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7.5. SR 07-20-2009~ J/ uii~ ~~ River MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor and City Council FROM: Terry Maurer, Public Works Director DATE: July 20, 2009 Item: 7.5. SUBJECT: 193rd Avenue Improvement Project Speed Limits and Stop Signs at Xavier & 193rd Avenue As requested, I have prepared this memo in response to an Open Mike appearance by Mr. Aaron Rasmus who lives at the corner of Xavier Street and 193`d Avenue in the Woods at Hillside Addition. It is my understanding that Mr. Rasmus raised two issues; the first, being speed limits along the entire 193`d Avenue corridor and the second, the need for an all-way stop sign installation at the corner of Xavier Street and 193`d Avenue. My comments on these two issues are as follows: A. 193`d Avenue Speed Limits The total length of 193`d Avenue from TH 169 to CSAH 13 (Twin Lakes Road) will be approximately 1.5 miles. About half of the road currently exists through the Hillside Estates and Woods at Hillside developments. This segment of 193`d Avenue has a 30 mph speed limit and will remain unchanged after construction is complete. The half of the corridor which is being newly constructed will need to have a speed study done by MnDOT. As the Council is aware, the speed limits in the State of Minnesota are determined by the state, either through a MnDOT speed study or through State Statute. The State Legislature in the most recent session made some minor changes to traffic statutes regarding speed limits in rural residential districts; however, from a summary of that law change, produced by the League of Minnesota Cities, it does not appear that 193`d Avenue falls within that jurisdiction. If it did, the new law change would allow a 35 mph speed limit. Since it does not appear to fall within this new statutory definition of rural residential district, MnDOT will be asked to perform a speed study, once the road is complete. As I have informed Mr. Rasmus and his wife in separate conversations, if MnDOT comes back with a speed limit of higher than 30 mph, city staff will make a recommendation to the City Council relative to a transition zone to make drivers aware of the decreasing speed limit when traveling from east to west. 193~d Avenue -Speed Limits & Stop Sign July ao, aoo9 Page 2 Until such time as a MnDOT speed study on the new portion of 193`d Avenue is completed, our constnzction plans call for the entire corridor to be signed at 30 mph, so that the corridor will not be open to traffic without a speed limit sign. If MnDOT comes back with a higher speed limit on the eastern portion, the city will be required to change the speed limit signs to the allowable speed indicated by MnDOT's study. B. Stop Sign Installation -193' Avenue/Xavier Street The Minnesota Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices provides guidance for multi-way or all-way stop sign applications. A copy of the information from the most recent manual is attached. As you can see from this information, an all-way stop sign installation is only typically warranted by vehicle traffic when it is at an intersection with relatively equal traffic counts. This is certainly not the case at the intersection of Xavier Street and 193"~ Avenue. There is also guidance for installation based on traffic accident history. At this time there is no traffic accident history of a type that would be potentially eliminated by an all-way stop sign installation. Finally, under other criteria that may be considered is the issue of pedestrian/vehicle conflicts. At this point in time, it is our opinion that the number of pedestrians utilizing the sidewalk on the north side of 193`d Avenue from the Deerfield 3`d/Woods at Hillside neighborhood to the south is not significant enough to warrant an all-way stop sign installation. As I have told Mr. and Mrs. Rasmus in discussing this issue with them, we will monitor the 193`d Avenue corridor as we do all new corridors relative to traffic volumes and pedestrian usage. If either of these criteria rise to a level that we believe warrants an all- way stop sign installation at Xavier Street, we can easily make that recommendation to the Council and install the additional stop signs at that time. Just for the Council's information, traffic control on 193`d Avenue is planned to be as follows: • At Evans Street, the 3-legged stop situation on the 4-legged intersection will remain in place but will be monitored closely. A fourth stop sign can easily be put in if it becomes a problem. The geometrics of construction for the new project will have the intersection of Evans Street and 193`d Avenue completely constructed to accept a signal system in the future. • Auburn Street and 193`d Avenue will continue to have an all-way stop situation as currently exists there. • At Tyler Street and 193`d Avenue, the plans call for Tyler Street to a stop condition, with 193`d Avenue not stopped. It is our feeling from traffic modeling that there will be a much higher volume of traffic on 193`d Avenue than Tyler Street after construction, thus the Tyler Street stop condition. Again, if the monitoring of the new roadway after completion indicates an all-way stop installation is required, that recommendation would be made to the City Council. • At CSAH 13 (Twin Lakes Road) and 193`d Avenue, there will be a stop sign on 193`d Avenue and no traffic control along CSAH 13. This again, is based on traffic volumes projected into the future where CSAH 13 is anticipated to have a much higher traffic volume than 193`d Avenue. 193 Avenue -Speed Limits & Stop Sign July ao, zoo9 Page 2 Should you have any questions regarding this issue or would like further information, I will be attendance at Monday's City Council meeting. ZB.7 Multiway Stop Applications suv~- _ P{~I?~; 1 Multiway stop control can be useful as a safety measure at intersections if certain traffic conditions exist. Safety concerns associated with multiway stops include pedestrians, bicyclists, and all road users expecting other road users to stop. Multiway stop control is used where the volume of traffic on the intersecting roads is approximately equal. The restrictions on the use of STOP signs described in Section 2B.5 also apply to multiway stop applications. GUIDANCE: The decision to install multiway stop control should be based on an engineering study. The following criteria should be considered in the engineering study for amulti-way STOP sign installation: A. Where traffic control signals are justified, the multi- way stop is an interim measure that can be installed quickly to control traffic while arrangements are being made for the installation of the traffic control signal. B. A crash problem, as indicated by 5 or more reported crashes in a 12-month period that are susceptible to correction by a multi-way stop installation. Such crashes include right- and left-turn collisions as well as right-angle collisions. C. Minimum volumes: 1. The vehicular volume entering the intersection from the major street approaches (total of both approaches) averages at least 300 vehicles per hour for any 8 hours of an average day, and 2. The combined vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle volume entering the intersection from the minor street approaches (total of both approaches) averages at least 200 units per hour for the same 8 hours, with an average delay to minor-street vehicular traffic of at least 30 seconds per vehicle during the highest hour, but 3. If the 85th-percentile approach speed of the major- street traffic exceeds 40 mph, the minimum vehicular volume warrants are 70 percent of the above values. D. Where no single criterion is satisfied, but where Criteria B, C.1, and C.2 are all satisfied to 80 percent of the minimum. values. Criterion C.3 is excluded from this condition. OPTION: Other criteria that may be considered in an engineering study include: A. The need to control left-turn conflicts; B. The need to control vehicleJpedestrian conflicts near locations that generate high pedestrian volumes; C. Locations where a road user, after stopping, cannot see conflicting traffic and is not able to reasonably safely negotiate the intersection unless conflicting cross traffic is also required to stop; and D. An intersection of two residential neighborhood collector (through) streets of similar design and operating characteristics where multiway stop control would improve traffic operational characteristics of the intersection.