Minutes - Planning Commission - 10/09/2014

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Ramsey is unique in that it is surrounded on three sides by a triangle formed by the Rum and Mississippi Rivers. There are only two bridges crossing these rivers in the Ramsey area: the Bunker Lake Blvd. bridge and the Mississippi River bridge on 169 in Anoka. This means that Highway Ten must carry a significant load of the traffic to and from Ramsey. No other metro city has a similar situation. Not surprisingly the traffic volume on Highway Ten has a significant relationship to Ramsey's growth. Comparing MNDOT traffic volumes taken from AFR station 352 on the western edge of the city (the closest AFR measurement station to Ramsey) and city population figures show traffic volumes to have a strong correlation with Ramsey population. While admittedly the data sample is small (from 2002- 2011),the Pearson correlation of -.560 suggests the higher the traffic volume the lower the population growth. While correlation is not causation and a great deal of further analysis will be needed to confirm this relationship, certainly the numbers point to the importance of Highway Ten in any city planning. As has been noted in various state reports, Highway Ten is a four -lane highway with five stop lights within or on the edge of city boundaries, but it carries freeway levels of traffic during peak hours resulting in significant delays and an unacceptable number of highway accidents and deaths. The highway remains a major route to the Fargo- Moorhead area, the Brainerd Lakes region and Mille Lacs, which explains highest traffic volumes recorded by AFR 352 are in the summer on Fridays and Sundays. As the Twin Cities population grows it will put even greater pressure on Highway Ten, putting a brake on the city's growth and economic development. No one wants to move to a city with one of the longest commutes in the region and no business wants to locate where traffic curtails their ability to attract customers and work with suppliers.