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Lafayette commissioners weigh a quarterly circulation dashboard using StreetLight data and police reports
Summary
Commissioners discussed a proposal to develop a quarterly 'circulation dashboard' combining StreetLight big-data outputs and police collision/infraction data to track trends (origin–destination, bike/pedestrian estimates and hotspots). Staff will return with a menu of StreetLight reports and consult police on data redaction and feasibility.
Commissioners at the Dec. 15 meeting debated whether and how to develop a regular circulation dashboard that would combine StreetLight analytics with local police reports to track trends in traffic volumes, speeds, origin–destination patterns and safety hotspots.
The idea originated from a commissioner request for routine, comparable data. Staff explained StreetLight is a commercial data product that uses aggregated mobile-device and vehicle location data to produce retrospective traffic metrics (volumes, speeds and origin–destination patterns). Staff cautioned the product is retrospective (not real-time) and cannot by itself replace police collision records.
Commissioners and staff identified several potential uses: measuring whether a school-street project increases walking and bicycling, tracking downtown visitation trends, identifying cut‑through traffic patterns, and highlighting locations for targeted safety interventions. Multiple speakers said they value a low‑maintenance, high‑level dashboard tied to specific policy needs rather than raw data streams.
Police data and limitations: commissioners asked staff to engage the police department about providing quarterly collision and enforcement data (speeding citations, collisions by location, stop‑sign or red‑light infractions). Staff noted collision data may require redaction and that police workload and staffing could affect the frequency and granularity of reports.
Next steps: staff agreed to return with a short presentation that lists the specific StreetLight products and reports the commission could request and to broach the commission's interest in quarterly collision summaries with the police department. Commissioners also suggested pairing StreetLight outputs with manual counts (for example, head counts near Stanley Middle School) to measure before‑and‑after effects of projects.
No formal action was taken; commissioners asked for follow‑up information at a future meeting.
