4.0. SR 11-18-1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Minnesota Department of Transportation ~'(~~~~ District 3 1991 Industrial Park Road Baxter, MN 56401 November 7, 1996 Tel: 218/828-2460 Fax: 218/828-2210 Toll Free: 1/800/657-3971 Mr. Terry J. Maurer MSA Consulting Engineers 1326 Energy Park Drive St. Paul, MN 55108 Dear Mr. Maurer: RE: C.S. 7106 (T.H. 169) Elk River Thank you for your letter dated October 30, 1996, addressing the safety concerns on Trunk Highway (T.H.) 169 through the City of Elk River. We are aware of the two fatalities that have occurred within the past two months and share your safety concerns along this stretch of highway. As you know, Mn/DOT prides itself in continually striving to improve the safety of our highways through operations, maintenance, and construction projects. On occasion, when a fatality does occur, a review of the accident and contributing factors is conducted to see if improvement to the roadway system is needed. An in-depth review of the fatalities on T.H. 169 is currently taking place. I would like to address the issues of your letter that we are presently reviewing for possible immediate action and then address the remaining issues that need more discussion. >> Length of Yellow Lights There are statewide timing guidelines that govern interval timing. Two variables, speed and grade, influence length of yellow. At 85 percentile speed of 55 miles per hour and level grade, it is recommended to be 5.0 seconds. Main and School Streets are set at 5.0 Seconds. Jackson Street is programmed at 5.5 seconds due to somewhat higher speed and southbound downgrade. Studies have shown that yellow times longer than guidelines entice drivers to run yellow intervals. We feel the current settings are most favorable (the yellow is timed for 55 miles per hour while the actual posted speed is 45 miles per hour) and are in compliance with Statewide timing guidelines. >> At-Grade Pedestrian Crossing We time our pedestrian intervals to allow for someone to cross the entire roadway within one pedestrian cycle. A pedestrian cycle consists of a brief walk period, followed by a flashing don't walk period of time. The total time available to cross is 40, 41, and 43 seconds for Main, Jackson, and School Streets respectively. These times include "Walk," flashing "Do Not Walk," yellow, and red times. Again, these times are in accordance with guidelines and do allow adequate time to safely cross T.H. 169 at a leisurely pace (approximately 4 feet per second). My experience has shown this is more of an education issue than improper timing.. The walk is just intended to "get people wa/ting" offthe curb; the" flashing" don't walk is intended to get pedestrians all the way across prior to the steady don't walk indication. We have provided education materials to Keli Olin on this and supplied Keli with a contact from the Department of Public Safety (Wayne Rebischke; 1-800-630-0271) t° help in this endeavor. An equal opportunity employer