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124 7. Speed Limits Update <br />125 Public Works Director Jesse Freihammer and Assistant Public Works Director/City <br />126 Engineer Jennifer Lowry provided a speed limit update to the Commission. <br />127 <br />128 Chair Ficek thanked staff for the presentation. <br />129 <br />130 Member Cicha indicated he would be curious to hear from police organizations <br />131 who have gone through this experience and have had speed limits change and if <br />132 their initial fears of their workload and resources have actually been impacted by <br />133 the change in the speed. What he has heard from the City's police force is that there <br />134 are not enough resources to try to follow up if the speed limits were to be lowered. <br />135 <br />136 Ms. Lowry indicated she has been talking more with engineers than Police Chiefs <br />137 and those she has talked to either do not have a dedicated traffic enforcement group <br />138 or did not ramp up or have dedicated work. She thought it would be interesting to <br />139 hear from those entities as well as what complaints have come in from those folks <br />140 or other people. <br />141 <br />142 Vice Chair Collins knew the Dale Street project is going to be coming up with new <br />143 markings and he wondered if the speed limit will be the same as what it was or will <br />144 there be any input as to possible changes. <br />145 <br />146 Ms. Lowry explained county roads will remain the same even if the City were to <br />147 implement a change in speed in the city and typically a speed change would be <br />148 made after a road improvement, but a speed study would be done to determine what <br />149 the speed should be. With a speed study there is a poTssibility and risk that the speed <br />150 limit could be raised. <br />151 <br />152 Member Mueller asked what a speed study entailed. <br />153 <br />154 Mr. Freihammer reviewed how a speed study is conducted. <br />155 <br />156 Chair Ficek asked if there is a timeline on the MnDOT study. <br />157 <br />158 Ms. Lowry reviewed the timeline with the Commission but thought the process was <br />159 supposed to be within the year. It was started in 2019, so it was supposed to be done <br />160 already and she did not know if there was a set completion date. <br />161 <br />162 Chair Ficek thought he saw something about Minneapolis and St. Paul follow up <br />163 studies and he wondered if those cities were moving forward to evaluate their <br />164 speeds now that those cities have changed the speeds and have a few years data. <br />165 <br />166 Ms. Lowry indicated she would check. She talked to both cities but did not ask that <br />167 specifically. <br />168 <br />169 Chair Ficek asked if dynamic signs are done by request. <br />Page 4 of 7 <br />Page 6 of 29 <br />