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ANOKA COUNTY 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN DECEMBER 2008 2-1 2.0 Goals for the 2030 Transportation System This section establishes the context for the specific recommendations made by the county regarding future transportation facilities and actions. These goals informed the criteria used to determine the composition and phasing of the transportation improvements recommended in this Plan. The principles guiding transportation planning recommendations are defined in seven major goals determined by Anoka County, based on the county’s efforts to meet with all communities. The seven major goals are as follows: Safety: Reduce fatalities and the number and severity of crashes; address high- incident locations. Mobility: Preserve and enhance the potential for movement. Accessibility: Preserve and improve sound interactions between transportation facilities and land uses. Modes: Enhance alternative travel modes and connections—transit, bicycle, pedestrian, freight, air, and trails. Collaboration: Encourage multijurisdictional transportation solutions and collaboration among various agencies and the public. Social, Economic, and Environmental Stewardship: Plan ahead to respect natural resources as well as residential, business, and other social and economic elements. Implementation: Plan for reasonable and feasible solutions, addressing transportation policies, right-of-way, and funding. The subsections below broadly define and provide the specific objectives for each of the seven major goals. 2.1 Safety: Reduce Fatalities and the Number and Severity of Crashes; Address High-Incident Locations The Minnesota Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) adopted an interim goal to reduce traffic fatalities to 400 or fewer by 2010, down from 494 traffic fatalities in 2006—a 19 percent reduction in traffic fatalities. Anoka County chose to adopt the same 19 percent reduction in traffic fatalities by 2010 as a safety goal. In selecting a safety goal, the county needed to make a number of decisions. The first decision was whether the goal should consider only roads under the jurisdiction, of Anoka County or all roads within the county. The decision was to adopt a goal that addresses all roads because traffic safety is a universal concern for Anoka County residents and commuters, regardless of what road they are on. ---PAGE BREAK--- ANOKA COUNTY 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN DECEMBER 2008 2-2 The next decision involved deciding a threshold of crash severity. Should the goal address fatal crashes only, fatal and injury crashes, or all crashes? While the desire is to prevent all crashes, there is recognition that the severity of certain crashes—specifically fatal and serious injury crashes—have a greater impact on the people involved. Additionally, the direction of Anoka County’s traffic safety goal was to be consistent with what was adopted at the statewide level. This led Anoka County to decide that the safety goal would address fatal crashes specifically. Finally, the county had to consider the importance of locations that exhibit a high frequency of crashes—or high-incident locations, regardless of crash severity. Such locations may either already correlate with high crash severity or have that potential in the future. Furthermore, high-incident crash locations can affect mobility by causing severe peak-hour congestion. Because of this, Anoka County decided to address locations where ten or more crashes occurred from 2002 to 2006, including crashes of all severity types. As noted above, Anoka County has adopted a 19 percent reduction in traffic fatalities, which is consistent with the Minnesota SHSP. In 2006, there were a total of 29 traffic fatalities within Anoka County. Consequently, Anoka County’s traffic safety goal is to reduce traffic fatalities from 29 in 2006 to 23 or fewer by 2010. Following adoption of the 2030 Transportation Plan, the county intends to initiate a 3–5 year Safety Plan to include priority safety projects at specific locations based on current crash statistics. The Safety Plan will include annual review, with projects added and deleted as implementation proceeds to keep the project list current, and will be included as an element of the county’s Five Year Highway Improvement Plan. 2.2 Mobility: Preserve and Enhance the Potential for Movement The transportation system should be improved to enhance the mobility, or the potential for movement, for residents and businesses of Anoka County and for goods movement throughout the county. This goal will be achieved by providing travel opportunities that will conveniently allow travel to a variety of places—both inside and outside the county. To achieve this goal, the county will focus on: Maintaining and improving capacity on the roadway systems within Anoka County and on the county’s roadway system Developing additional transit services and facilities in collaboration with regional and state partners Enhancing connectivity between communities within and adjacent to Anoka County Meeting the requirements of the Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan (TPP) Focusing on preservation and enhancement of movement will require efforts to achieve the following system benchmarks: ---PAGE BREAK--- ANOKA COUNTY 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN DECEMBER 2008 2-3 To the extent possible, full application of access management principles and guidelines on the county’s arterial roadway network Level of service (LOS) D/E or better as the county-wide acceptable traffic delay for 2030 Intersection performance goals consistent with capacity needs Trails/sidewalks adjacent to improved county roads These benchmarks are proposed because they provide a mobility performance framework based on widely accepted highway planning and engineering standards (section 2.4 addresses goals for non-highway modes). For example, the LOS D/E benchmark is consistent with the Metropolitan Council’s long-term highway performance target. Specifically, the LOS D/E condition results in peak hour delays, which are considered normal, or “expected,” within the suburban context of southern Anoka County. LOS D/E is a high-volume traffic condition which should not result in a major reduction in speed performance under normal circumstances. 2.3 Accessibility: Preserve and Improve Sound Interactions between Transportation Facilities and Land Uses The Anoka County transportation system should support existing and future patterns of land development. Consistent with roadway functional classifications, the Anoka County 2030 Transportation Plan should support local jurisdictions as they seek opportunities to: Improve connectivity between residential areas and major activity centers, including employment areas, schools, commercial areas, medical facilities, etc. Encourage local land use authorities to plan the location of housing units and employment opportunities to reduce travel distances, to buffer sensitive uses from the impacts of major transportation facilities, and to balance directional flow on the roadway network. 2.4 Modes: Enhance Alternative Travel Modes and Connections— Transit, Bicycle, and Pedestrian Anoka County will strengthen the existing multimodal transportation system to facilitate increased connectivity between transportation modes. This will include improvement of connections between roadway, transit, and bicycle/pedestrian facilities. This goal emphasizes attention to development or improvement of alternative, non- motorized, transportation facilities—including interconnected and safe bicycle and pedestrian facilities. Specific planning objectives include: Support of land uses and transit facilities with the bikeway and pedestrian system where these modes can be used as a convenient and efficient alternative mode of travel, as well as an attractive recreational opportunity. ---PAGE BREAK--- ANOKA COUNTY 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN DECEMBER 2008 2-4 Support extension of the county, cities, and township bikeway, trail, and pedestrian systems to be integrated and coordinated with new development and transportation improvement projects, consistent with the county’s 2006 Parks and Recreation Comprehensive System Plan and city and township Comprehensive Plans. Assess current and projected freight flows on the county network along with support for commodity, intercity passenger, and high speed rail service in current and planned rail corridors. 2.5 Collaboration: Encourage Multijurisdictional Transportation Solutions and Collaboration among Regional and Local Entities In developing transportation solutions, Anoka County has the unique opportunity to enhance communications and collaboration among various levels of government. This Plan identifies and promotes transportation projects that can address needs of multiple jurisdictions—state, regional, county, local, and other. Achieving Plan goals will also require collaboration among various functional agencies—for example, agencies responsible for environmental resources and outdoor recreation. While this is a county Transportation Plan, this objective also supports collaboration with Anoka County communities, which will assist jurisdictions in achieving their own economic development goals and community goals. 2.6 Social, Economic, and Environmental Stewardship: Plan Ahead to Respect Natural Resources As Well As Residential, Business, and Other Social and Economic Elements of the Environment This goal encourages up-front identification of valued community social, economic, and natural environment (SEE) resources. Transportation projects should be identified and developed from the earliest possible stages to anticipate impacts affecting the community’s environment and to identify potential measures to avoid, minimize, or mitigate the impacts. The Plan protects the livability of the county's local communities by preserving mobility and access. Both are necessary for the social and economic elements of communities to remain healthy, for goods movement to remain reliable, and for residents to benefit from the natural resource amenities of the county. Experience has shown that reactive planning in response to community, business, and environmental concerns is costly, resulting in project delays, rework, and implementation costs. Examples of community resources that may be sensitive to transportation projects include: Wetlands, forests, rivers, and stormwater management areas Cultural resources, such as libraries and other information centers Business vitality for goods movement and employment. The Plan has been developed in full coordination with local communities, and with awareness of the transportation facilities and services needed to support individual community social and economic development planning. During the development of the Plan, ---PAGE BREAK--- ANOKA COUNTY 2030 TRANSPORTATION PLAN DECEMBER 2008 2-5 the county met with each municipality. At these meetings, local planning for infrastructure protecting natural resource amenities and supporting residential, employment, human service, and other facility needs was addressed. 2.7 Implementation: Plan for Context-Sensitive Solutions, Addressing Transportation Policies, Right-of-Way, and Funding As noted in the Collaboration goal in Section 2.5, this Plan identifies solutions that are sensitive to context. By fully and fairly addressing context, stakeholders generally recognize several practical constraints associated with a specific action. Recognition of a range of constraints allows for proactive planning of implementable solutions. Thus, context-sensitive solutions are reasonable and feasible within the constraints of project funding and balancing among agencies and stakeholders. The general implementation goal supports the planning process with commitments to implement recommended transportation improvements according to identified schedules or milestones. To lay the ground work for specific project work, the county will review its current policies on right-of-way preservation, access management, and other critical procedures to reflect the action plan described in this document. Coordination with partners and stakeholders within the county and at the regional and state levels will continue to be critical on the evolving issues of funding, transit, goods movement, and implementation of improvements identified by others that are of significant importance to Anoka County, such as the Interregional Corridor improvements to US 10 and I-35. Specific 2030 Transportation Plan implementation objectives include: Focus first on short- and mid-term transportation projects—for example, implementable before 2015 or 2020 and address how these projects can be funded. Provide a guide to monitor and implement this transportation Plan, including specific milestones for implementation—for example: plan implementation goals tied to the pace of development, population, and transportation funding forecasts. Address transportation policies, including design guidelines and project delivery steps, to limit barriers to implementation—for example, define and sequence manageable projects with independent utility and refine plans to achieve transportation performance goals while minimizing land acquisition. Promote right-of-way preservation in existing and future transportation corridors by working with communities to identify needs through coordinated transportation and land use planning. Finally, context-sensitive implementation must integrate and balance all of the other goals expressed in this plan—safety, mobility, access, intermodal solutions, collaboration, and social, economic, and environmental stewardship. This means working to implement timely projects and policies with the sensitivity to balance among diverse objectives and constraints.