I’ve spent years beating the safe streets drum on this site and elsewhere. Of all the dangerous streets the Twin Cities, the ones that upset me the most are the 4-lane urban arterials, aka the “Four-Lane Death Road™“. These are found everywhere in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, particularly in poorer areas of town, and I’ve been calling for an end to these dangerous streets on a regular basis, each time there’s a particularly tragic crash.
In Saint Paul, the problem of dangerous arterials is acute, and there are plenty of deadly streets running rampant through otherwise walkable neighborhoods. for years the situation seemed hopeless, and despite the best efforts of police and community members, I did not see anything changing anytime soon.
A Long-Awaited Safety Test
But this year, after much community effort (and a few tragic crashes) Saint Paul is finally starting to see some change of priorities around its most dangerous streets.
One key dynamic is that most of the most dangerous arterial streets are Ramsey County roads, and so County engineers and County Commissioners have the final say over how they are designed. That’s why it’s exciting that this summer, led by Commission head and long-time East Sider Jim McDonough, Ramsey County has agreed to do do a “field test” of a safer street design on Maryland Avenue. For six weeks, they will converting the dangerous 4-lane road into a safer 3-lane design.
And a lot depends on how the test goes. It’s no exaggeration to say that this might be the most important street design moment in Saint Paul in many generations. If the test goes well — if drivers act safely and neighbors react in a positive way — the Maryland experiment could mark the beginning of a transformation of Saint Paul’s streets, neighborhoods, and public spaces away from speed and danger and towards walkability and quality of life. If it goes poorly, it might be years or decades before Ramsey County musters the political will to tackle its generational legacy of dangerous urban street design.
A lot is at stake. So what can people do?
The field test will begin at Greenbrier.
Field Test Basics
The .pdf from Ramsey County is attached to the bottom of this post, but essentially the County will re-stripe dangerous four-lane Maryland Avenue from 4- to 3-lanes from Greenbrier (where Elizabeth Durham was killed last year) all the way east to Johnson Parkway. The “traffic counts” on that part of the street are higher than would normally be considered for this kind of street design in Saint Paul, but in this case the County has decided to weigh safety ahead of congestion in its design priorities. That’s a big change!
One key question that I had was this: What metrics will Ramsey County use to evaluate the “success” of the test?
The answer was a long list of data. The County will collect and evaluate the design for the first six weeks according to speeds, volumes, gaps, crashes, and bike/ped counts. they will also gather feedback from neighbors, though how this will be done remains an open question.
During the recent Planning Commission Transportation Committee meeting, County engineers seemed particularly worried about drivers cutting through neighborhoods and speeding through stop signs because any potential increases in congestion. They were also worried about drivers “passing in the middle lane” or doing other dangerous (and unnecessary) behaviors.
To me, there remain a lot of open questions about how this will go. If the “field test” is still “working” after the first six weeks, the County will keep the test in place for another six weeks, giving engineers a full three months of data to examine.
The pros and cons of “test” engineering
In some ways, there’s a great deal of exciting promise in doing “test” experiments with urban design. A whole field has popped up around the idea, variously called “tactical urbanism” or different variations of the “pop-up” prefix. Some of the best street design changes have begun with experiments, like the Broadway / Times Square pedestrian reclamation or a whole bunch of similar tests from around the country.
But there’s also a lot of potential for one of these projects to go wrong. A lot depends on outreach and engagement, fields which are not necessarily the strong suits for transportation engineers. For example, I’ve written before about how poorly the “test median” bike boulevard design process proceeded at the corner of Jefferson and Cleveland Avenues in Saint Paul back in 2011. The project was basically a disaster, and today the much-lauded and well-funded Jefferson Avenue bike boulevard has been officially “demoted” into mere sharrows. If the test had been handled better, the boulevard might be alive and well today.
Similarly, the test process for the North Minneapolis greenway had some mixed results. Despite years of outreach from a group of dedicated supporters, the backlash to some of the changes to the street might have overwhelmed much of the positive conversations that occurred around the experimental street designs. I’m sure that the folks who designed the project would do things a bit differently if they had a chance to go back in time.
This is to say that there is a lot of variation involved with experiments in street design, and the social x-factor has a wide range.
What Can East Side Neighbors Do?
A “drive like your kids live here” sign in Frogtown.
One idea I have is that concerned community members on Maryland along the test route should start a pre-emptive lawn sign campaign. A few dozen of those “slow down” lawn signs saying things like “twenty is plenty” might send a clear signal to frustrated aggravated drivers about the reasoning behind the change in the street.
Maybe some hand-made Burma-Shave-type signs? They could say things like:
- A New Street Can Save Lives
- Drive Like Your Kids Live Here
- Slow Down for the East Side
- (or something similar-slash-witty)
These signs can’t be that expensive, and given the stakes of the outcome, would be a great investment.
What are some other ideas? Could there be some engagement, door knocking, block meetings, etc. where people get active and try to shape the conversation happening along Maryland?
If so, now’s the time. The “test” change is going to happen any day. This might be Saint Paul and Ramsey County’s one big chance to improve its streets and neighborhoods. Let’s not blow it.
Isn’t this what was done to Lexington Avenue about ten years ago? Lexington used to be two lanes from Randolph to I94. The traffic was fast and it was impossible to cross. I remember neighborhood meetings where the traffic engineers said that it wasn’t practical to turn it into two lanes with a center turning lane because there was too much traffic.
Still, they gave it a try after more neighborhood pressure and restripesd it about ten years ago. It has worked fine since. The traffic has slowed and it’s safer to cross.
Tom,
I think you are right. Lexington is much slower and calmer and not near as much as a nuisance any more. Now there is a Trader Joe’s at Randolph and the whole area has more of a neighborhood feel.
I also think the city did something else to get the traffic off of Lexington about a decade ago. Hmmm I’m racking my brain and trying to think of what the city could have done. Large numbers of cars used to get on and off 35E via Lexington. And now they don’t. If I remember it, I’ll put a note up. But you are right for sure. Lexington is much much better.
You might be thinking of Ayd Mill Road. Over here we have Phalen Blvd.
I have already worked on sign designs and will do an indiegogo to help fund them. Stay tuned.
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1DY7-1blYJEPZEqFBx-pWTLgE45T3jIKUKnl1fvbrSyE/edit?usp=sharing
https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/11fDNQEiFA6g3bYXlR-OiKwFstclLA9doNjLL9YYekSQ/edit?usp=sharing
https://www.generosity.com/community-fundraising/maryland-avenue-safety-lawn-signs
A)
Is there any outreach planned through the Arlington Hills Library or the East Side Freedom Library? I think both those places would are fecund community spots where the word can be spread easily.
B)
Since this is a county project, will they be weighting their data based on the neighborhood voices or the county voices? Many people use Maryland as a freeway through the East Side and I can see folks who usually speed through East Side being annoyed that they have to slow down.
One thing that struck me as interesting about the Longfellow conversation was that the LCC really made an intentional effort to poll only Longfellow residents about the change even though bike lanes would be something that effects Longfellow AND the greater community. I had mixed feelings about it here, but in the case of a county project, I could see it being useful to at least collect data (especially in metric #9) that indicates from where the community voice originates
They haven’t indicated the method for gaining feedback from the community. The last community meeting was held at the East Side Freedom Library. I don’t think it’s going to be hard to get the word out – everyone is going to know the test is ongoing. Right now the lanes have been ground off but the new ones haven’t been put down yet.
What’s difficult is getting people to express their opinion. Usually only the angry show up. I absolutely think it’s a good idea to poll people at the Arlington Hills Library, as I suspect many people walk there, especially the youth. I think the Freedom Library has fewer people arrive by foot or bike, since its events have a city-wide appeal. However, it might be a good place to find friendly voices.
I think it will be important to hear the voices of families who have children walking to Johnson High School and have to cross Maryland Ave. I don’t yet know how to connect with them.
Why is a test needed? Do the engineers not already know how different layouts work and what the advantages and disadvantages are? Do the engineers not know what layouts are safer and result in fewer deaths?
Quite often forgiveness is much easier to get than permission. If the road is changed permanently then a few people might complain a bit but everyone will get use to it quite quickly and live happily every after (and since it would be safer, more will live). If a test is put up then people will think about it more and complain more because well.., it’s change. They’ll complain because unlike with a perm change, they can do something about it.
Apparently safety improvements are still up for popular opinion.
Well, what about parking? Will I still be able to drive as fast? I’m concerned.
(If only the commenting policy had some guidance for me on the use of sarcasm…)
Expect a post on this very soon!
“Apparently safety improvements are still up for popular opinion.”
Wow, great summation and so sadly true.
I’m leaning towards this too: often what people say they want isn’t what’s been proven safe. You need to spend some time socializing impacts with the affected neighborhoods, sure, but it’s time to stop getting so bogged down in public process every time we want to make a safety improvement. We now KNOW what makes roads safer, and 4-3 conversions are about the lowest hanging fruit we have. It’s time to move faster on these.
I am heartened that this time, even though they knew it might increase congestion (and it often doesn’t), officials decided to prioritize safety. That’s a very important step.
Engineers do know how different layouts work and what the advantages and disadvantages are.
The 15K a day figure is a conservative figure adopted by Minnesota where anything above that requires a traffic study, so it’s the de-facto maximum here, but nationally 20K is more commonly cited figure, (Maryland east of Payne is entirely below the 20K figure according to the Mn/DOT map. Between 15K and the low 20s, where it’s safe to say that 15K will almost always work, say 25K will almost never work there’s a graduated grey area, based on such things as if right turn lanes at key intersections and bus pull-offs are provided, volumes of pedestrians and vehicle cross traffic; the number and spacing of signals and stop signs and if they’re coordinated; the volume of left turning traffic that creates a de-facto single through lane anyway.
You can simulate this, but motorist behavior is another factor- to what extend angry motorists bypass congestion by flooring it down side streets that were never designed for through traffic, or passing in the turn lane, something I’ve seen on Lyndale Ave in Bloomington, or not paying attention to their driving and causing rear-end type crashes. How motorists on a particular street will behave is impossible to model.
As is public reaction- will motorists show up with torches and pitchforks at city hall? In Bloomington a 4-3 lane conversion of Portland Ave is proposed. South of 90th Street the AADT is 3800. No, that’s not a typo; 3800 not 13,800 or 23,800, yet people were there at the meetings complaining about how bad traffic would get if the road was “wrecked” and how they never saw anyone using the bicycle lanes on 86th St.
Overall my hunch is that overall, the Maryland conversion will be workable and become permanent.
I struggle to understand how people have so much fear of a 4 to 3 on a street Portland in Bloomington. It just seems intuitive to me how that main obstacle to through traffic on a four lane street is people making turns and if there’s a turn lane, that obstacle is removed.
I don’t get that far south terribly often, but I’ve used the bike lanes on 86th St. They’d probably get more use if they had a buffer, but there’s only so much space between the curbs.
The ‘this is going to cause horrible congestion” argument is of course ridiculous, but I also heard “I have trouble already backing out of my driveway in rush hour” (which will be compounded with the removal of the unwarranted signal at 82nd), and “my Sunday guests will have to park more than a block away” which seem to have slightly more merit, but probably not enough to not do the project. Most of the previous Bloomington conversions were sold as traffic calming rather than bicycle lanes to discourage this kind of pushback. Parking continued to be allowed, which tended to not be a problem because it was only allowed when traffic was very light anyway.
Again though, there are known engineering solutions? Residential or local access streets can and should be made unappealing for rat run through traffic — with or without a nearby 4:3 conversion.
https://streets.mn/2014/04/08/st-paul-bicycle-plan-completing-the-local-mile/
That’s true and something I’m not opposed to when done correctly (with geometric changes that work like chicanes and traffic circles as opposed to a futile attempt with stop signs), And Richfield which had the option of moving curb lines with Portland put in short medians at major intersections, which both made it easier for pedestrians to cross and discouraged illegal passing in the turn lane. The problem is including these things you’ve vastly exceeded the scope of the original “overlay plus paint” project.
“As is public reaction- will motorists show up with torches and pitchforks at city hall? In Bloomington a 4-3 lane conversion of Portland Ave is proposed. South of 90th Street the AADT is 3800. No, that’s not a typo; 3800 not 13,800 or 23,800, yet people were there at the meetings complaining about how bad traffic would get if the road was “wrecked” and how they never saw anyone using the bicycle lanes on 86th St.”
This seems like a good place for Traffic Engineers to get some spine and tell people that safety is a priority.
MN road designs resulted in 411 people being killed last year. If we had the same fatality rate as The Netherlands then 238 of those would still be alive today. Those 238 deaths are the result of road designs that are worse than road designs in The Netherlands. Imagine if bad structural engineering or aeronautical engineering resulted in that many deaths, just in MN, each and every year.
Your comment about Motorist Behavior is critically important and something that I think our traffic engineers may not understand. For instance, wide lanes cause people to not only drive faster but to pay less attention. Narrower lanes cause people to drive slower and more importantly to pay much closer attention. I believe this is fairly well known yet traffic engineers in Ramsey County and MNDOT and elsewhere continue to create wide lanes that just about scream to drivers to ‘GO FAST’!.
At a macro level …
Our roads are all engineered for speed and so drivers believe that it is their right to drive fast and aggressively on ALL roads to get where they’re going as quickly as possible. And they count on this right and so leave only enough time to get where they’re going as needed if they drive fast and aggressively. Many drive about the same on an interstate as they do on an urban non-limited-access divided or on a 45 MPH two lane suburban road or even on local residential roads.
We need to create a giant distinction between roads primarily for motor vehicles (limited access highways) and streets that have people on foot or bicycle adjacent to them, on them, and crossing them. Drivers need to have a different mindset thrust upon them when they are no longer on an interstate. On Snelling for example, instead of having the same 12-13′ lane width as an interstate it should have 10′ wide lanes. EVERY crossing of more than 20′ total or more than a single lane in each direction should have stop signals. Drivers should begin to think differently about these streets and roads — that they cannot expect to go quickly and be able to finish that last email, but will be forced to drive slower and much more cautiously because if they don’t… they’ll damage their car.
The question is then if Snelling is supposed to be a quaint local street that’s hostile to people in cars and friendly to people on foot or bikes rather than the reverse, then what business does it has being a state trunk highway (or even a county road) rather than a local St. Paul Street. If St Paul asked for Snelling Mn/DOT would gladly give it to them, the catch being there’s perpetual shortage of money in the turnback fund so probably no immediate cash available.
This is the curse of taking outside money and depending on it. In a slightly different vein, our metro LRT / BRT projects bend over backwards to meet federal requirements to qualify for funds. What would they look like if they were locally funded and locally controlled?
Biking the Maryland “field test” – a firsthand report.
I grew up east of Lake Phalen and biked Maryland often. This was back when it was two thru lanes with parking on both sides. While not great, it did get one across town, to/from points west. Until today I hadn’t biked on Maryland in decades. Thought I should give it a try.
Took the Payne Ave bike lane to Maryland and headed east. The new 2.5′ shoulder striping starts at Greenbrier. Feels like it’s really only 18″ wide. Pavement is very rough. The 11′ traffic lane puts the cars awfully close. Then I cross Arcade and the shoulder narrows even more. Can’t be much more than 2′. Had to ride right on the white line to feel like I had adequate clearance to the curb – handlebar was sticking out into traffic. Got to the road’s high point at Forest, looked ahead to Earl, and could see that conditions did not change. So I bailed at that point.
This “test zone” is definitely better for biking than the old 4-lane. Passing cars can swing partly into the turn lane if they choose to. But even on a Wednesday at 10:30 AM, with light traffic, I didn’t feel safe. Won’t be riding it again. It’s a good thing I spent decades finding alternate routes.
Some angry facebookers think this test is all about bikes, so don’t go giving them any ideas!
Thanks for scouting this out, Mark!
Drive this several times the past few days. It is a disaster. Pedestrians are still sauntering across at any which point – usually between intersections as they wander toward the next one – and cars are using the center turn lane as a traffic bypass to get to the intersection 3 or 4 blocks ahead. Why aren’t the police doing anything about the real problem? That is the pedestrians who think they own the road and can do whatever they want.
Is the problem poor design for people on foot or bike?
There are numerous places where it is safer to cross mid-block than at marked crossings. Mid-block can have many fewer threats from drivers and it’s much easier to see them.
Crossings that are at junctions (US) instead of set back from them as they are in Europe have threats coming from not just right & left but also all of the various turn maneuvers. Layer on top of this that the majority of drivers do not yield to people in crossings anyway nor stop and look before turning right on red (or right on green or left on green).
Crossings in Europe are markedly safer and fatality statistics support it. They are set back about 12-15′ from the junction, right-on-red is against the law (the U.S. is one of the few places that still allows this), signal patterns do not allow for any motor vehicle to encounter a crossing when people in the crossing have right-of-way, and drivers very consistently stop for people in or about to enter an un-signalized crossing that has right-of-way. Right-of-way is also very clearly indicated with sharks teeth.
The problem is not poor design if Maryland – it is a bunch of rude pedestrians with a total disregard for anyone else in the community. Watch them step off a curb expecting everyone to watch for them – SA, the Asian market, the Golden Harvest store, the rec center… you name it.
One accident in a dozen years… They are damned fortunate because most of the ones I am talking about act like they want to get hit because it’s a way to make easy money.
I strongly disagree with your comment here. For a different perspective, check out the story of Elizabeth Durham that I referenced above. Here is the grizzly detail (http://www.twincities.com/2016/05/28/st-paul-woman-dies-days-after-being-struck-by-car-in-crosswalk/):
“Durham’s family says that at the time of the accident, they believe her daughter’s bus had already departed, headed toward the middle school. Durham had just seen her son get on his school bus when she started crossing Maryland. The driver of a box truck in one of two westbound lanes on Maryland stopped and waved her across, but 26-year-old Elizabeth K. Soung continued through the intersection in a Toyota Prius in the other westbound lane and struck Durham.”
Another example from Rice Street nearby (http://www.startribune.com/st-paul-boy-in-critical-condition-after-being-hit-on-way-to-school/280516242/):
“Two vehicles were heading north on Rice, Paulos said. When the first one slowed for the boy, the trailing vehicle went around to pass it and struck the boy. The driver was cooperative and did not show signs of being under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Paulos said.
Bikram was walking to Washington Technology Magnet School with his 17-year-old brother and a cousin when he was hit, said Jaga Chapagain, Bikram’s cousin. They were a short distance behind him when the accident happened, Chapagain said.”
Also, here’s a map showing pedestrian/driver crashes there are in Saint Paul: https://streets.mn/2015/08/10/map-monday-saint-paul-pedestrian-crashes/ That’s 9 years of data and Maryland Avenue is lit up like a Christmas tree. Each of those dots is a trip to the hospital that might have been prevented by a safer street design.
Friday morning, 7:30am, Maryland Avenue between Johnson Parkway and Payne Avenue.
https://goo.gl/photos/KLRw3AzxXZN51HT5A