History of SECONDS COUNT

History of SECONDS COUNT!

In the summer of 1995, the City of Boulder constructed temporary traffic circles and speed humps on several critical emergency response routes throughout Boulder. Due to concerns raised by the Fire Department, the experiments were proposed to measure the delay imposed by the traffic devices on emergency response vehicles. The construction of the devices was administered under the Neighborhood Traffic Mitigation Program (NTMP), a process adopted by the city for ranking requests from citizens for traffic mitigation projects. The devices were supposed to improve the quality of life for residents concerned about speeding traffic. Consultants were hired at a cost of $60,000 to design a $1.5 million traffic mitigation project for the Whittier neighborhood, the first project proposed under the NTMP. The plan included 14 traffic circles and 10 speed humps.

Prior to construction of the experimental devices, public hearings were held in the spring of 1995. At those hearings, many citizens expressed serious concerns about a wide array of problems that the devices would cause: delayed emergency response, increased accidents, confusion and conflict, hazards for pedestrians and cyclists, increased air and noise pollution, increased maintenance costs for public and private vehicles, sign pollution, pain and disruption for citizens with disabilities, limitation of access for citizens with disabilities, and displaced traffic volume.

As the experiments continued, polls were taken that repeatedly showed the majority of residents disliked traffic mitigation devices that delay emergency response. The Fire Department continued to express concerns about the people living "downstream" from the devices. In fact, Boulder's Fire Chief, Larry Donner, regularly pointed out that emergency service in Boulder is sub-standard. Despite these concerns, Council left the experiments in the street. As it became clear that Council had no intention of listening to the majority of residents and the Fire Department, a citizen group was formed.

We wrote and submitted guest opinions and letters to the local papers and over 400 people contacted us to join our group. We focused our efforts on seeing that objective information, rather than anecdotal evidence, be used to make the life and death decisions. We also worked to point out that the NTMP lacked a fair and democratic process to weigh the concerns of all residents adversely impacted by the proposed devices. We proposed low-cost, effective designs for mid-block crossings to address speeding problems. Most importantly, we analyzed the city's own accident data on neighborhood streets and emergency response data for the city as a whole, and published an independently verified report showing that delays due to traffic mitigation are far more deadly than speeding on neighborhood streets.

In early 1999, Transportation staff, the Fire Department, and the Police Department made a joint recommendation that delay-inducing traffic mitigation devices be kept off of critical emergency response routes.

Against the advice of their paid professionals, Council continued to pursue the construction of traffic circles and speed humps on critical emergency routes. This sparked the the Seconds Count! ballot initiative, as people realized that without a vote, a few vocal activists would be able to endanger thousands of their neighbors by requesting traffic mitigation projects to divert cars from their streets. From our original 400 members, we quickly grew to over 5200 in the process of gathering the signatures necessary to bring the issue to the voters.

Our members are concerned about three main points:

1) Overall safety for the community as a whole, not just for those with political clout in wealthy neighborhoods.

2) Fairness and representation for residents impacted by delayed emergency response and displaced traffic flow.

3) Livability, including the most fundamentally important aspect of livability, life itself.

We sympathize with people concerned about speeding, but diverting cars from your street to your neighbor's street is not the answer. Most importantly, the facts clearly demonstrate that interfering with emergency response service is far more deadly than speeding vehicles in neighborhoods have ever been. We strongly urge Boulderites to vote FOR Question 2A, the SECONDS COUNT! ballot issue.