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Regular City Council Meeting Monday,April 22, 2024 Page 5 Councilmember Etten thought the traffic flowed very smoothly with currently nothing, so this is actually building in congestion and quite opposite of these recent award-winning areas. He asked for Mr. Elvin to speak to the purposes and ways the City might think about this as not building a bunch of congestion,but necessary or round-abouts would not work or something else. Mr. Elvin explained Councilmember Etten was right that the traffic will move slower,at a level C and that is the intent to improve the safety piece of it.The design of the interchange also provides connection for bikes and pedestrians to get over and across, which is not there today. There is a need to get the pedestrians across that traffic line, so the introduction of the new ninety-degree intersections creates a place for crosswalks.He explained MnDOT has done preliminary analysis that says this will work at level C, but he cannot tell how much of a degradation that over existing levels is. Councilmember Etten explained his concern is that this is building in congestion, and he wondered about building in congestion. He noted this is an area that is congested. Mayor Roe indicated he agreed with comments regarding the Commerce St. connection under Snelling that will help with pedestrian issues and conflicts at County Road B, especially because that is a difficult place to cross. The other thing is if there is a way to do as many auxiliary lanes as possible, even in a 1 A or 1C,he thought that would be helpful because of those acceleration/deceleration issues that are already conflicts right now. Councilmember Strahan wanted to reiterate regarding Councilmember Etten's concern. She also shares the concern about adding intersections on Snelling but, as a biker or walker, there is no other way to get across there and people do go incredibly fast coming off those exits in either direction. She thought the only way to actually add pedestrian or bike traffic on that would be to do something where everyone would need to come to a complete stop. Even then, she would worry it would take a little bit of learning to get people to be cognizant of the various speeds. Mayor Roe asked Mr. Elvin if he wanted to go through the other two alternatives listed in the presentation. Mr. Elvin thought the differences were pretty well summarized. The 1 A and 1 C have those main features at Snelling. The main difference is the ramps for Hamline are retained with option 1 C and that reduces the width available for bike and pedestrian facilities on that bridge and at the local intersections. There would be a slightly less optimal bike and pedestrian facility, but it would still exceed what is out there today. Option 3, which is to add the auxiliary lanes, to make that work, the ramps at Hamline do need to be closed. That is main summary, the main take- away.