Flynn and Forgione respond on traffic studies and utility inspections

No, thank you, Council Member.

Those are great questions.

I'll just speak briefly to, I think, one of the points, and then maybe let the team chime in on some of them.

But regarding federal standards, definitely appreciate that point.

And I think, you know, we would agree that

cities are very different than, let's say, rural areas or even suburban, and we really do seek to maximize our flexibility in how we approach these things.

It's also why we have a great

partnership with organizations like NACTO that advocates for cities interests.

So I just wanted to mention that.

I think then there was the funding for traffic engineering staff.

And the utility cars.

So for traffic operations staff, we already have a robust team that look at signal and other traffic devices.

With this budget, we're adding another 20 people as part of the bus and bike.

And those 20 are dispersed citywide.

They look at the whole entire city, and it's not like they're just going to focus on each distinct piece.

They're going to continue to move all the pieces of the traffic operations portfolio forward.

Thank you.

Okay, you packed a powerful question, a lot of good stuff in there.

So I think first and foremost, what you're getting at is how can we be more responsive to communities?

People believe they have a problem.

Correct.

And we're taking too long to look into some of these things, like traffic signal studies, which we do agree that is taking a long time, as well as the ability to then, if we find a traffic signal is warranted, to put that in a contract.

So we're working really hard to staff up in some of these areas and also to make sure we have more contracting capacity, which we should have this coming year.

But what I'd like to urge council members, as you see an issue, we want to get with you and your constituents on that issue.

We have mobile speed camera units, for example.

We can put those out if it falls within our criteria for that.

We can look at some other measures for traffic calming.

Some things we can do in the short run.

We can even look at a longer-term redesign if that's warranted.

But we want to make sure you and your constituents know that's what we're here for.

We will try to address those needs.

That will be helpful.

And you mentioned MUTCD, this manual for uniform traffic control devices.

So that is something that we do need to comply with to retain a federal standard across the whole country.

However, we are being proactive, as you mentioned.

You mentioned more pedestrian-focused warrants and things of that nature.

We recently worked with the federal government in order to be able to use micromobility in our studies, which is, of course, something new, and we were effective at getting that in, and we would want to keep refining as we go forward.

We look forward to that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

And we do have some real quick.

Yes.

Inspection information, so the last full fiscal year for fiscal 25, we conducted 474,000

inspections of permitted work out in the streets.

88% of those inspections showed that they were in compliance and then they passed basically our inspection.

How many were not in compliance?

That would leave 12%.

Okay.

And that could be something like they're working outside of

permitted hours or a street cut was not properly backfilled or something like that.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Just wanted to recognize we've enjoyed my Councilmember Krishnan.

And before we go to Councilmember Wong, I just wanted to give a special shout out to the students in the balcony from PSIS 155.

Thank you so much for being here today.

I know you're from Councilmember Rita Joseph's district, who I see back there.

But thank you so much for coming to observe how civic participation in city government works.

Thank you.

Okay, so Councilmember Wong, followed by Councilmember Epstein.