2017-08-22_PWETC_Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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217 218 Mr. Mareck then addressed the synergy between land use and transportation, and 219 how they could best work together. They should make sure the concentration of 220 future housing densities fit well into what they envision future transit to be. This 221 also includes making sure they have safe and mobile access to the areas where they 222 see future economic development. He provided an analogy comparing the roadway 223 system with a matrix of pipes. The largest roads will have the most traffic and the 224 least amount of access, whereas the smaller roads will have less traffic and the most 225 access. The control they have over traffic has to do with the number of lanes and 226 amount of access. The roads that have the least access are going to have the most 227 traffic, such as Highway 35W. The roads with the most access and the fewest lanes 228 are going to have the least amount of traffic because they are accommodating traffic 229 to the adjacent land versus providing mobility. Access creates safety concerns as 230 well. The roads that have the most access and large traffic volumes typically have 231 the most issues with safety. The roads that have been identified by the Metropolitan 232 Council as having large freight concerns have significant traffic volumes, a fair 233 amount of at grade signalized access, and large numbers of trucks. 234 235 Mr. Mareck stated funding is the largest constraint that prevents them from doing 236 most of the things they would like to do. This sometimes means they cannot provide 237 the ultimate fix in an area, but there are other less expensive options that can be 238 helpful. The ultimate goal of this process will simplify some of the complications 239 so they will know where the major problem areas are and the opportunities for 240 future improvement. 241 242 Member Bull expressed concern thatthere were no congestion indicators on County 243 Roads B, B2, or C on the map provided in the packet. 244 245 Mr. Mareck explained the forecast they are using is developed by the Metropolitan 246 Council and the Regional Travel Demand Model. It is a constrained capacity model. 247 This means that as it assigns traffic to the roadway network and sees a roadway is 248 reaching capacity, it will look for and divert traffic to alternative routes that have 249 the capacity to take on the extra traffic. There is also a slight leaning in this model 250 to favor multi -modal types of transportation. 251 252 Member Kimble inquired if any information from the Interstate 94 corridor study 253 is feeding into this model. 254 255 Mr. Mareck responded they do not have any regional improvements identified other 256 than an improvement on Snelling. 257 258 Chair Cihacek explained the constrained model shows what traffic would be like if 259 they did nothing. There are some flexibilities as they look at land use and public 260 works projects. They will continue to try and push transit options and the Planning 261 Commission should continue to look at land use, density, future economic growth Page 6 of 15