Engineering Study for Pedestrian Crosswalk at Armstrong Blvd/161st Ave

In 2011 Anoka County installed, at the City of Ramsey's request, a pedestrian crosswalk at the intersection of Armstrong Blvd and 161st Ave. The crosswalk is signed and marked appropriately to current standards.  Central Park is located on the northeast corner of the intersection.  This park is home to organized sporting events and a large playground and picnic area that is frequented by families from the surrounding neighborhoods.  The parking lots are also used during Game Fair which draws close to 50,000 people over the two weekend event.  The city, with the county's permission, extended our trail system through their ROW, which entailed extending a culvert and connecting our trail system to the crosswalk. At the June 18th 2013 PW Committee meeting staff received a request from a resident living close to the intersection to provide a trail segment on the west side of Armstrong Blvd at the crosswalk location, so people wouldn't have to stand in the ditch while waiting to use the crosswalk and also to make  the crosswalk ADA compliant. This part of the trail was constructed in 2014 as part of the trail project that connects Alpine Dr to 161st ave and is now in use.  The second part of the request was to ask Anoka County, if they would be agreeable to install some fashion of pedestrian activated crossing signal, to help motorists be more aware of pedestrians using the crosswalk.  Staff contacted Anoka County Highway in 7/13 and requested the pedestrian activated crosswalk warning system. The next step would be to complete some type of an engineering evaluation to determine if the crosswalk would meet warrants for some type of a pedestrian crossing signal, or if the intersection would meet warrants for a signal. Since the crosswalk was installed by City request, ACHD would be looking for the City to take the lead in completing the engineering evaluation. If the crosswalk or intersection met warrants for some type of a pedestrian or traffic signal, then the county’s standard Cost Share policy would apply, and ACHD would look to work with the City on a JPA and budgeting for the construction of the pedestrian or traffic signal.  If the pedestrian  crossing or intersection does not meet warrants, we could still work with the City on a JPA for the construction, but the full cost share of the pedestrian or traffic signal would be the City’s.  On July 1st 2014 staff monitored the cross walk for activity from 6:00 pm-7:00pm.  This hour was chosen because staff felt the athletic activities starting at Central Part at that time would generate the largest amount of pedestrians.  During that hour 12 pedestrians used the crosswalk. 6 had no wait time, 3 had a 5 second delay in crossing the road and 3 had a 24 second delay in crossing.  224 vehicles were counted on Armstrong Blvd during this hour.  A search of the police records show no pedestrian/ vehicle crashes in the last 5 years.
 

10 Minutes

If we follow the The Uncontrolled Pedestrian Crossing Evaluation Flowchart discussed earlier this evening, the recommendation would be to consider no changes to the crossing.  The Pedestrian Level of Service (LOS) is rated at a Level C which is defined as "delay noticeable to pedestrians, but not inconveniencing"

Trail dedication fund and general fund

Staff recommendation is to leave the crossing as is until pedestrian volumes increase

Motion to accept staff recommendation  to leave the pedestrian crosswalk at Armstrong Blvd and 161st Ave as is, until pedestrian volumes increase, or reject staff recommendation and chose alternate recommendation based on committee discussion.