Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Traffic Safety topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Belmont police outline traffic-safety data, enforcement and grant-funded programs
Summary
At a June 16 Belmont City Public Safety Committee meeting, police staff reviewed 2022 statewide traffic data, described local rankings for pedestrian and bicycle injuries, and said the department is continuing grant-funded enforcement and education including distracted-driving patrols and community outreach.
Belmont City police presented a traffic-safety update to the Public Safety Committee on Monday, June 16, citing 2022 statewide data from the Office of Traffic Safety and describing local enforcement and education funded by grants.
The presentation, given by a departmental traffic staff member, said Belmont ranks 47 out of 90 comparable California cities on an index of traffic injuries and fatalities and 12 out of 90 on a bicycle-fatality metric. The staff member said statewide bicycle fatalities rose 61 percent from 2020 to 2022 and that “77 percent of pedestrian serious injuries occur when it was dark, and it's usually between 9 and 3 when this is occurring.” The presenter said the 2022 numbers are a baseline for Belmont before the city began grant-funded countermeasures.
Why it matters: department staff told the committee the grant-funded activities aim to reduce serious pedestrian and bicycle injuries and that early results show declines in some measures after the city began enforcement and education programs.
Staff described recent and planned activities: distracted-driver enforcement in April that produced warnings and citations; a “Coffee with a Cop” community outreach event near Safeway on El Camino Real; and a multi-jurisdictional pedestrian and bicycle safety enforcement detail conducted with the county sheriff’s office and the San Carlos bureau that used motorcycle officers, patrol officers and community-service officers at multiple locations. The presenter said the Office of Traffic Safety grant supports those activities and that the department recently was approved for a third year of the grant, but gave a verbal figure as “we got 47 approximately plus or minus” and did not specify a dollar amount in the meeting record.
Committee members pressed for context on the rankings. Captain Catherine Armando (Belmont Police Department) explained the city’s mid-range ranking reflects differences among comparable cities — for example, El Camino Real is a busy corridor that influences Belmont’s results — and said the ranking should be viewed as a baseline for measuring changes over time.
The presenter stressed an education-first approach while noting enforcement is part of the strategy: outreach, targeted patrols and public information on state rules such as California’s hands-free cell-phone law. The presentation included a reminder that the Office of Traffic Safety and the California Highway Patrol publish city-level data for residents to review.
Department staff pointed people to the Go Safely California resources (an online education portal) and said the department will post social-media notices about upcoming community events tied to traffic safety. The presenter closed by inviting questions and noting the department will continue reporting on outcomes as more recent data become available.
Ending: Committee members did not take formal action on the presentation. Staff said they will provide follow-up materials and will continue outreach and enforcement under the existing grant-funded program.
