will I hope really help us um deploy um use utilize technology to help reduce crashes um in a different way. So upgrading some of our signal equipment, installing new equipment that can help us identify near misses or where we need to change signals and um be very proactive about it instead of having to have a complaint to review an area. I think that is something that is going to help us a lot moving forward. Um on the enforcement side, um you heard Commander Brookocker talk about automated enforcement. Um but they've also stepped up enforcement in a lot of different areas and have been working on the engagement side as well and we'll continue to do that. Um and then on the education side, we're really trying to improve on the education side as well. Um so what we would like like to do going forward is to attend as many ward meetings as we can give a similar presentation to this um get good community feedback engage make it so that everyone feels heard and can um let us know you know what what their comments or questions are. So we have a lot of those for you who've heard this before already on the book. So thank you for that. Um but we can reach out to other other folks after this um to set up a meeting if we're not already on your agenda. Um, and then we're also continuing to get resident engagement through our projects and access Aurora and really emphasizing those good tools that we have in place already. Um, and so that was all I had. This is just anformational item, so I don't need a vote. Um, but happy to answer any questions that you all have and thank you for your time. >> Uh, questions. I I have one u Mike mayor and that is that I don't see a a breakdown of of when you talk about pedestrian are you you also including bike uh vehicle uh bike collisions. >> Um no, bikes are separate and bikes tend to be a lot lower in Aurora. So I included kind of some metrics that really rise to the top, but bikes I guess fortunately we only typically we either have zero or maybe one or two crashes per year. It's not bikes are not that frequent of a crash type for us in Aurora. >> Council member. >> Uh yes, thank you, Mayor. Um, Carly, I always appreciate all the work that your department does and thank you for the presentation. Um, and you hear this all the time. I I appreciate that we have these um, you know, different ideas about roundabouts and and and you know, the traffic calming program and then of course enforcement. I as you know in word six southeast Dora constantly constantly get um complaints about speeding about why can't we get a roundabout I know that's money map roundabouts are very expensive so we do have a budget and uh this year or next year um with our deficit um you know I think unfortunately we're not going to be able to add to some of those programs that we have done in the past but even for um projects that you already have in in the um pipeline for the traffic calming program. Will those be prioritized for 2026? You probably know which one I'm talking about. It was we were hoping to have it this year. >> Um yes. So I guess I'm happy to report that our budgets for traffic calming and safety have not been reduced for next year. Um so we we are actually I think getting a little bit more money in the traffic calming fund. So, we are trying to prioritize a lot of the different projects we've had on that weight list. Um, so we're putting together a list of all the projects we have pending to see which ones we can prioritize and some of the our roundabout projects. Um, if we don't have construction funding yet, uh, we might be able to at least proceed with design so that we're not we're still moving forward and that we can find funding in a different year by a different mechanism. >> So, okay, great. Great. And then just on the enforcement um for um Officer Brooker um again I know you had the hotspot um policing for traffic as well as um the street racing um operations but again our city is so large and I know we're we're getting better staff um data you know in terms of more staff I should say um with our officers but it it's still an issue right for coverage. Yeah, absolutely. The traffic unit is not fully staffed. Um, and it's certainly a mission. We we have a posting out there right now to add uh additional members to our traffic unit. Um, and part of the issue, too, is is traffic enforcement is a very unique skill set. Um, especially the traffic and the accident reconstruction. It takes so much education and and schooling. Um, not everybody has the interest in it. So, I will tell you that is a big it's a challenge for me to try to staff that unit properly. >> Okay. Thank you very much. >> Uh, okay. Um, just real quick question, Carly. What is the what is the um time um when one submits a trafficcoming uh study request to the the um the study's done? >> Yeah, that's a good question too. So, if we get a request for our traffic calming program, normally residents reach out, we tell them about the program, we give them an application, they fill it out and send it back to us and we normally collect data pretty quickly. We schedule it with a third party vendor who collects the data. They normally put tubes on the ground or sometimes we use radar or something. Um, it's normally collected within a couple weeks. Um, but then it takes another week to get to us and then evaluate it. But we we try to communicate with people throughout the process, but we're able to get counters on the road pretty quickly throughout the year. >> Uh any further questions? >> Great. Thanks, Carly. Thank thanks uh both of you. >> Um especially the traffic and the >> Sorry. Okay. Um let's see. Um next, uh we have 5A dual listing offhighway vehicle. Uh, Council Member Bergen. >> Thank you, Mayor. And, um, as you all know, we we had this listed on the last study session. Had to push it to uh to today's um study session due to time. Um, it's going to be dual listed tonight obviously. So, um, because because of the urgency of having it. Um so basically um I was getting a lot of I think all of you have been getting complaints about um kids on dirt bikes, some of the ebikes that actually do go fast um and um and creating a danger in the roads. And so out of out of the numerous complaints that were coming in, not only just through email, but also a lot on Next Door and Facebook pages um throughout the area. Um I had talked to the officers about what they thought um we could do. And the officers also uh confirmed that there was a big problem that they were not able to really um do anything because if they stop the kids um basically uh they just give them a warning and then they come back and and and do it again. So this and there's a lot of confusion over this. This is for offhighway vehicles. Um, some of the ebikes that go over 28 mph actually fall into this classification and they are not street legal. And so what this ordinance does is it basically just says what's already in code, which is off uh highway vehicles are not street legal. That is per state code and our city code. But it does add an enforcement u mechanism to it so that we can hold parents accountable. Um, and it does, um, allow for a $250 fine. This is all about safety. Again, like I said, with all the complaints coming in, it's a dangerous situation to have kids that are, uh, young kids, 12, 13, 14, uh, 16 out there in the roads um, with, you know, trucks and and vehicles. Um, and so we want to prevent any kind of accidents. And so this ordinance, um, hopefully will help. Um, from that perspective, we will do a lot of education. Um, and we have done some already and we will do some more education to the public. Um, obviously we don't want to give fines if we don't have to, but it is necessary at this point. And then I'll turn it over to Megan. Um, then you can add on to to what the ordinance says. >> Sure. Good evening, council. Um, as council member Bergen listed, this is dual listed this evening. Um, this ordinance essentially adds an additional subsection to section 134 of the Aurora City Code um allowing for um additional enforcement against parents who have um their kids using or causing or knowingly permitting their child or ward under the age of 18 to ride or drive offhighway vehicle in the city. Again, um, subsections 134, 218 through 222 already prevent offhighway vehic ve vehicles in the city as council member Bergen already mentioned, but this just adds an additional provision to find parents um, who um, cause or knowingly permit their child to use these um, and has that minimum $250 fine provision. >> Uh, questions uh, for the sponsor or for Megan? Mayor, this is Council Member Lawson. >> Council member Lawson. >> Yeah. I'm I'm I'm for this um this ordinance. Um Council Member Bergen, do you have you guys came up with the cost analysis of what the campaign would cost because I'm hoping that it's a widespread campaign, but I know that there's limitations sometimes with funding, but um have you talked about that yet or what that could possibly be? >> Yes, thank you, Council Member Lawson. Um that obviously that's a really big important component of this is to to make sure that the public is educated on it because there was a lot of confusion on what qualifies as off highway vehicles. We already started um and I can send all of council um some of the um information that that I have been putting out on social media. Um thanks to our uh to Megan and and also to uh Gabby and the police department. Um, so putting out some messaging that we can use on social media, but I believe um we're going to be also launching more of a um educational campaign that we'll that um the city will actually um uh be able to put out. So, we'll probably put it in the water uh water bill, the newsletter that goes out um as well as social media. >> Uh >> and I don't know on the Sorry, I don't know about the cost. I I think it's minimal. Council member Medina. >> Okay. I was council Lawson, please. >> Yeah. I just a followup. I mean, um, a lot of the social media is fantastic and all of that, but I'm just trying to figure out, you know, this is a big deal. Some parents I already can see some parents saying, well, we didn't know about it. You know, some people live in HOAs, they don't get the water bills. So, um, I just wonder if there's some kind of campaign or more that we could do. I'm not really wor I know about the cost has to be somewhat minimum, but since this is kind of an issue where parents are going to be liable. Um I just think that we need to think that through a little bit more. So >> yeah, and I agree. Um I I did talk to Laura Perry to attorneys um and police about, you know, putting together an educational campaign. So we'll be work definitely working on that very soon. >> I got a question. I'm sorry. Council Medina. Oh, sorry. >> Oh, you're muted. I'm sorry. >> Sorry about that. Sorry about that. Are we targeting? >> There's an echo. >> A second. >> Probably several computers are on. >> Yep. Are we are we targeting >> uh specific people with no plates? Um the so those um with no plates it basically what's been happening is like the kids are going from a lot of it has been in the souththeast area and probably ward five as well but they're riding them on our major streets and they're going for example to the southland shopping center. So they're not allowed on streets, they're not allowed on sidewalks nor trails. Um, again, if it's the class one, class 2, or class 3 ebikes, those are allowed on streets. Those are like regular bicycles. They have the pedals. Um, and then can also have the assisted motor. But, um, anything that is going over the 28 mph is is not street legal. So, it's just a matter of um the police being able to, you know, catch somebody riding them illegally on the street. >> Yeah. No, I I get I understand what you're saying. I just I'm just curious if we stopping anybody if they happen to have tags or have a plate. Is that is that something we're going to do? Because there's also, you know, motorcycles, uh dirt bikes can come in two two different ones. I own some. That's why I said you can own what they call they call an enduro. An enduro is is it can be ridden on a street as well as can be ridden on dirt. All the difference is the sprockets in the back uh just change. So the tires can change in the back to be street legal. So those are street legal. And so that's why I was just trying to get clarification of what we're stopping or not stopping. And if if they're street legal, they should have a license and they should have a vehicle registration so that the officer would know there's a license plate on their bike. Um these other bikes um don't like the the other ebikes don't require a license, nor do they require um registration. Um however, they are supposed to have a label on them that says this bike goes 20 m hour. uh whatever the specifications, those are supposed to be noted on the bike. Um the motor wattage um and uh the classification of the bike is supposed to be noted on the label. >> Okay. Thank you. >> You're welcome, >> brother. Okay. Uh Mayor Prom Sunburn. >> Thank you, sir. Yeah, I've noticed these u incredibly fast bike ebikes and scooters on residential roads uh especially by young people. Is this going to be, and I may have missed this, I apologize, an active enforcement campaign, or are we sort of waiting for an event to happen, then we find the parents, but are we going to be proactive about enforcement? >> I will let the police officer Is there a police officer on? Um, we were going to have our par officer, Spanos, because he's the one that's been dealing with so many of the complaints. Um, but I he is not on tonight. Um, per his supervisor. >> And Council Member Bergen, if I I'm sorry. Yes, ma'am. Uh, mayor, thanks. Uh, Pete Shelton, city attorney. I've been talking to officer Spanos. He's going to be on the council meeting. I know this would be nice to have him at the study session, but I will tell you, yes, the police department is interested in having this ordinance in place so they can do a step further uh with these children so they go back and have an educational campaign with the with the parents. And overall, what this ordinance does is like if any of these devices or vehicles are not street legal, this ordinance applies to. So, as you said, council member Medina, you talked about they don't have license plates. Yes. If they don't have license plates and they're not street legal, this ordinance will apply. Uh, so it just gives the police department another tool. >> Uh, further questions? Uh, seeing none, is there any objection to moving 5A forward? I see no objection 5A. We'll move forward and uh we will um Katie, how long do you think it would take to set up to get us into the um the listening session? >> So, the listening session should be up and ready to go if everybody can log on to the regular council meeting. >> Okay, I'll see you all there. Thank you. [Music] [Music] [Music]