Overview of the City of Bloomington Traffic Commission Meeting on 3/22/23
The point of The City of Bloomington Traffic Commission meeting was to reflect on the 7-Line Project and propose an all-way stop installation. To overview, “this project provided a protected east-west bicycle lane and improved bus corridor that connected the B-line, downtown, Indiana University campus, and eastside neighborhoods. The project also enhanced and expanded the conventional bike lanes that already existed along parts of 7th Street by adding physical separation between bicyclists and auto traffic to improve comfort, safety, and efficiency for all road users” (City of Bloomington). The overall impact of this project created safer and more accessible biking lanes, while taking out four way stop signs along 7th Street to put in place the protected biking lanes. The City of Bloomington Traffic Commission meeting reflected on the removal of the four way stop signs, and looked at the impact that it had on car accidents along the street. This led to the official point of the meeting being a vote on whether to add a four-way stop to the intersection of 7th Street and Dunn Street.
The people of the meeting consisted of eighteen people on zoom, including myself, and four people who were on camera that were in person. There seemed to be at least one male in the audience who asked questions, however I could not tell how many other people were in the audience in person because the camera did not show them. One of the zoom audience members also appeared to be from the Bloomington Police Department. Out of the people in attendance, six were commissioners. Two commissioners were women, and the other four were men. One of the women commissioners was a college student, while the rest seemed to be middle aged.
This meeting took place in the City Hall, Council Chambers, as well as virtually through Zoom. Zoom was the only online platform used, and they used a camera in the room so that the people online could see the commissioners.
The topics discussed during this meeting mainly focused on the 7-Line Project and all-way stop control installation. Commissioner Andrew Cibor presented on a PowerPoint overviewing the project background and the current data they have after changes had been made.
To start the PowerPoint, he discussed areas on the B-Line in which the power company Duke Energy has been blocking off in order to put up power lines. He expressed his frustration on this and made comments on how this should not be happening, and that the power company has no regard for the cyclists and pedestrians that use the path. Duke has been putting poles in the middle of paths as well as obstructing the path and forcing cyclists and pedestrians to use sidewalks for more than half of a mile. No further comments after these slides were finished were made about Duke Energy and its disregard for the community using the paths.
Commissioner Cibor then went on to discuss the direction and purpose of the 7-Line Project. As I discussed earlier in this blog post, this project’s purpose is to help make bike lanes in Bloomington safer and more accessible to cyclists. This change led to the removal of all four-way stops along 7th Street as well as some on-street parking. Cibor presented data on bicycle traffic on 7th Street, which showed a 26% increase after the two-way protected bicycle lane replaced the standard lane. Data also showed a 259% increase in bicycle/scooter use in this area. However, these numbers should be taken with a grain of salt because the weather in January 2019, when data was collected before the
project, was worse than the day in February 2023 weather when the ‘after’ data was collected. This means that there were probably more people simply out and about because of the weather, not just the bicycle lane changes. On the other hand, this data overall supports the 7-Line Project because it shows that the changes that were made were able to increase non-car traffic in the area.
However, this accomplishment did not come without some downsides. Data also showed that traffic counts increased 16% and the average speed in the area was 27mph, even though the speed limit is 25mph. Furthermore, using one year of post-project crash data, there was a trend of increased car crashes at the intersections where all-way stop control was removed. This data was concluded with the proposal to reinstall a four-way stop at the intersection of 7th Street and Dunn Street.
The meeting then went on to discuss the opinions of the public, as well as the other commissioners. There were many conflicting opinions present during this discussion, with two main sides being presented. On one side, there was a person from the public who argued that reintroducing the stop signs is punishing the cyclists, who would also have to stop, instead of the motorists, whose fault it was in the first place that the crashes were happening. On the other side was the City Engineer of Bloomington, who argued that it does not matter whose fault it is, but that something has to be done to help prevent these crashes from happening. A conversation about the speeding of motorists along the street was also discussed, but no conclusion was drawn to a solution of this problem during the meeting.
The meeting was resolved with two votes on two separate proposals. The first proposal was a four-way stop being reintroduced at only 7th and Dunn, which passed unanimously. The next proposal was to reinstall all of the four-way stops along 7th Street, returning it to how it was before the two-way bike lanes were put in place. This proposal did not pass, and the ending vote was four no’s and two yes’. Overall, I felt that this meeting was very productive, organized, and stayed on topic well. However, I do believe that there is a lot more to talk about, such as speeding and the addition of more four-way stops along 7th Street, that should be further discussed in later meetings.
How Smart City Technology can be Utilized to Help Combat Traffic Accidents
There are many ways in which smart city technologies can be utilized to address problems like the ones discussed in the Bloomington Traffic Commission meeting. One main technology that could be used to address the problem of increasing car accidents at the intersections on 7th Street is intersection safety cameras. A city in the US that has proven this to be an effective tool for minimizing accidents at intersections with stop signs is Seattle, Washington. This city installed red light cameras at intersections with lights and stop signs that had a history of accidents or high traffic volume. 
The cameras are used to detect vehicles that run red lights or stop signs, and are able to capture footage of the incidents. The outcome of the introduction of these cameras has been a 30% decrease in the number of accidents in areas where the cameras were placed between 2011 and 2015. A report also found that the cameras reduced serious injuries and fatalities caused by accidents at these intersections. Furthermore, the overall number of violations captured by the cameras decreased by 50% between 2011 and 2015, which suggests that the drivers became more cautious around areas they knew to be equipped with cameras. I believe that these sensors and cameras could be introduced in Bloomington in high accident areas, and that the city would see similar results. Personally, as a driver, knowing that there are cameras recording me and making sure I do not run stop signs or make any other errors would cause me to drive more cautiously.
Another problem discussed in this meeting was the issue Bloomington has with speeding. One commissioner even made the comment, “we cannot concede the speed battle”, meaning that we need to figure out a way to combat speeding drivers. I believe that the smart city technology of speed limit enforcement cameras could be used to accomplish this. Speed limit enforcement cameras have been proven to reduce speeding and car accidents in high-risk areas where the cameras are placed. 
A city that has shown this is Washington, D.C. The city installed these cameras to enforce speed limits in school zones as well as main areas that have problems with people speeding. According to data from the Metropolitan Police Department, the use of the speed limit enforcement cameras led to a significant reduction in speeding and car accidents in the city. A statistic was also found that there was a 70% reduction in the number of car accidents involving pedestrians after the cameras were introduced. The city of Bloomington can use these cameras in a similar way as D.C. did, placing them in high-risk areas where pedestrians and cyclists are most at risk. This can help Bloomington win the speed battle once and for all.
Overall, there are many ways that smart city technologies can be used to address problems such as the ones discussed in the City of Bloomington Traffic Commission meeting. These problems are important to address, and I believe the commission is off to a good start by reintroducing the four-way stop to the intersection of 7th and Dunn. However, there are many more ways the city can utilize technology to help them achieve their goals and make the city a safer place for pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists.
Citations
Seattle Times. (2021, January 31). New traffic camera enforcement begins in Seattle; your fine comes later. https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/new-traffic-camera-enforcement-begins-in-seattle-your-fine-comes-later/
Vision Zero Network. (2019, February 14). 10 Stats that Show the Promise of Safety Cameras to Manage Speed. https://visionzeronetwork.org/10-stats-that-show-the-promise-of-safety-cameras-to-manage-speed/
Seattle Police Department. (n.d.). Red Light Cameras. https://www.seattle.gov/police/community-policing/community-programs/red-light-cameras
District Department of Transportation. (n.d.). DC StreetSafe Automated Speed Enforcement. https://ddot.dc.gov/page/dc-streetsafe-automated-speed-enforcement
WTOP. (2022, February 11). DC adds new speed limit enforcement cameras. https://wtop.com/dc/2022/02/dc-adds-new-speed-limit-enforcement-cameras/
Link to Meeting Minutes from the City of Bloomington Traffic Commission Meeting on 3/22/23
https://bloomington.in.gov/onboard/meetingFiles/download?meetingFile_id=11610
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