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Anoka County's transportation system has been shaped to a great extent by its location in relation to physical features. The Mississippi River influenced the location of Old Highway 10 and the railroad, in turn, influenced the location of new Highway 10. The river has also been a constraint to the development of a grid of arterials and, therefore, has influenced the development of major transportation facilities at available river crossing points. In the southeastern portion of the County the Chain of Lakes has, in a manner similar to the Mississippi River in the west, influenced the location of Old T.H. 8 and Interstate 3SW. Growth Trends Anoka County, because of its location within the north central portion of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area, finds itself largely on the periphery of dense urban development. With the exception of its southern panhandle, extending along the east bank of the Mississippi River into the heart of the Metropolitan Area, the major portion of Anoka County is sparsely developed with prevalent population densities of less than 1,000 per square mile. Urban type population densities in the 5,000-10,000 population/square mile range can be found in the Columbia Heights, Fridley, Coon Rapids and Anoka communities. The highest concentrations of population are located along the major trans- portation routes - State Routes 65 and 47, Interstate 694, and U.S. 10. The direct relationship between accessibility and population growth is again verified by the development trends in Anoka County. In spite of its physical development problems, the County experienced the highest percentage increase in population of any county in the metropolitan area over the 1960-1970 decade. Anoka County's popula- tion growth has as its basis the growth of the entire metropolitan area. The County's relative ease of accessibility to Minneapolis, St. Paul and the suburban employment centers, together with its total avail- ability of land suitable for development, have enabled it to capitalize upon the growth potentials of the metropolitan area. It is extremely likely that this trend will continue. During the 1960-1970 decade, Anoka County's population increased from 85,916 to 154,556 or about 80 percent. Only Dakota County came close to equaling this growth rate. An investigation of population growth within the County in- dicates that over 80 percent of the total increase occurred within the major incoFporated communities. While natural increase as well as in-migration was the basis for the growth in county population, over 57 percent (39,200 persons) of the increase was attributed to in-migration or a movement of new citizens to the County. If growth trends of 1960-1973 and 1970-1975 are compared (see Table 1), certain shifts in growth concentrations within Anoka County can be discerned. Areas such as Coon Rapids, Blaine, and Fridley which had very high growth rates in the 1960's are exhibiting a leveling off of population growth in the 1970's. Other areas, particularly the 18