Overheard in Public Works: 100 Speeding Complaints on Tap with No End in Sight

We recently spoke with a public works official who has over 100 speed studies on the docket, with little hope of getting through them in the near future.

As I wrote in a recent article, we talk to A LOT of Public Works officials on a daily basis.

We learn something on every call, and always have takeaways to pass along to our Product Team.

Our product team collects all the info, plugs it into a spreadsheet, and uses the knowledge to develop new solutions that will make your day easier.

In the world of software, this is called "product led growth" — really, just a logical way to ensure that the tool you buy actually meets your day-to-day needs.

This is just a quick look at how the sausage is made at Urban SDK, but more of a side note to this article's main point.

A mountain of speeding complaints

A recent call found us speaking with the traffic modeler and city traffic engineer of a mid-sized municipality — let's call them Emma and Frank*, respectively. Emma is a traffic modeler who has been with the city for five years, while engineer Tony has been with the city for roughly two years.

Relative to most public works officials we speak with, these two are both very new on the job.

On top of that, Emma and Frank oversee traffic calming and complaints for their city, whose population is around 250,000 people.

And now here's the kicker: they have a stack of roughly 100 speeding complaints that need to be validated.

Current process for speed studies

Like most of the folks we speak with, their process is time-consuming and expensive.

First they field a request — the easiest part of the deal, albeit the least fun, because the of the can of worms it opens.

Next is collecting the data — slotting in times for available tubes and radar signs.

Then it's cleaning the data. Followed by validating the data. Which is followed by analyzing the data.

From there it's validating the speed complaint. And then reporting it back to the community and/or council members.

Aaaaand, then it's rinse wash repeat.

According to Emma and Frank, five safety studies would run around $200,000 (or $40K a pop). It's a number that runs counter to their annual traffic calming budget of approximately $100,000.

Oh, and the studies take their team somewhere between 6-12 months.

So let's run those numbers back:

100 complaints.

$40K per study.

Lead time of six months to one year.

And an annual budget of $100K to fit everything into.

You can understand why they might feel like they're pushing a boulder up a hill at times.

Ways to innovate and overcome

While it's a slog right now, there are a few ways for this team to alleviate the stress.

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7/25 Intro Meeting with Troy and Tracy- Tracy is a Traffic Modeler and has been with city for 5yrs, Troy is City Traffic Engineer and has been with city for 2yrs; they run traffic calming and complaints and are nearly a year behind, process is getting a request, collecting data, and then cleansing and validating the data; said the whole process can take 6-12 months they also work on grants and are looking at IIJA options and Reconnecting Communities grant; their traffic calming budget is approx 100k year; they said about 5 safety studies would run 200k; very interested in having more data to do the work in the community

*Names have been changed for the purpose of anonymity