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APPENDIX B: Case Studies - Category Speed Limit <br />City of Minneapolis: <br />The City of Minneapolis utilized the category speed limit approach. Their minor roads under their jurisdiction <br />are 20 mph for minor roads and 25 mph on their major roads. After the new Minnesota State Statute was <br />passed, the City of Minneapolis passed an ordinance giving the city engineer the authority to set the speed <br />limits. Minneapolis decided to change their speeds limit based on a technical analysis of existing data and <br />other national and local reports. The city had a goal to make the city a safer place for the walking and biking <br />community. Along with these goals, Minneapolis used the collected 50th percentile speeds as well. Once they <br />decided on a speed limit of 20 mph on minor roadways and 25 mph on major roadways, the education process <br />began. The city created an educational campaign to educate the community. They also teamed up with the City <br />of St. Paul to do joint events in the community to educate the public on the new speed limit change. The city <br />also changed the signs in the city and added gateway sign that the city worked with MnDOT to create. There <br />is still some education left to be done and after a few years of these speed changes they hope to reevaluate to <br />see how the speed limit change has impacted crash and speed data. <br />City of St. Paul <br />They City of St Paul conducted a technical evaluation to determine speed limits on city streets (see Saint Paul <br />Speed Limit Evaluation, March 12, 2020). The effort included collaboration with the city of Minneapolis as well as <br />other internal and external partners including the City Attorney's office, St Paul Police, City Planning and Economic <br />Development, MnDOT, Ramsey County, Metro transit as well as various other Public Works Divisions. <br />Based on their efforts the city established that Principal and Minor Arterial streets are major streets and speed limits <br />will generally be set at 25 mph. However, they were also evaluated to determine if a higher limit is appropriated <br />based on the "context and design". Collector Streets were also identified as major streets with and would generally <br />be 25 mph. However, collector streets were also evaluated to determine if a lower limit was appropriate, again <br />based on "context and design". Local Streets were considered to be minor streets and speed limits were set at 20 <br />mph however they were also evaluated to determine if a higher speed limit was appropriate. <br />City of St. Louis Park: <br />The City of St. Louis Park also took the approach of implementing the category speed approach limits. When <br />the Minnesota State Statute was changed the public and City Council pressured the engineering staff to make <br />a change. One thing that St. Louis Park did that other cities did not, is when they went to pass the ordinance, <br />they had their research and recommendation already done. Once the city passed the ordinance, the council <br />recommend that the engineering staff evaluate in more detail some specific locations. They took an extremely <br />data heavy approach for evaluation. The city evaluated their speed data and their crash data. The traffic study <br />that they conducted evaluated the medium, average, and 85th percentile of all their streets and the they <br />broke it down by low, medium and high traffic roads. The also looked at what they had set forth in their 2040 <br />comprehensive plan national standards and the speed limit goal they have for the city. After evaluating all <br />these criteria's they recommended speeds of 20 mph on local neighborhood streets, 25 mph on connecting <br />streets, and 30 mph on select streets/segments. After speed change is fully implemented a traffic speed study <br />will be conducted to evaluate the effects of the new speed change. <br />City of St. Anthony Village <br />St. Anthony Village adopted a city-wide speed limit of 25 mph on local streets. Bordering Minneapolis, city <br />officials faced pressure from the public and elected officials to review their speed limits. It was decided that 20 <br />mph (adopted by Minneapolis) was too slow so the city adopted a citywide 25 mph limit. The city changed and <br />updated speed limit signs and added gateway signs to notifying drivers as they enter the city limit. <br />25 <br />Page 157 of 185 <br />