Agenda Packets - 2023/10/02 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Groveland south of MV Boulevard, Spring Lake Road north of the Boulevard, and one on H2. Council received a request for similar signs on County I and SLP Road, which were installed. Since the experiment began, the Legislature has passed language that was signed into law allowing every city/political subdivision to establish their own limits. Minneapolis and all adjacent communities to the north (staff did not survey in other directions) have lowered their limits to 25 MPH. Ramsey County has notified staff they will be lowering the limit on all their roads that have a marked bicycle trail. Thus, portions of Long Lake Road will go to 25. Staff has also advised and will update council that the City has not experienced a serious injury or fatality on any city streets. Those have been confined to County and State Roads. Included in the packet is a spreadsheet detailing 6 full years and current year to date data, of all calls for service, DWI arrests, and traffic citations. Policy issues for council to consider and contemplate include; PD staffing, calls for service, actual versus perceived threat, violation of MSA standards, and cost of signage (speed limit and stop signs). We are currently down three officers, calls for service measure between 10,000 and 11,000. However, decline is a direct function of being down officers as traffic stops result in a call for service. Less officers, less interactions, fewer calls. Actual versus perceived relates to no fatalities or serious injuries versus comments “someone is going to die”, violation of MSA is specific to traffic control signs that do not meet MNDOT engineering standards which none of the additional signs meet. If advised by MNDOT to remove, council has choice of removing or foregoing (and paying back) the MSA funds. Cost of sign relates to speed limit, and or traffic control. The flashing stop signs, utilized to ensure motorist who would not normally be expecting a stop sign, are alerted to the new stop sign requirements. Data: Data collected to date ranges from August 2020 to present. Data was collected on Long Lake Road, Red Oak, Spring Lake Road, H2, and Groveland. Data includes 12 one-week observations for Groveland from 2020 to present, 4 observations from Long Lake - all in 2022, 5 observations for Red Oak from 2021 to present, one observation in 2021 for SLP road, and two observations in 2023 for H2. More data was attempted but equipment and staffing issues impacted. Summary results H2 receives the greatest volume followed by Long Lake, then Red Oak, then Groveland with SLP road last. The highest average speed occurs on SLP road, with Long Lake second, Groveland Third, H2 and Red Oak last. Of particular interest is the speed and volume on Groveland for 2023 versus 2022 showing about a 10% drop from the 85th percentile moving from 35-37 to 32-33. This could be attributed to stop signs, but also could be due to higher volume, which tends to slow traffic. Volume stayed static as compared to previous years for one week but experienced almost a 15% increase for the other week.