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Middletown police examine Urban SDK traffic-monitoring software; council took no action
Summary
At a Middletown Public Safety meeting, Police Chief Wancham invited Urban SDK to demonstrate a software platform that uses connected-vehicle telemetry to produce near-real-time speed, volume and safety metrics. Officials asked about data coverage, accuracy, privacy and cost; no contract was approved.
Police Chief Wancham introduced Urban SDK, a Jacksonville, Florida–based traffic analytics company, and asked the Middletown Public Safety Committee to review the vendor’s software at a meeting called to discuss traffic concerns. Urban SDK representatives provided a live demonstration using sample data for the municipality and answered questions about how the system works, its accuracy and costs. The committee did not take any formal action.
The presentation focused on how the software compiles telemetry from connected vehicles — such as data from navigation apps and in-vehicle systems — to produce speed metrics (including 80th- and 90th-percentile speeds), volume, congestion and safety scores for every road segment in a jurisdiction. Micah Dickman, Urban SDK’s vice president of revenue, said the platform provides near-real-time views and 13 months of historical data so staff can evaluate complaints, measure pre- and post-implementation effects and target enforcement or capital improvements.
"We don't know who these people are. We don't know where they're going. We don't have any personal information," Dickman said when asked about privacy and personally identifiable information. He said Urban SDK aggregates vehicle telemetry and calibrates its data against permanent count stations maintained by state departments of transportation.
Why this matters: Committee members said the tool could let staff respond faster to resident complaints, deploy officers more precisely and quantify whether interventions — such as enforcement details or traffic-calming measures — changed behavior. Chief Wancham told the committee the platform is "not a solution that's gonna resolve our traffic concerns, but it is an amazing piece of technology" that could supplement existing approaches like speed trailers and manual counts.
How the data is collected and how accurate it is: Dickman said Urban SDK licenses large datasets of anonymized vehicle telemetry and processes them into street-segment metrics. He told the committee penetration of usable telemetry currently ranges "somewhere between 40 to 50% of the vehicles 24/7, 365" in typical U.S. conditions, and that the company's mean absolute error for speed estimates is under 2% on U.S. roads. The vendor also said it overlays state crash-record databases to show collision history on segments and can include additional layers such as school zones, parks or work zones.
Deployment, cost and support: The company said the product requires no on-street hardware and can be turned on after contracting and onboarding. Customer support and account management are handled from Urban SDK’s Jacksonville headquarters; the company said daily support and training are included in the contract. Dickman described the commercial terms the company presented to the council as a yearly license. He said the basic package is $13,000 per year, with lower annual rates if the town purchases multi-year terms (Dickman cited about $11,000 per year on a three-year purchase), and that some optional safety-data layers carry additional fees.
Limits and caveats raised in discussion: Council members pressed the vendor on specific capabilities. Dickman said the platform can show speed and delay at intersections and segment-by-segment directionality (eastbound/westbound, etc.), but it cannot yet reliably report the exact percentage of vehicles running stop signs — that capability remains research and development. He also said data-processing upgrades (distinct from user-interface or small functional enhancements) could incur additional charges in the future, though routine UX updates are included.
Next steps: Committee members asked for references and contact information for other jurisdictions using the product; Urban SDK named clients in New York State and larger agencies including the Dallas Police Department. Chief Wancham said he would follow up with the company; the committee did not vote on or authorize a contract at the meeting.
Ending: The presentation closed with a brief discussion of operational uses by patrol officers and municipal staff. No formal direction, motion or procurement decision was recorded during the session.
