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HomeMy WebLinkAboutApril 2, 2012AGENDA COLUMBIA HEIGHTS TRAFFIC COMMISSION CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER MONDAY, APRIL 2,2012; 5:30 P.M. L ROLL CALL II. APPROVAL OF DECEMBER 5, 2011 MINUTES III. OLD BUSINESS None. IV. OTHER OLD BUSINESS V. NEW BUSINESS A. REQUEST TO INSTALL CROSS WALK ACROSS 43 AVENUE AT JACKSON STREET Ms. Kelly Dunn lives on the 4200 block of Jackson Street. She routinely walks to the shopping center at 43 and Central Avenues. Ms. Dunn is blind and has difficulty crossing 43 Avenue near Jackson Street because of the noise in the area and inattentive drivers. Ms. Dunn has requested a crosswalk across 43 Avenue at Jackson Street to draw attention to pedestrians in the area. South of 43 Avenue, there is existing sidewalk on Quincy Street, Jackson Street, Van Buren Street, and Central Avenue. With the shopping center, 43 Avenue is a heavily traveled street with both vehicle and truck traffic. In response to other complaints by pedestrians, staff has installed "Watch for Pedestrians" signs near the intersections of 43 Avenue and Quincy Street and 43 Avenue and Central Avenue. City staff cannot recommend installing crosswalks that leave pedestrians stranded in the street. Staff would like to pursue completing the sidewalk along the north side of 43 Avenue from Quincy Street and Central Avenue. Sidewalk is already in place for a short distance east of Quincy Street and west of Central Avenue. The distance between the two sections of walk is about 580'. Appropriate locations for pedestrian ramps and crosswalks would be determined during design of the sidewalk. RECOMMENDED MOTION: Move to recommend the City Council complete the sidewalk on the north side of 43 rd Avenue from Quincy Street to Central Avenue. Traffic Commission Agenda April 2, 2012 Page 2 VII. REPORTS A. CITY ENGINEER SIGNAL TIMING ON CENTRAL AVENUE Attached is an e -mail from Kevin Schwartz with MnDOT concerning the traffic signal timing on Central Avenue. The side streets are set to change to green every 90 seconds during non -rush hour times and every 2'h minutes during rush hour. New data is being collected by MnDOT in May. 2. "NO PARKING" ON 49 AVENUE Visibility of vehicles and pedestrians in the vicinity of the Columbia Heights High School has been discussed several times at Traffic Commission meetings. To improve visibility, the City Council has designated "No Parking" on 49 Avenue near the intersections of Fillmore Street and Johnson Street. Both the School District and Anoka County agree with these designations. Additional street lighting is also being installed. The "No Parking" areas are shown on the attached map. B. POLICE CHIEF C. COMMISSIONERS VIII. ADJOURNMENT The City of Columbia Heights does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the admission or access to, or treatment or employment in, its services, programs, or activities. Upon request, accommodation will be provided to allow individuals with disabilities to participate in all City of Columbia Heights' services, programs, and activities. Auxiliary aids for handicapped persons are available upon request when the request is made at least 96 hours in advance. Please call the City Council Secretary at 763!706 -3611 to make arrangements. (TDD /763- 706 -3692 for deaf only.) UNAPPROVED OFFICIAL PROCEEDINGS COLUMBIA HEIGHTS TRAFFIC COMMISSION CITY COUNCIL CHAMBER MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2011; 5:30 P.M. CALL TO ORDER The meeting was called to order by Chairperson Carlson at 5:31 p.m. ROLL CALL Members present: Carlson, Doty, Goodman, Olson, Tyler Staff present: Kathy Young, Assistant City Engineer Ted Fischer, Police Sergeant Sue Schmidtbauer, Public Works Secretary Council Liaison: Donna Schmitt APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motioned by Doty, seconded by Olson to approve the minutes of November 7, as presented. Motion carried unanimously. OLD BUSINESS The MUTCD guidelines for installing STOP or YIELD signs at intersections on local streets were provided to the Commissioners. A. REQUEST TO INSTALL "STOP" SIGNS AT THE INTERSECTION OF 6 TH STREET AND 43 AVENUE Ms. Dorothy LaHoud of 4209 6th Street requested stop signs at 43 Avenue and 6th Street. The concern is a blind spot at the intersection. At the November meeting, the Commission reviewed this intersection as well as the accident records for the intersection of 7 Street and 43 Avenue. The Commission tabled this request in order to obtain additional information concerning the 7 Street intersection. 43 Avenue and 6 Street The visibility at the intersection is somewhat limited on the south side of the intersection because of the higher ground elevations. Sidewalks are available on 6 Street. On 6th Street, traffic stops at 42 Avenue and 44 Avenue. On 43 Avenue, traffic stops at 5th Street and Jefferson Street. There have been two reported traffic accidents in the last five years, one in 2008 and one in 2007. 43 Avenue and 7 Street The intersection is at the crest of a hill limiting visibility. On 7 Street, traffic yields at 41" Avenue and stops at 44 Avenue. On 43 Avenue, traffic stops at 5 Street and Jefferson Street. There have been five reported accidents in the last five years; one in 2011, one in 2010, and three in 2007. One of the accidents in 2007 was caused by an Traffic Commission Agenda December 5, 2011 Page 2 underage driver. This accident should not be included when reviewing the guidelines for yield or stop sign placement. Traffic counts were done for 48 hours on 43 Avenue and 7 Street. The average daily traffic was approximately 315 on 43 Avenue and 210 on 7th Street. This is considered normal traffic for a residential street. Ms. LaHoud stated her family is afraid to drive down 6 th Street because it is dangerous, especially due to the blind spot. She sees a lot of stop signs in Columbia Heights and wonders why they are there; there are stop signs where there are no blind spots. Carlson stated there are already too many stop signs in Columbia Heights. Ms. LaHoud stated only one stop sign is needed on 6 th Street. Carlson stated if cars would yield like they are supposed to there would be no problem. Ms. LaHoud asked if 43 Street is supposed to be a "through" street, at 6 th and 43 Carlson stated vehicles are to yield to the right no matter what direction they are heading. Olson said they could be considered "neighborhood" streets; none of them are "through" streets. Olson stated that none of the criteria has been met for a stop or yield sign at this intersection, per the MN guidelines. Tyler, Doty and Goodman all agreed. Carlson advised Ms. LaHoud that the MN guidelines state we cannot recommend what she is asking. Ms. LaHoud brought up another matter. She was at Savers on Tuesday and the parking lot was packed. The handicap parking notice is on the ground, there is no sign. She has a handicap license plate but she couldn't find a place to park so she parked at edge of the lot and shopped. She heard her car mentioned over the speaker and she was asked to move her car. She had to park at a different spot on 49 There is no handicap parking in the new area of the lot, only in the old area. They need more handicap spots. Young will contact the City planner and find out if Savers has the correct number of handicap spots for that size lot. Sergeant Fischer advised there is a city ordinance regarding the required number of handicap spots. Motioned by Olson, seconded by Doty to deny the request to install stop signs at 43 Avenue and 6 th Street. Motion carried. Young stated the Commission should discuss 43 Avenue and 7 Street. It is difficult to see oncoming traffic at the crest of the hill. There is more of a visibility problem on 43 Avenue. Traffic on 43 Avenue should yield to traffic on 7 Street. Olson questioned the value of a yield sign. Young stated it assigns the right of way. States is it difficult to see traffic. Carlson feels the only benefit of yield signs is that they mean slow down to most people. Goodman agreed. Olson stated this is similar to what we just turned down and that the yield law is in effect anyway. Goodman stated with a stop sign on the hill traffic could not stop on a bad winter day as you would not be able to get going. Tyler stated the difference between 6 th Street and 7 Street is visibility but he does not think this justifies a yield sign. If it can be demonstrated that placing a sign can significantly reduce accidents then he would be all for it, otherwise there are already too many signs. Olson would be swayed more if he had more pertinent data. These are just basic accidents that happen all over the city. Schmitt agreed. The difference would be visibility but if drivers are not paying attention it doesn't matter if there is a yield sign or not. Traffic Commission Agenda December 5, 2011 Page 3 Motioned by Olson, seconded by Goodman to move to deny a yield sign at the intersection of 43 Avenue and 7th Street. Motion carried. OTHER OLD BUSINESS None NEW BUSINESS None. OTHER NEW BUSINESS Carlson received a call from Virgil Percing complaining of speed going through the area of 2205 40 Avenue. He claims to have brought this up with someone from the City. Carlson asked him to write a letter to Kathy Young. No letter was received by the City. Carlson requested the Police Department to go over and take a look once in a while. Carlson sees nothing out of the ordinary. Cars may be speeding to get up the hill from 40 and Central to Reservoir. Goodman stated Captain Roddy once had a radar gun down there. Young will check if we have any reports or data. Olson stated that 40 Avenue should be a through street. Carlson stated citizens are not good at estimating speeds; speeds seem faster when a person is standing on the street. Sergeant Fischer will set up the speed trailer to obtain some data but there are a lot of stop signs on 40"' so will see. Schmitt questioned the speed trailer on 40 between Arthur and Stinson Boulevard. MnDOT is still looking at the entire corridor regarding traffic signals. Olson asked about 53 Avenue again. REPORTS None ADJOURNMENT Motioned by Olson, seconded by Tyler to adjourn the meeting at 6:00 p.m. Motion carried unanimously. Respectfully submitted, Sue Schmidtbauer Public Works Secretary V.A. � e 1.� V ow w Z) z w Q Q �C F— z w U O F— I-- v z O LL W Z) w Q C) m d d , , -is N3u V1I.A.1. From: "Schwartz, Kevin (DOT)" <kevin.schwartz @state.mn.us> To: Kevin Hansen <Kevin. Hansen@ci. columbia-heights.mn.us> CC: Kathy Young < Kathy. Young @ci.columbia- heights.mn.us> Date: 3/15/2012 2:03 PM Subject: RE: COMPLAINT CENTRAL AVE NE Kevin, The signals on Central Ave are coordinated and the wait for the next green light is related to the coordinated cycle lengths. If you just miss the green, you may wait around 90 seconds during the non -rush hours for the next green and up to 2 and a half minutes during the afternoon rush hour. The transit signal priority does not affect the length of this wait as it only affects the amount of green time given to the left turning movements or cross streets. For example, if the signal receives a transit signal priority call, it may reduce the amount of green time for a left turn during that cycle which may cause the queue to not be cleared on one cycle. We can adjust the amount of time the left turn or cross street can be shortened and we could set it to 0 if we think the left turn or cross street is having trouble clearing the queue on a regular basis. We are currently taking new counts at the intersections in Columbia Heights and we will be installing new coordination timing plans in May. However, I'm not expecting the cycle lengths to be that much different as the volumes probably haven't changed a lot since 2009 in Columbia Heights. I will take a look at the transit signal priority settings so if you know of any intersections that are having trouble clearing the queue, please let me know and I can look at adjusting the amount of green time that can be taken away from that movement. Thanks, Kevin Kevin Schwartz, P.E., PTOE Signal Optimization Engineer MnDOT Metro Traffic Engineering 1500 W. County Rd. B -2 Roseville, MN 55113 Phone: 651- 234 -7840 Fax: 651-234-7850 kevin.schwartz@state.mn.us VII.A.2. OK . k t � s F {s 7' 'IS NOSNH tt V � Pip L i i � yt, 1� OK . k t � s ! Kathy oung - Request for a crosswalk Page 1 From: "Kelly Dunn" <kelly @handytech.us> To: <kathy. young @ci.columbia - heights.mn.us> Date: 4/1/2012 6:49 PM Subject: Request for a crosswalk April 1, 2012 To the Traffic Commission. I am writing this letter to request your help in creating a more safe traffic situation around my house. In June of 2011 we moved into a home at 4257 Jackson Street Northeast. We were excited about the convenience of the location of the home in relation to the Rainbow Foods on 43rd Avenue right across the street. As visually impaired people who do not drive, the idea of being able to get to the grocery store without taking cabs, or riding busses seemed like a dream to us. When we looked at the home in March, the compressors from the store were making a little noise, but after we moved in we discovered that with warmer weather, the compressors have to work harder, making for more background noise. When we leave our home to go to the grocery store, we usually walk out of our front door and take the sidewalk down to 43rd and cross at the corner of 43rd and Jackson. With the noise of the compressors we discovered rather quickly that it is very hard to read traffic to cross the street safely. The noise from the compressor creates just enough of a din that it is nearly impossible to decide when it is safe to cross the street. There is a stop sign on Jackson, but the traffic has to slow down anyways to make the turn since the intersection is a T and Jackson doesn't go through on the north side. The traffic from 43rd doesn't have to slow down at all, and this is where the problem comes in. If there was a crosswalk painted on the street with a yield sign, this might alert traffic to the presence of pedestrians. I have noticed that there is a lot of pedestrian traffic at this intersection because of the grocery store and if a crosswalk were present, it would make things safer for everyone. I spoke with Kathy Young and she mentioned the concern of having a crosswalk would direct traffic into the street on the north side because there is no sidewalk. Right now, when we cross the street, we need to walk in the street because there is no other clear option. People are walking in the street anyways, so obviously this situation isn't particularly safe for anyone. Coming up with some kind of solution would be beneficial to the community since there is quite a bit of pedestrian traffic here. If there is anything else that I can do to assist this process feel free to contact me. I am happy to be of assistance in any way that I can. Best Regards, Kelly Dunn Training Manager Handy Tech North America kelly @handytech.us 651- 636 -5184 4110 Central Avenue Northeast, Suite 104