This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
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This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Trees, shrubs, fences, buses,
and parked vehicles should be limited in crossing areas so kids can be seen by
vehicles in time for the vehicles to stop for them. Obstructions should be removed within the
school grounds and along the school routes to school. This is most important at elementary schools
because the children are smaller. A
three foot high shrub would be a problem at an elementary school where it
wouldn’t be a problem at a high school.
When possible, students
should cross traffic in groups so they will be more visible. If there are concentrations of students who
walk or bicycle along the same route, a “walking school bus” or “bicycle train”
system can be developed. The students go
to their corner at a certain time and get “picked-up” by the group in the same
fashion a school bus operates. These
work best if an adult volunteer goes with the group, starting at the first
“stop.”
If adult crossing guards or
student patrols are used, they should have whistles to catch the attention of
motorists and/or students. They are also
required to wear high visibility apparel (per the Federal Highway
Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic
Control Devices). This apparel (safety vests)
should comply with ANSI 107-1999. AAA is a great resource for developing your
school patrol procedures.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
The Orton Family Foundation of Vermont has created an interactive online tool to help inform citizens about the impacts of Big Box stores (i.e. Home Depot, Wal Mart, Target,...) called Big Box Evaluator. The evaluator is supposed to be a resource for residents who are concerned about a proposed Big Box in their town, although it points out positive aspects of Big Boxes as well. Traffic is just one of the many components of the evaluator. Overall, it appears to be very sensitive to the inputs of the user. I am guessing most residents who find the evaluator will give it negative inputs, which will spit out negative outputs. I recommend developers of big boxes do an honest evaluation with the tool so you can refute any negative evaluations that come up at public meetings.
Posted at 08:03 AM in Traffic Impact Studies | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
This area of your plan requires working with the city engineering department and possibly hiring a consultant traffic engineer. The plan will analyze the operations of your driveways onto the public street system and the nearby public street intersections. You will need to work with your city’s engineering department if your plan is looking at changing any physical features such as sidewalks, signs, or traffic signals. Possible outcomes of this analysis may be:
Posted at 08:26 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Google rolled out its "street maps" function for the Twin Cities today.
Google staff drove around with cameras on their cars and have posted the video on their maps page. Just click on the "street maps" button, find a road highlighted in blue, and click on it. The viewing buttons are intuitive.
Here is a screen shot that shows Highway 100 from the Minnetonka Blvd interchange by my office.
When I was in Maple Grove we had a private company drive the streets and provide us with a similar video log. They were a start up company located in Maple Grove, so I think we got a pretty good deal. The theory was that we could be more responsive if we could pull up views of a street while we were talking on the phone with a resident. Google is going to save me a lot of time, but I will still get out of my office to verify things in the field.
For instance, here is a slightly outdated view of the I-35W bridge. Google may want to take this one off of their map. As my mentor Shelly Johnson beat into me when I was a newly minted traffic engineer - get out of the office and drive around to see how the real world works.
Posted at 08:22 AM in Interesting Projects | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
Minimizing the amount of time students mix with
vehicles is the low hanging fruit of the traffic safety plan. These measures typically don’t cost anything,
but they are usually specific to each school. You are trying to control where students come into the school and leave
the school so they don’t mix with a lot of vehicles. An example would be having parents drop off
their kids at a school entrance instead of letting them out on the street. Another example is loading students into
buses or vehicles in a tightly controlled manner: (1) no vehicles are allowed to move in the
loading area while students are being loaded, (2) an adult is in charge who signals
the vehicles or buses when all of the students are loaded, (3) the vehicles
leave in a single file line and (4) the next platoon of vehicles or buses are
loaded.
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
When I sat in the chair as a traffic engineer for the City of Maple Grove I'd get the occasional call from a resident telling me we need a traffic signal at such and such intersection. My experience is that as a resident, your best bet to get something "public works" related is to start with your city council person or city engineer. They are the most invested in listening to you. I work with a lot of great county and state engineers who are very responsive, but my experience has been that they dig further into requests when they officially come in from the city vs. coming from a resident. So if you are Joe Q. Public and have a traffic concern, I would call your city engineer first. They'll know who to guide you to if they aren't the best person to handle your call.
Now that I am a consultant, the request for a traffic signal usually comes from a property manager or developer. The conversation usually goes like this: Hi Mike, this is Judy, I have a twenty acre parcel I am looking at developing, I have a tenant lined up (pharmacy, grocery store, big box, etc.) but they say they don't want to build on the property unless there is a signal at the main driveway on the highway, can you call up Mn/DOT and get us a traffic signal approved, and by the way - hopefully they'll see the need and just put it in for free.
I previously wrote about Mn/DOT's ICE Report process where they are required to look at roundabouts, all way stop signs, etc in addition to signals. In addition Minnesota Statute, via the Minnesota Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (called the MMUTCD), governs the installation of signals on all public roads (as well as all other traffic devices). An engineering study per the MMUTCD needs to be done to determine if we need a traffic signal. The study involves analyzing the amount of traffic on the main street in combination with the side street. This always starts with the existing traffic volumes and may be expanded to near term future traffic volumes if a big development is imminent. My experience is that you need a big box (Target, Wal-Mart, grocery store, etc.) or a several 100,000 square foot office complex to get to the minimum thresholds (jargon alert: traffic signal warrants) of starting to need a traffic signal, but it is very situational. You won't meet the minimum thresholds with just a restaurant, strip center, or pharmacy alone.
Most counties as well as Mn/DOT push back very hard about putting in traffic signals unless there is heavy traffic throughout the day. These jurisdictions have a backlog of locations where they would like to put in traffic signals, but don't have the funds to build them (the last I heard, Hennepin County has a backlog of 100+ intersections and they build about two a year with their own funds). On top of this, it is proven that crashes go up when a traffic signal is put in vs. just stop signs on the side street (rear end crashes go up significantly, but hopefully severe crashes go down). So signals aren't a pure silver bullet.
So if you are a property manager or a developer, here is the process I recommend (which isn't that much different from what a resident should do):
Posted at 10:10 AM in Traffic Impact Studies, Traffic Signals | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
This is an installment of an 8 part series on School Safety Plans. The next portion will be posted next Monday.
The first step in any planning exercise should be determining your current situation. Then you can develop alternatives for changing the existing system. Here is a checklist for documenting your school's existing transportation system:
Posted at 08:00 AM in School Traffic Management | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)


