Here’s a map of the city of Minneapolis taken from the recent report that put together a massive amount of city-wide crash data.
Here’s one of the maps in the study, which shows the crash density for the key “concentration” corridors where the bulk of the city’s crashes are located:
The study has a lot of data on crashes, and where they are located with detail about specific modes like bike and pedestrian crashes. It even breaks down patterns by speed limit and traffic volume.
Here are two more interesting charts and maps that are good examples of the others in the report:
It turns out that speed is dangerous, and so are the County streets like Franklin Avenue. These conclusions are not really anything most people didn’t already know. Most of the worst streets are Hennepin County arterial roads, badly designed four-lane “death roads” like NE Broadway or one-way streets like 26th and 28th Streets South.
The report ends with a list of the “Six Es”, e.g. education, enforcement, engineering… And ends with the following conclusion:
This Vision Zero Crash Study documents the trends in bicycle and vehicle crashes in the City of Minneapolis. The Pedestrian Crash Study documented the trends in pedestrian crashes in the City of Minneapolis. The studies inform where and what types of crashes are occurring on city streets, and this information can be used to identify improvements to existing infrastructure such that crashes can be prevented in the future. Specific action items in response to the trends identified in this study will be created in the upcoming Vision Zero Action Plan. This Vision Zero Action Plan will be a collaborative effort that combines the data presented in this study with public and internal city feedback to create measurable and specific next steps for the City of Minneapolis to eliminate fatal and severe injury crashes.
Even if the report is not a call to arms or a big change in direction, having all this data at one’s fingertips does give some hope that Hennepin County Public Works might soon, after decades of inaction, make Minneapolis’ streets safer for people.
I wonder how much worse the downtown area would be if not for the skyways.
Probably better, because then planners and decision makers would be forced to enact actual traffic calming and safety solutions. With the skyways, it’s FAR FAR easier to ignore design problems at the street level than it would be without them.
i mean, it’s hard to balance emergency response times, truck access downtown with additional traffic calming. hard to speed downtown anyways. the problem is sheer volume, along with people not paying attention, both drivers and peds.
The things you mentioned (emergency response, truck access) do not require 3-lane one-way streets. Those functions could be served by maximum two lane one way streets (or two lane streets with one in each direction) if we didn’t fill the entire right of way with countless repetitions of 80 square feet of car for one square square foot of human twice a day. People like to use freight and emergency response as a smoke screen for doubling down on the status quo but, realistically, those functions need very little capacity and the incremental lanes built for single occupant vehicles are very, very expensive in terms of construction, maintenance, and lost opportunity (public right of way can’t contribute to tax coffers!)
It is in everybody’s best interest–including freight haulers and first responders, to make driving alone insanely more inconvenient than it currently is. Whether that means more aggressive traffic calming or something else (cough higher parking prices cough), the status quo just is not feasible over the long run.
Let me put it this way…. In downtown St Paul, when I’m going up Sibley from Shepard, in the winter, when I’m driving the tow truck, I had to basically drive right down the middle of the road, there wasn’t room for a car to pass, despite it being two lanes
Maybe it is in your best interest, but it is absolutely not in my best interest to make driving alone “insanely more inconvenient than it currently is”. Nor do I want absolutely everything I buy to cost more because it’s inconvenient for trucks to drive, or to wait longer for an ambulance, fire truck or police car because they have to weave between parked cars or slow down around tight corners.
You’re absolutely right that it’s not in your interest, but that does not mean that it is not in society’s best interest. Just because some people really enjoy the wealth transfer of driving alone (in dollars as well as unmonetized effects like the crashes that motivated the map) doesn’t mean that it should be a policy goal to continue it. The costs of driving alone are very high but muted by the fact that we spread them thinly to many people–with a disproportionate burden placed on people who live in the communities that are least likely to enjoy the benefits of driving (there is some evidence that was by design, see Rondo in St. Paul).
Furthermore, if driving alone was very expensive, freight delivery would actually decline in cost. Those delivery companies are paying for the congestion that is generated by people driving alone in wasted fuel, unproductive wages, and a host of other ways. So we can make streets safer without using aggressive traffic calming but the end result is that people driving alone will pay more–either with their time or with their wallet.
Considering the majority of society seems to want to drive alone I don’t agree that it’s in societies interest to change things either.
“seems to want” = “has little choice but to” = “is heavily encouraged by subsidies and environmental design”
Freight haulers feel the same problems cars do, only magnified by the numerous restrictions placed upon them. Minneapolis isn’t bad, but St Paul is a pain in the ass. Can’t take 35e south of 94, can’t drive on parkways, including Lexington
it may be hard to speed downtown anyway, but in 2016 I was working downtown and Park Ave was under construction and a car managed to go fast enough to turn and really cream a cyclist right at I think Park and 8th. And wasn’t there also a death of either a construction worker or a traffic officer around there that year too?
It’s kind of shocking how much damage people can do with a car. They’re big objects.
Thanks for the maps! Just a note – I bet you mean 26th & 28th streets, not avenues. And I wish there were a pre- and post-bollarded bike lane comparison, because those streets are still awful to cross as a pedestrian at some times of day.
I agree about the need for information about how it is changing. This is apparently a 10 year data set. There have been many bike-lane associated changes in areas throughout the city. I would love to know how things have changed in those areas.
Yes oops.
The city could make great strides towards better safety if they focused on traffic enforcement and speeding tickets…