All things TRAFFIC - notes from 7/28 Community Meeting

There were three topics of discussion at the 7/28 Community Meeting at Grace Lutheran Church. About 50 people total attended, including District 1 Board members.

Gateway Corridor – Lyssa Leitner (Washington County, lead agency for the Gateway Corridor)

Paul Sawyer is Chair of Community Advisory Committee, Kathy Lantry is the Saint Paul Rep on the Policy Advisory Committee. The line will go from the Lake Elmo area to downtown SP (Union Depot).  There is also Technical Advisory Committee which consists of staff from county and city agencies. Gordon Westerberg (Pathways on Park) and Doug Swalboski (Owner of Culvers) are also representing D1 in the Advisory work. People use transit to get to where they need to go for a variety of purposes – work, errands, entertainment, school, so this project is important to the community, even if you don’t use transit yourself. The process has narrowed down the choices of alignment to one line on map – along I-94. There will be an expedited process if we are successful in our bid for funding with a 2019 start of construction and a 2022 fully functional build-out. This will increase transit service to every 15 minutes in both directions (going into downtown and out to eastern suburbs), including getting to jobs and shopping in Woodbury. The choices have also been narrowed down in terms of the mode (kind of transit) – they are looking at Bus Rapid Transit instead of light rail. This is cheaper to construct but also better suited to the numbers of riders they are initially estimating. There were several alignment choices in the far east metro – the choice is dominantly on the north side of I-94 where there isn’t development today. The reason for this is that opportunities for more major impacts in new development are greatest there. This point in the planning is the furthest any project has gotten on the eastside. The Locally Preferred Alternative (LPA) is now chosen, now looking for community input – meeting is August 7 6p at Conway Rec – for responding to this LPA. There are other ways to give input if can’t make the meeting – contact the Gateway Corridor staff. There will be dedicated lanes for buses in the system.

Bill Dermody of SP Planning and Economic Development – There will be 6 stations in St. Paul for Gateway – 3 are in District 1. Station area planning is currently going on – This determines where station is, what happens around the station, what land use changes are around the station, what kind of development happens, how pedestrians and others get to the station. Public sessions about the plans will be in late September and October. Paul Sawyer and Garneth Peterson are on the station area planning working groups. Questions: funding? construction is covered by 45% from federal government (competitive process – specific for these projects); 35% transit tax; 10% from state, 5% from counties and 5% from city – taxes for these are already collected, if this project isn’t there, our taxes go elsewhere; fares will exist in the same way they do now; Metro Transit system has a better recovery system for expenses than elsewhere; Numbers of riders? estimated 10,000 riders per day. What properties will be effected?  the actual precise alignment is not set.

White Bear Ave Rebuild – Kathy Jaschke, Nick Fischer (Ramsey County Public Works)

The County will be reconstructing White Bear Avenue from I-94 to Beech Street. This project is dealing with a bad pavement problem – will get new streets, lighting and sidewalks. Ramsey County is here to get feedback on what people want - are there problems with particular intersections? Old Hudson needs a turn lane; WB is overly packed, intersections have peds running across maybe even not at intersections. Is parking necessary on WB? There is only parking where trucks unload – will probably put up no parking along the entire length. Should they remove tall trees replace with ornamentals? – problems with speeding are made worse with removal of trees lining streets. How about ? – where does the snow go if the street is widened? Does a median work to help with pedestrians? This would require taking ROW, that is losing the boulevards and trees and potentially some front yard space. WB is only thoroughfare going north south – it is important. It has 23,000 cars per day. People didn’t want round-abouts but the road is too busy for them anyway and they would also take up property to put in. When would this happen and how is it funded? funds and engineering are ready to go for 2016 – will coordinate with MnDOT for what will happen at I-94. Could the city and county increase the crossing time at signalized intersections? Could they also put in signs with no right turn when pedestrians are in crosswalk? This is not effective. Comment from Paul St. Martin with St. Paul Public Works  – this work will require assessing a portion of the cost to the abutting property owners at the same rate as residential rate – about $100/foot that can be paid off in full or added to your property taxes to pay over 20 years. Ramsey County is hiring a consultant to look at crashes, turn lanes, crossing times; consultant will also look at a conversion from 4 lanes to three lanes with center turn lane, but this is a very busy street for that design. Community asks the county to look for as many traffic calming measures as possible to tip drivers off that this is a neighborhood, not a speedway. Could they add a cross walk light between Minnehaha and 3^rd? This is a long way between signalized crossings (see Margaret Street discussion below). Should try to make streets as safe as possible for everyone.  Concerns were expressed about the detours during the construction, make things accessible for the destinations including churches and businesses. Is it possible to make changes in traffic patterns along the stretch? for example, 2 in one direction, 1 in the other – this would be difficult on such a busy street. White Bear is not suitable for bikes, but Bill Dermody SPPED  noted that bike lanes across the freeway are in city bike plan.

Margaret St Bikeway – Paul St. Martin and Mike Klobucar (Saint Paul Public Works)

Every two years the city goes through a Capital Improvement Budget (CIB) process. Forest to McKnight  along Margaret Street Bike Route was proposed. This is a part of Bike plan for the city which is in process. There will be improvements on the Margaret as a result. The Margaret Bike way will be implemented in two parts. This project was proposed by Daytons Bluff Community Council (with support from District 1), and will connect to some of the north south routes that currently exist on the eastside. Margaret can easily accommodate bikes – it is not heavily used, and connects straight across from McKnight to Forest. Margaret Street is identified as a bike route to make it more attractive to bike riders by adding traffic calming elements (things that slow down traffic). Drivers need visual cues to slow down. The city is now in the process of initial design, and has done some traffic studies. “Construction “ (adding signs and share the road arrows on the street) will start in fall 2014. In fall they will have final recommendations and short term elements will be implemented. Traffic counts and speeds done along the length – speeds look at the speed of 85% of the drivers. The total budget in this first phase is $100,000 – there will be no hard-scaping (that is engineered modifications) and no removal of parking – signage, sharrows, perhaps enhanced crosswalks.  In the long term the City is looking for the planning to make somewhat more significant improvements. These long-term treatments may include the following– pedestrian refuges, bumpouts, traffic circles, warning flashers – all this would require additional proposals and competition for funding.

They have done preliminary assessment of traffic circles – Atlantic, Hazelwood, Flandrau, Hazel, Winthrop. Evidence shows that stop signs do not slow traffic whereas traffic circles do. Other options: Forest and Earl – do we do one way bike ways on these streets since Margaret is narrower at its western end? This allows some parking to remain on these streets but still have bike lanes. Margaret and Johnson – do they close access of the street there for cars? Bikes can cross, but cars would turn on service roads. Margaret and White Bear – narrow road and ROW – what kind of enhanced crossing can happen here? Will work with county on this.  The project, especially in the first phase, won’t be a noticeable change for people living on the street – EXCEPT that traffic will slow down.  Margaret and McKnight is another problem – can’t close it because of the firestation – could close left turn lane, prohibiting the left turn now, allowing to stop in the median; take the existing sidewalk on the west side and make it a bike lane to connect to the east side; There might be full closures at 4^th and  5^th and Fremont; doesn’t impact parking in D1. Neighbors comment that there are problems with obeying the traffic laws.

Timing of the elements – a matter of funding – current funding is available for signage and painting; additional funding will be requested for the hardscaping; something needs to be done at Ruth and Margaret – could do a bumpout, signage, high visibility crosswalk, warning flasher activated by button; safe routes to schools needs to be implemented; Hawk lighting costs 40% of a full traffic signal

School at Ruth Street – looking at Safe Routes to schools - how can we improve this crossing so kids are safe.