Proactive Traffic Safety Improvements

Abstract

The City of Minneapolis has adopted a Vision Zero goal, committing to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries on streets in Minneapolis by 2027. City officials have focused on seven specific street modifications that can encourage motorists to drive more slowly and increase their ability to see pedestrians, thus reducing the likelihood of a crash. These treatments are safe lane conversions, pedestrian safety islands, curb extensions, curb protected bike lanes, bikeway medians, raised crossings, and hardened centerlines. Using criteria from the City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County, and Minnesota’s Department of Transportation, the Proactive Traffic Safety Treatments Tool (“the tool”) identifies which treatments are feasible across intersections and streets on Minneapolis’s most crash-prone streets. The tool assigns relevant criteria to each treatment and then imports existing street data to nearly automatically assess the feasibility of each treatment in each location (1,940 target segments total). While some data points - such as the presence of buildings or businesses that generate pedestrian traffic (e.g. schools) - require human judgment to identify, and final design decisions require engineering and planning expertise, the tool automatizes portions of the planning process. In addition to making the decision-making process more efficient, the tool also reduces potential friction between staff, residents, and other agencies. This report details the benefits of and criteria for each of the proposed traffic safety treatments; the tool’s development, characteristics, use, and limitations; and models the tool’s use for a sample of Minneapolis streets.