Town and Country Police Address Concerns With Recent Traffic Column

While we consider the threat to public safety from non-traffic criminal activities to be low for a community of our size and makeup, the impact on public safety and property loss due to traffic related incidents remains disproportionately high, making traffic management a very important function of the (Town and Country) Police Department.

Despite our careful analysis of crash data and an evidence-based approach to addressing high crash locations, John Hoffmann has misrepresented these efforts, as well as the data, in his opinion column dated Feb. 7. In it, he asserts that the interstates are a "speed trap", that enforcement efforts are motivated by the desire to gain revenue and avoid residents, that crashes are always related to a lack of enforcement, that the center turn lane on Clayton Road has increased the number of crashes and that neighborhood streets without a crash history are deserving of strict enforcement.

While “opinion” columns can be entertaining, as John Adams so aptly stated, “Facts are stubborn things.” The following analysis will simply state the facts, which may be contrary to opinion:

John Hoffmann wonders if ‘"Town and Country isn’t operating a speed trap on the interstates." Considering that several hundred thousand people travel those interstates on a daily basis, I would not call issuing 6,471 summonses on the two interstates a speed trap. Especially when 43 percent of those summonses were for violations other than speeding. Those other violations include driving while intoxicated, following too close, driving without a valid license and without proper insurance. Given the daily volume counts and the fact that 17.73 summonses are issued on a daily basis, only one out of every 16,823 vehicles is cited.

The same police officers who issued those summonses also handled 428 traffic crashes that injured 200 people on those same two interstates. Town and Country’s enforcement objectives on the interstates are based on the urban traffic enforcement index, which is the accepted norm to determine the level of enforcement commensurate with the injury crash rate.

Mr. Hoffmann also laments the lack of enforcement on other secondary streets, in particular those that are nearest his neighborhood. In 2010, there were zero accidents reported on Topping Road, yet the department issued 75 summonses on that city street. This enforcement activity occurred in large part due to a few resident complaints, including Mr. Hoffmann, about speeding autos.

He also describes Mason Road, south of Clayton (Road), as a "dangerous section of road." Yet in 2010, there were only two accidents reported on that stretch of roadway and neither of those accidents resulted in injuries. This low level of crashes is not surprising since it is an accepted fact that the majority of drivers adjust their speeds and driving behavior based on the engineering of the roadway. While the (police) department attempts to be responsive to citizen concerns, roadways without an accident history, but with a high level of enforcement, could be defined by some as “speed traps.”  

Mr. Hoffmann also attempts to make a case that the center turn lane on Clayton Road has resulted in an increase in traffic crashes. While some legitimate concerns have been expressed about the reduction of shoulder width, to claim that the installation of the center turn lane has increased accidents is a misinterpretation of the data. An analysis of the stretch of Clayton Road, that has a center turn lane, revealed that when the major intersections with Ballas and Des Peres roads are removed from the data, isolating the effects of the center turn lane, crashes have declined.  In the segment between Rutherford Lane and Mueller Lane, a segment where the primary change factor has been the center turn lane, traffic crashes have been reduced by one-third since the installation of the center turn lane.

Our experience on Clayton Road is consistent with a major study conducted by the Federal Highway Administration on the impact of center turn lanes on traffic crashes. The report concluded, ‘There was a statistically significant reduction in total and rear-end crashes in each of four states whose installations were evaluated" (Federal Highway Administration Publication Number: FHWA-HRT-08-042, Date: March 2008 ).

Finally, when crashes are analyzed there are additional strategies other than writing tickets that must be considered. Some high crash locations result primarily from traffic violations, like the interstates, yet other crash locations result from mere volume or engineering deficits. Town and Country has received statewide recognition for enforcement activities, yet we have also received state and national recognition for reducing crashes by applying engineering approaches. Traffic safety is not just about issuing summonses and it is certainly not about raising revenue as Mr. Hoffmann implies. 

Town and Country Police Cpt. Gary Hoelzer is the Operations Division Commander, overseeing patrol, traffic, investigations and community partnerships. 

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