07-16-07 Item 2E, Intersection Safety Study

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~ ~ EN HILLS MEMORANDUM DATE: July 16, 2007 AGENDA ITEM 2.E. TO: Mayor and City Council Michelle Wolfe, City Administrator Greg Hoag, Public Works Director~ FROM: SUBJECT: Intersection Safety Study BACKGROUND At the December 18,2006 City Council Work Session, staff requested City Council consensus to request that Ramsey County Public Works conduct a traffic study at the intersection of County Road E and Old Snelling Avenue. This request was brought to the City Council at the request of the Parks Trails and Recreation Committee (PTRC) who at their November 21,2006 meeting unanimously passed a motion to recommend that this study be completed. Attached are the minutes from the December 18th City Council meeting for your review. The discussion at the meeting became more of a general discussiou about crosswalks. It was also identified that there were possibly other intersections in the City that may benefit from a similar study. In an effort to identify which intersections in the City could be studied staff has compiled a spreadsheet of intersections in the City. This list only contains intersections of streets that are classified as a community street or greater in their classification function. It does not include residential and neighborhood streets. The spreadsheet also contains information on who has jurisdiction of the roads, what type of traffic control devices are present, (note that ifit is listed as "none" it means that not all legs of the intersection are controlled), if crosswalks are present, and posted speeds. At this time staff is recommending that if any studies are requested, that intersections which have only stop signs as the traffic control device on all legs ofthe intersection be reviewed to see if the intersection would meet current standards for the installation of a signal. These three intersections are highlighted in yellow on the spreadsheet. It should be noted that by State Statute any intersection is deemed a pedestrian crossing whether it is marked as such or uot. Crosswalks are a sign to motorists that this is an area that they can expect to see iucreased pedestrian activity. Ramsey County Public Works has indicated that they can provide accident data for any intersection requested. They also are able to provide their most current traffic counts for any particular area. Any study that would be completed would produce data related to whether a signal would be a better form of traffic control, and it would also review the speeds traveled in