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Resident urges O'Fallon to prepare streets for autonomous vehicles, cites speed-sign detection problems
Summary
A Ward 7 resident told the council that vehicle sensors and heads-up displays are misreading posted speed signs and urged the city to review sign placement and visibility to prepare for autonomous vehicles; other residents urged improved striping and lighting.
David Dale, a Ward 7 resident, told the O'Fallon City Council on Aug. 18 that the city should begin preparing its streets for autonomous vehicles because onboard sensors are not reliably reading posted speed signs.
"I went around the town this morning driving. I took some shots of my own car, the heads up display showing the speed signs where the speed displayed in my car is not the speed limit on that road," Dale said. He described examples where the vehicle's sign-reading sensor displayed an incorrect speed when moving from one street to another and said the sensors "read speed signs" rather than city ordinances.
Dale asked the council to plan for the presence of autonomous vehicles and cited national developments: "The Wall Street Journal published ... that the autonomous taxis ... are expanding in San Francisco and Los Angeles. The state in the same article, the state of Texas has approved robot trucks on the interstate highways." He argued that automated trucks and taxis will use local streets for pickups and deliveries and that the city should consider sign placement, sign frequency and visibility as part of future planning.
Other public commenters raised related public-works concerns. Colonel Blair, Ward 3, reviewed warrant items for equipment purchases and said items such as roadway striping and a street light by a park concession area remain outstanding. "I noticed that the we're all we're gussying everything up around town for the City Fest ... but no paint yet for striping down the middle of the street," Blair said, offering to assist with striping if supplies provided.
City Administrator Walter Denton said the public-works and finance committee meetings were canceled because there were no action items and that the council scheduled extra time next week to discuss the draft strategic plan; he did not provide an immediate reply to technical questions about sign retrofits or sensor compatibility during the meeting.
There was no formal referral or motion directing staff to evaluate sign placement or to commission an engineering study during the meeting; residents seeking specific technical assessments were advised to raise the matter with their ward representatives or at committee meetings.
