The Death of 4-Lane Death Roads

If you don’t know about Saint Paul’s Maryland Avenue, you really should.

To catch up, take a look at these past Streets.MN articles:

• June 20, 2016 – Maryland Avenue Pedestrian Safety Meeting Recap
  
• May 19, 2017 – So Much Depends on the Next Six Weeks on Maryland Avenue
  
• July 12, 2017 – Maryland Avenue: The Pedestrian Experience
  
• August 16, 2017 – Podcast #104: Redesigning Maryland Avenue with Jim McDonough

In short, Ramsey County and Saint Paul conducted a 4-3 lane conversion test on Maryland Avenue after the death of Erin Durham, who was trying to cross the street. This changed a 4-lane street into a 3-lane street with a center turn lane. What was originally supposed to be only a 6 week test ended up lasting over a year.

At this point the Maryland Avenue 4-3 lane conversion test has concluded. Ramsey County and the City of Saint Paul decided to keep the conversion to three lanes, including two pedestrian refuges that were sought by the community.

 

 

Ramsey County has posted several pages of data they took on the test here. Of particular note are the crash statistics from before and after:

The number of crashes were reduced by almost 20% and additionally the proportion of crashes resulting in injury were also reduced from 26% to 18%.

Other notes from the county:

• Average speed has been decreased
• Travel times are reasonable
• No significant increase of traffic on side streets

Finally, the county’s meeting announcing the final decision about Maryland Avenue had far more empty chairs than people. A controversial beginning fizzled out to a functional arterial street.

A Major Precedent

Why is this so important? Both the city and county have previously said that streets with average daily traffic (ADT) of more than 15,000 cars/day are not good candidates for this kind of lane reduction (“road diet”). On the other hand the Federal Highway Administration has only noted negative impacts from road diets when they are implemented on streets with ADT greater than 20,000, and many other cities use this number as a guideline for implementing road diets.

Maryland Avenue, however, has an ADT in this section between 21,000 and 23,000 according to the county. And it works.

In Saint Paul here are some examples of other 4-lane streets and their approximate traffic volumes:

• Arcade Street – 11,000 – 16,000 ADT
• East 7th Street – 18,000 – 22,000 ADT
• White Bear Avenue – 18,000 – 23,000 ADT
• Rice Street – 11,000 – 15,000 ADT
• Dale Street – 13,000 – 23,000 ADT
• Cretin – 7,000 – 15,000 ADT (Grand – Marshall), 23,000 – 26,000 (by I-94)
• Hamline – 8,000 – 19,000 ADT
• West 7th Street – 13,000 – 16,000 ADT (Downtown to 35E)
• Maryland Avenue – 10,000 – 14,000 ADT (Johnson to White Bear Ave, east of this project), 22,000 ADT (Payne to Arkwright), 15,000 ADT (Rice to Jackson)

Most of the high ADTs for these streets occur in the blocks leading up to I-35E or I-94, but maintaining 4 lanes for the rest of the street is unnecessarily dangerous.

Bill Lindeke has written about these “4-Lane Death Roads” on numerous occasions. See here, here, and here.

Each of these streets is controlled by Ramsey County or by MnDOT. Each entity has their own design standards but cooperate with the city’s Public Works department when making critical decisions about street layout.

Given the success we’ve experienced on Maryland Avenue there is a clear precedent for each of these streets going forward. Unless the ADT is well above Maryland Avenue’s 23,000, it should either automatically be reprogrammed to 3 lanes (even 2 lanes?) or at least tested for a reduction as Maryland Avenue was. The safety benefits to drivers, pedestrians, and bicycle riders is too clear to ignore.

Reducing the number of lanes clearly benefits car drivers by providing a space to wait for left-turning movements – this is the main reason the number and severity of crashes has been reduced. However, the safety improvements for people moving outside of cars cannot be overstated. “Multiple-threat crashes” have not only been the cause of numerous deaths and injuries over the years, but the threat has additionally made people feel unsafe or unwilling to cross these streets. The extra space available after implementing a 4-3 lane conversion can be used for bicycle lanes or wider sidewalks.

Just like on Maryland Avenue, this change can be a win-win for citizens all over Saint Paul. So what stands in the way of this progress?

Fear.

Car drivers fear they will lose time.
Homeowners fear they’ll experience extra traffic on side streets.
Business owners fear they will lose customers.
Elected officials fear they will lose votes.

Despite these fears, this needs to become the new normal for residents and visitors of St. Paul. And the successful test on Maryland Avenue provides the data to back up our engineers, our city council members, and our county commissioners.