Agenda - Planning Commission - 05/03/2018

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2.2. Existing Roadway Capacity and Safety Roadway capacity and roadway safety are two key indicators of how well the roadway system is meeting the city's transportation needs. The sections below provide information to better understand capacity and safety issues within Ramsey. 2.2.1. Existing Roadway Capacity A roadway's capacity indicates how many vehicles may use a roadway before it experiences congestion. Capacity is largely dependent upon the number of lanes. Table 1 below lists planning -level thresholds that indicate a roadway's capacity. Additional variation (more or less capacity) on an individual segment is influenced by a number of factors including: amount of access, type of access, peak hour percent of traffic, directional split of traffic, truck percent, opportunities to pass, and amount of turning traffic, the availability of dedicated turn lanes, parking availability, intersection spacing, signal timing and a variety of other factors. Table 1: Planning -level Urban Roadway Capacities Arterials Freeways Facility Type Two-lane Undivided Two-lane Divided or Three -lane Divided Four -lane Undivided Four -lane Divided or Five -lane Undivided Four -lane Freeway Six -lane Freeway Eight -lane Freeway or Higher 2.2.2. Existing Capacity Problems on Arterial Roads Daily Two Lower Threshold 10,000 15,000 18,000 28,000 60,000 90,000 -way Volume Higher Threshold 12,000 17,000 22,000 32,000 80,000 120,000 Calculated on a segment -by -segment basis At the planning level, capacity problems are identified by comparing the existing number of lanes with current traffic volumes. Table 2 and Figure 3 illustrate the existing number of lanes on collector and arterial roadways within the city. Figure 4 illustrates existing traffic volumes on Principal Arterial, A -Minor Arterials and other significant roadways within the city. As shown in the table, US 10 has four lanes throughout the city, as do portions of CSAH 56 (Ramsey Boulevard), CSAH 57 (Sunfish Lake Boulevard), CSAH 83 (Armstrong Boulevard), and CSAH 116 (Bunker Lake Boulevard). All other arterial roadways have two lanes. Most of the arterials in Ramsey currently exhibit traffic volumes below or within the range of the planning level capacity thresholds shown in Table 1; however, existing volumes on TH 47 (St. Francis Boulevard) exceed these thresholds in the southeastern area of the city. This indicates that this roadway may be experiencing some levels of congestion during peak travel periods. Chapter X- Transportation (DRAFT) Page X-11 Adopted XXXXXXX XX, 2017