Consider the Installation of Stop Signs and an In-Street Pedestrian Crossing Sign Near 150th Lane NW and Ute Street NW

On April 3, 2012 staff received a petition signed by twelve property owners in the neighborhood near the intersection of 150th Lane NW and Ute Street NW, including three of the four properties that make up the corner lots.  They are requesting the installation of stop signs at this intersection, consideration for the installation of an in-street pedestrian crossing at the location of the existing City trail crossing on150th Lane, and reduction of the speed limit on 150th Lane to 15 MPH (see attached maps).  Staff has reviewed the signatures and compared them to Anoka County property records, and there appears to be one signature that does not match the property owner as identified in the Anoka County system.  There is often a lag in updating the County system once a property transfers, so this may be the case for this particular property, but at this time staff is considering the petition complete with eleven confirmed property owner signatures.

City Charter requires the Council to receive all petitions submitted at the next available meeting, so this item was placed on the April 10th regular City Council agenda as a consent case and accepted.  Traffic related requests such as this are typically forwarded to the Public Works Committee prior to Council action, therefore the item is before you tonight for consideration.

The organizer of the petition states that vehicles travel through the area at a high rate of speed, and use these roadways and a way to avoid the traffic signal on Alpine Drive and TH 47.  It should be noted that Waco Street and 149th Avenue are Municipal State Aid (MSA) streets in the City's transportation system.  Staff has performed a cursory review of the intersection in anticipation of this case and offers the following information.

• Accident history - Staff has requested an accident history report for this intersection, along with 150th Lane and Waco Street.  The information was not available at the time of case preparation, but should be available for the meeting.
   
• Traffic - twenty-four hour traffic counts were taken on all four legs of this intersection by public works crews on Tuesday May 8th.  The police department also placed the speed trailer along 150th Lane for a twelve hour period on April 17th.  The peak hour count represents an approximate average value of 10% of the total daily traffic volume, and was found to occurred on 150th Lane between approximately 3:30 pm and 4:30 pm.  The results of this traffic volume study are as follows:
   

STREET	LEG	DAILY TRAFFIC	PEAK HOUR TRAFFIC
Ute St	West	184
Tonto St	North	170
151st Ave	East	142
150th Ln	South	417	51
INTERSECTION TOTAL		913

• Sight Distance - The sight line for all approaches to this intersection are good and unobstructed.

The organizer of the petition has been notified that this item is being placed on the Public Works Committee agenda.

The Minnesota Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MNMUTCD) provides guidance on the placement of stop signs.  The manual states that in many low traffic volume situations with no unusual history of intersection crashes, no control is an effective strategy because each driver is required to assume responsibility for proceeding safely through the intersection.  This uncontrolled intersection can be considered a low volume intersection as is evidenced by the
daily traffic counts shown above, therefore the installation of stop signs does not appear to be a good solution for this intersection.

The south leg of the intersection (150th Lane) is by far the busiest as it functions as a collector route off our our MSA system to both Alpine Drive and Th 47.  While speed was not a concern on this roadway; average speed of 20 MPH, maximum speed of 31 MPH, and 85th percentile speed of 24 MPH, the roadway curvature and mid-block City trail crossing do provide some special circumstances that may warrant additional  investigation.  A speed study could be requested from the state Commissioner of Transportation, in an effort to determine whether this section of street could receive a lower posted speed limit.  An in-street pedestrian crossing may also further accentuate the striped trail crossing and serve to slow traffic through the area.  Street chokers could also be consider for the roadway section at the location of the trail crossing, and could be incorporated into the design when this area is due for road maintenance activities, which is currently due for a sealcoat application.  This type of improvement would be additional work beyond the scope of a typical sealcoat.  Future road maintenance and reconstruction throughout the City are currently being discussed by the Council, and the timing for this street will be budget dependent.

The investigation and analysis of this petition request has been and will continue to be accomplished utilizing staff time.

Staff recommends the following:

• A stop sign not be posted on this intersection.
• Staff should investigate the opportunity to include enhanced signage and chokers on 150th Lane when future maintenance activities are completed in the area.  Since this is an improvement that is more than what is typically done, and is at the request of the residents in the area, additional assessments may be required.

Additionally, if the Council and residents should desire, a request could be forwarded to the state Commissioner of Transportation to request a speed study be conducted on this segment of 150th Lane.

Based upon discussion.