Agenda - Council Work Session - 10/12/2021

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Jennifer Wiltgen Minnesota Department of Transportation June 29, 2021 Page 2 transportation deficiencies in the region. The task was completed using StreetLight Insights, a cloud - based big data analytical platform through MnDOT's subscription. The data is mainly from 2019 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The results will be incorporated with the subsequent 2040 travel demand modeling and benefit cost analysis within the context of the land use changes, regional programmed transportation projects, and other potential concepts or improvements to identify the feasibility of a fourth river crossing. This memorandum documents the OD analysis methodology and results. Origin -Destination Analysis The major findings of the OD analysis for typical weekday traffic include: • Nearly 240,000 average daily vehicle trips (weekdays in April, September, and October 2019) use the three river crossings with 55 percent using TH 610, 27 percent using TH 101, and 18 percent using US 169. • Approximately 70 percent of trips using the crossings are within the immediate river crossing area (Subregion 1 in Figure 0.1 in the Appendix), while approximately two percent of trips are interregional trips (origins or destinations are beyond the metro and its ring counties) with most trips using the TH 101 crossing. • The top five destination cities of trips using the three crossings are Coon Rapids (9.9 percent), Brooklyn Park (9.7 percent), Blaine (7.3 percent), Elk River (6.7 percent) and Maple Grove (5.9 percent) . • The area between the TH 610 crossing and the US 169 crossing has a much higher density of trips using the crossing (greater than 700 trips per square mile) than the area located between the TH 101 crossing and the US 169 crossing (less than 350 daily trips per square mile). • Trips crossing the river tend to use nearby crossings with most trips from Elk River using TH 101, while trips from Anoka use US 169 and trips from Coon Rapids use TH 610. • Each of the three crossings serves a distinct market that varies in terms of the communities of the origins and destinations and trip lengths including: o The TH 101 crossing carries a larger proportion of much longer distance interregional trips. The median trip length is 24.2 miles. o The US 169 crossing carries trips representing a more compact travelshed with shorter trip lengths. The median trip length is 14.8 miles. o The median length of the trips using the TH 610 river crossing is 21.5 miles. o The TH 610 crossing carries 8.1 percent of trips from Downtown Minneapolis while TH 101 carries 2.3 percent of the trips and US 169 carries 0.7 percent of the trips. • It was observed that the recreational interregional traffic during the holiday weekend Friday afternoon on the TH 101 crossing is four times higher than a typical weekday.