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• • City of Mounds View Staff Report Highway 10 Pedestrian Bridge February 24, 1997 0 Page 6 respective sides of the highway, and the bridge will make it more likely that they will also go to the shopping center on the opposite side of the highway, the result may be the same number but different children. Mounds View Square Shopping Center has written a letter supporting the bridge. They have not indicated that they see the bridge as a problem in terms of bringing more children to the shopping center. False sense of security: Staff feels that if people choose to use the bridge rather than cross at grade, more safety will be provided rather than a false sense of safety. Whether people crossing the bridge will be safe from other people using the bridge has more to do with the Mounds View community than the bridge itself. Advisability of Placing Bridge over Uncontrolled Highway: We have not had an opportunity to consult with the City Engineer, but will attempt to do that before Monday. We do have letters from both the Mounds View Police Chief and the Minnesota State Patrol supporting the bridge. According to the State Patrol, "there is no doubt that a walkway would be a life saving investment." Staff is of the opinion that any time you can separate pedestrians and bicyclists from vehicles, you increase safety. A bridge may be more effective, in terms of getting people to use it, when it is across a controlled highway than an uncontrolled highway. But when you compare having a bridge versus not having a bridge, regardless of the type of highway, you gain greater safety for pedestrians and bicyclists when they use the bridge. 11111 Demographicse: We were unable to locate Census information in the time gj'aP of Communi t1'/Usa g available. Based on staff observation, there are a sizeable number children and seniors living in Mounds View. It is both of these population groups which would have most need of a pedestrian bridge. Both of the senior citizen housing developments are on the south side of Highway 10. Neighborhood shopping is on the north side. Staff has asked Greg Felt and Robb Urquhart, both engineers at MnDOT, what MnDOT's experience has been with the success of pedestrian bridges. They indicated the community into which the bridge is placed and the width of the highway are indicators of whether or not the bridge will be used. There is no generic answer. Bridges over highways which are wide and require pedestrians and bicyclists to wait at long signals are more likely to be used. Bridges where there is strong community commitment to using them, get used. City Council will have to assess the strength of Mounds View's residents' desire to have and use a pedestrian bridge. Maintenance: Public Works Director Mike Ulrich prepared a memorandum in August, 1995 stating that the bridge itself would only require minimal maintenance. Maintenance activities would include clearing of snow and using chemicals for deicing. The department did not expect maintenance of this structure to add a burden to existing maintenance activities performed by current staff. This same viewpoint was noted in the City Council worksession on February 3, 1997. A copy of the memorandum is with the staff report for the 9/5/95 worksession in Attachment 2. • Accidents: Police Chief Tim Ramacher has provided a memorandum on the accident history for Highway 10 between 1/1/91 and 12/31/96, or 6 years (see Attachment 3). It shows a total of 195 accidents of which three involved pedestrians and five involved bicycles.