Episode 7: Elk Grove’s Tactical Traffic Team

Buckle up for the next episode of the Elk Grove Citycast as we talk about all things traffic with Elk Grove Traffic Engineer James Ashby and Traffic Enforcement Unit Sergeant Jason Kearsing. Our guests unveil the behind-the-scenes strategies employed to keep the city's roads flowing smoothly and safely. Discover the innovative technologies, creative solutions, and community-driven initiatives driving change in Elk Grove's traffic landscape. Hosts John and Kristyn also recap Elk Grove’s holiday events and provide a preview of some of the hot topics expected in 2024.

Transcript

Announcer: 0:01

Welcome to Elk Grove Citycast, the podcast about Elk

John Hull: 0:16

Hi, everyone, I'm John Hull. Welcome to the Elk

Kristyn Laurence: 0:32

Hello, John.

John Hull: 0:34

Well, you know, we've had a lot of activities around

Kristyn Laurence: 0:55

Yeah, Elk Grove has a ton of holiday see Santa rescued off of top of the old town building and We had nearly 40 entries in that and a ton of people experienced there's still an opportunity, I know things are celebrations are cheer. And you can still go out to District56 or to Old Town to to check that out and get a photo with their family members.

John Hull: 2:42

Well, you know, there is a lot of holiday cheer and going going to be our main topic of discussion here on the Elk Well as we come to the end of 2023 we want to talk about the the road. There are a lot more automobiles now than there were Ashby the traffic engineering manager in the city of Elk Grove

James Ashby: 4:24

Well, hello, everyone. It's a pleasure to be such as needing new stop signs or new roadway striping. My traffic engineering manager for the city of Elk Grove. The plans, timing all the signals within the city along with many

John Hull: 5:19

Well you know, we actually have James just a Franklin Boulevard are the main ones that come to mind for me. not stopping and going on a constant basis?

James Ashby: 6:00

This is an excellent question. And one of all the time. Drivers always want the green light, they say must consider when balancing our signal timing. There are also Laguna Springs, it may take 20 to 45 seconds for a pedestrian maybe a child pushed the button and walk the other way. As I than anticipated or the false alarm, that timing has to be

John Hull: 7:38

Just real quick, let me let me let me intervene of what I'm hearing you say?

James Ashby: 7:56

No, not necessarily. It just let the to activate a signal in their direction is emergency vehicle.

John Hull: 8:27

Those are those little devices that are up on

James Ashby: 8:38

Yes, sir.

John Hull: 8:38

Okay. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead.

James Ashby: 8:42

It's an infrared signal that sends to the top of the infrared, it's basically a line of sight. So as long as around several curves and get those flushed out of their way

John Hull: 9:33

That's that's intriguing to me that yeah, all gone right through the intersection but now the lights a couple of points. How then do you time out the drive from the

James Ashby: 10:26

The city recently did a project called the green experiences right in the green wave yourself. But signal Grove Boulevard and Laguna Boulevard are going to have much movements. After we identify the critical movements, we consider beginning of the next intersection. Once we have all green light. The...once again, it's not a perfect science opposite of Laguna Boulevard. Well, now we're going to stop you've hit a couple greens and hit a red light, you think you

John Hull: 12:59

But it what's interesting about what you're theory get a green light the whole way across town as long as

James Ashby: 13:23

Right. Theoretically, you should get

John Hull: 13:30

Okay.

James Ashby: 13:31

You'd almost never make it from 99 to five, all

John Hull: 13:36

That's true.

James Ashby: 13:38

Either of those corridors, right. So we timed the east/west direction. In the future. I'm hoping to start

John Hull: 14:08

Yeah, I'm glad you're doing it. Not us. You get paid

James Ashby: 14:14

Yeah. I would like to if I could add one more

John Hull: 14:16

Yeah, go ahead. Please.

James Ashby: 14:18

So since we are prioritizing the East/West safely and as quickly as possible. And for that on Elk

John Hull: 14:55

James, there are many people in a hurry to get some

James Ashby: 15:09

Another common complaint among residents. speed For example, if the 85th percentile speed of the roadway the speed limit another five miles per hour. In my example, order for law enforcement to be able to enforce those limits

John Hull: 16:14

Okay, that's excellent. Yeah. And it helps us subject on you to the topic of roundabouts. Roundabouts. Now, I and why the city is now especially in our eastern part,

James Ashby: 17:06

Okay, the second question every traffic engineer drivers behavior. And there's their education about them. So, your children. To help everyone better understand the roundabout roadways and roundabouts. throughout the United States the enforcement comes in in to desensitize poor driver intersections for two main reasons. One, they have less they're most likely to have a severe injury. So for that light for two and a half minutes. Continuous flow helps roadway has more than 3000 vehicles per hour they tend to electricity and someone hitting the cabinet or hitting a traffic intersections being further apart. They seem to be the most

John Hull: 20:33

Any more being planned? Any more roundabouts

James Ashby: 20:38

The short answer is yes. We are looking to implement that if an intersection meets the requirements for a signal, the roadway safer for all users including a multi use path for

John Hull: 21:25

That's excellent. Next question. flashing yellow

James Ashby: 21:39

Flashing yellow arrows have been around a while permissive left turn, or a left turn yield to oncoming traffic. green signal indication. They also need to pay attention to illuminated is the opposing left turn. This causes all other signal won't have to give a green arrow indication and waste feasible there's certain parameters we must analyze

John Hull: 23:26

Okay, James, let me point to a very busy portion of a couple of lanes of traffic trying to make their left turn, looked at that area of of Elk Grove Boulevard and perhaps

James Ashby: 24:10

This area of Elk Grove is a business area has possible with two opposing drivers to enter at the same distance that allows them to safely slow down and make the while synchronizing our signals And the solution, if we find a

John Hull: 25:20

Okay, but I could camp out on this question for a that area? Yeah.

James Ashby: 25:43

Yeah. So that again, that's one of the trade everywhere and get to the signal and do a u turn. So now, I've

John Hull: 26:16

I get it. You mentioned a few moments ago, the

James Ashby: 26:31

The city has evaluated this area for vehicle well. There is a great separated bikeway crossing planned just there. This will decrease the amount of rail crossings at Elk

John Hull: 27:21

Okay, great. Well, you mentioned in an email

James Ashby: 27:39

The Harvest Water Project is a recycled water habitats, and offer near term benefits to the Sacramento San be installed under the east side or the northbound lanes of project will be done in three phases, Franklin Boulevard from We've worked with Regional San to implement the traffic buffered bike lanes. If you guys have any more questions, there's

John Hull: 29:28

Okay, you have there's so many things that

James Ashby: 29:47

Yes, one project in particular that I'm very excited yellow back plating. You've probably seen them around town it. The fiber optic communication isn't necessary as traffic volumes in real time to relieve congestion. the system should be able to notice the influx in traffic and

John Hull: 31:17

Wow, technology. James Ashby, our traffic

James Ashby: 31:29

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

John Hull: 31:36

In today's Elk Grove Citycast our primary topic is Sergeant Jason Kearsing of the Elk Grove Police Department

Jason Kearsing: 32:10

Thank you, John, I appreciate you having me on seen a significant increase in the number of cars on the for all those who are attending. During my career. I have always public on our roadways. My emphasis now in traffic is on them quite a bit for the information I'm gonna share with

John Hull: 33:21

You know as a young man and you may have been in

Jason Kearsing: 33:37

Well, ironically, I did have one or focus is on all violations that will keep our roadways safer. tried to help people recognize that getting there a few minutes

John Hull: 34:24

Okay, but are there any actual hotspots here in Elk

Jason Kearsing: 34:32

Well, the city is so big and square miles. Most focusing our efforts and trying to slow drivers down on those to enforce an area of Elk Grove, and then make the determination usually the streets with the most traffic collisions as well.

John Hull: 35:27

Let's talk about cameras. Now a pretty common

Jason Kearsing: 35:38

The cameras are very effective in a number of extremely dangerous. There are only five locations within Elk of these intersections warning citizens of their presence. The

John Hull: 36:27

So how effective are these? I guess they're called

Jason Kearsing: 36:31

Yes, that's correct. The red light cameras that red light camera that's there and so ultimately, it for us to keep it up and functioning in the city.

John Hull: 37:12

And people get their tickets in the mail. Right?

Jason Kearsing: 37:16

They do. There's a there's a very extensive forward with the prosecution. So once that occurs, it comes to

John Hull: 37:45

Jason, there is one spot you and your officers can then south for a block and then on to the on ramp to 99. These

Jason Kearsing: 38:27

Well, I'm very aware of that location. It's locations where we see repeat violations that can be avoided. year that complaints come in daily. But with only a unit of beginning of the year. They've mentioned that the reason that school. So we we understand that and that's why we have an

John Hull: 39:38

So how do you work basically with the schools and

Jason Kearsing: 39:46

So the motor team, they focus their attention work with school officials to help develop a better traffic officers that make requests to public works for curbs to be enforcement actions. We also speak with principals who act as the officers discretion on how they handle the violations.

John Hull: 40:57

Okay, Sergeant Jason Kearsing of Elk Grove Police well do Elk Grove drivers follow those rules?

Jason Kearsing: 41:22

That's a great question. And it's it's violations within with only a few cars passing by. Now an

John Hull: 41:49

So what other distractions does the traffic

Jason Kearsing: 41:53

Another distraction is pet sitting on a officer may stop them for that violation which includes makeup while driving or reading mail or office memos while

John Hull: 42:39

Okay. You know, maybe more than any other time of the

Jason Kearsing: 42:56

We take DUI enforcement very seriously, you federal government and which is distributed to the agencies surrounding drunk driving. These come from NHTSA, which is the one could encounter a drunk driver on the road between in 2021, approximately 386,000 people suffered injuries due to fatalities.

John Hull: 44:55

Jason, those are some sobering statistics. So what are

Jason Kearsing: 45:05

That depends upon whether it's a first with the loss of your license for upwards of six months. It

John Hull: 45:37

But what should community members do if they do

Jason Kearsing: 45:44

Well, obviously the police department can't be vehicle including a license plate and direction of travel try to get this information for us. We never want to put you in

John Hull: 46:30

Okay, Jason, anything else that we should know about

Jason Kearsing: 46:35

Most of its top secret but I will share a little included reducing crime, addressing homelessness,

John Hull: 47:08

Okay. Well, thank you so much for joining us Sergeant

Jason Kearsing: 47:20

Thank you, John. Have a great day.

John Hull: 47:28

Time now for our rapid fire segment where I put Kristyn, we had an email from one of our listeners to the Elk the Stone Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Now Kristyn, the lesser known public spaces/nature spots in and

Kristyn Laurence: 48:37

Sure, the city and the nearby area is a great pistachio orchards. And the 28 acre park is located in the and largest park at 127 acres and one lap around the park is point on the trail to either head East to Jack Hill Park and your doctor's appointments at either UC Davis, Sutter, or newer trail with lots of connections and amenities, still working very diligently to try and connect those. And

John Hull: 50:48

Excellent, great, great. It's good. It's there are or drift different that we could look for in 2020. Do you have

Kristyn Laurence: 51:10

Well, we've lined up a really great guests in Old Town is expected to start and that's currently the construction at the end of 2024. And that project will offer released in early 2024. And the council will likely have a construction scheduled in 2024 to close one of those gaps on signal synchronization and that whole green wave concept and we

John Hull: 52:59

Right in I'm really looking forward to our January And to all of our listeners. I think it's a great opportunity

Announcer: 53:41

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