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Regular City Council Meeting <br /> Monday,July 10,2023 <br /> Page 3 <br /> On the enforcement of this, she noticed the Commission wanted to talk to the Police <br /> Department. She wondered what the feedback was on this if there was discussion <br /> with the Police Department. She also asked what the benefits versus the costs would <br /> be and when other cities lowered the speeds, did that reduce the speeders or what <br /> was the outcome of that. She assumed the one piece has to do with crashes and <br /> asked what Roseville's percentage is. <br /> Chair Ficek explained this topic came up initially with the Council and part of the <br /> reasoning behind it was simply the risk factors. If risks are looked at, in terms of <br /> being a pedestrian or bicyclist, there are no sidewalks on the local roads, so if the <br /> pedestrian or bicyclist is on the road and gets hit, chances of survival increase with <br /> lower speeds. That was part of the reason to start looking at it and seeing if this is <br /> something the City should do. In terms of accidents, there are not a tremendous <br /> number of them. The City is looking at a risk, also looking at priorities, is the City <br /> prioritizing walking or biking and how does that mix into the City's sustainability <br /> and climate. Those are all of the factors that can come into it. In terms of talking to <br /> the Police, it is a conversation the Commission still has to have. The Police <br /> Department did provide some information such as crash data. In terms of what other <br /> cities have seen,he is not sure if there has been a definitive view, some streets have <br /> gotten better, and some have not. He was still waiting for Minneapolis and St. Paul <br /> to provide information. Some studies have said that changing the limit does not <br /> matter it is what is the environment being driven through and for the street the City <br /> has, these are pretty wide open, if no one is parking on them. Back to the <br /> enforcement, because the driver is reacting to the environment, this will turn <br /> everyone into speeders. He noted there are still a lot of questions to the questions <br /> being asked, which is why he thinks this is still an interesting topic to pursue. <br /> Councilmember Etten noted this was a partial piece of information, so he thought <br /> before this moves forward, the Council needs to see the kind of information that <br /> the PWETC moves forward with on this topic and before going to the public for <br /> viewpoints to see if the Council is ready to take that jump. He thought Chair Ficek <br /> listed off some pros and cons very well. He understood there are very few vehicle <br /> vs. pedestrian accidents in the City. He explained there are many factors into why <br /> there are accidents like this, and street speeds are actually a small potential factor. <br /> He explained when he looked at Minneapolis and St. Paul lowering their speed <br /> limits to 20mph,he has not seen any big change except on streets where there are a <br /> lot of cars on one side of the street. Then people already have slowed down to keep <br /> safe, so he did not know if that data is going to tell them much. He thought if a <br /> City similar to Roseville did a study, then he would think that was a more relevant <br /> connection. He would rather see what effects the City is having on current driver <br /> behavior before the City changes everything. He explained he was very skeptical <br /> in moving forward because of all of those pieces. He also thought by moving <br /> forward with this item, it would take away from discussion on some other very <br /> important topics. <br />