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Marshall traffic speeds well beyond the posted 35mph. (11/7/24)
Marshall is Designed for SpeedingMarch 11, 2025 Click here to join the Bottineau Neighborhood Meeting Tuesday Nov 11, 7pm (virtual) Project contacts: Kelly Agosto, project manager - kelly.agosto@hennepin.us Michael Rainville, City Council - ward3@minneapolismn.gov Elliott Payne, City Council - elliott.payne@minneapolismn.gov The Minneapolis parkways end when they get to Northeast. The Grand Rounds stops at St Anthony Parkway. The River Road doesn't make it through the U of M. Marshall St is Northeast’s river road and our access to the riverfront. It should be our parkway. It should highlight the Mississippi as an asset rather than separate us from the water with traffic. And Marshall is finally being reconstructed. This is no mere resurfacing project. This is an opportunity to change our neighborhoods for decades to come. This is a chance to reconnect Northeast with parts of the river that were separated generations ago. If we get this right, we will have safer streets, a more vibrant waterfront, and activated commercial and park spaces. At the moment, Marshall NE goes from a literal 4-lane divided highway to a cobblestone pedestrian mall. Hennepin County recently resurfaced Marshall north of Lowry offering Fridley freeway drivers clean smooth pavement, wide lanes, and crisp white paint as they enter Northeast’s neighborhoods. This gives high speed traffic a clear shot all the way to the aptly named Betty Danger’s ferris wheel where Hennepin County plans to mix Lowry’s shared pedestrian and bicycle path with the 50 mph traffic coming down from Fridley’s four lane highway. The Marshall resurfacing project increased traffic speeds (as resurfacing projects often do). The 35 mph signs do little to slow the freeway traffic as it enters Minneapolis. Marshall north of Lowry is DESIGNED for 50 mph traffic. We should not be surprised when drivers let the road tell them how fast to go. (The Minneapolis municipal speed limit is 20 mph.) This is bad design. Marshall NE is fast and loud and it reduces the value of the waterfront for Northeast residents and visitors. Crossing bad design with mixed traffic (cars, bikes, peds) is a recipe for fear, injury, and death. But it’s too late for Marshall north of Lowry. The redesign area is focused on everything south of Lowry. This makes it that much more important that the design of the new street prevents Marshall’s traffic speeds from continuing into the residential neighborhoods south of Lowry.  Main St SE - 11/6/24 The current design calls for FIVE lanes for cars in most places. This is a traffic lane in each direction, two parking lanes, and a turn lane. This is a lot of pavement to cross when you want to bring your kids to the park for a walk. And it's a recipe for speeding. Wide swaths of pavement move objects away from cars and give drivers a sense of security, making it feel comfortable to drive faster. When we drive close to fixed objects on the side of the road, we have a better sense of our relative speed. It makes us more engaged. It makes us more cautious. A parking lane full of parked cars can actually provide this feeling of "edge friction." We definitely don't want to hit parked cars. We don't want to hit a door that suddenly swings open. And we don't want to hit a person that might appear from between parked cars. This causes us to naturally drive slower. But this is all reversed when a parking lane is empty. Suddenly there is another ten feet between us and anything coming into our lane. This causes us to NATURALLY drive faster. This is bad design. Faster traffic is obviously more dangerous. It's also louder. And it is less conducive to enjoying the riverfront. We have let Northeast's "parkway" be dominated by traffic for generations. Broadway to the St Anthony Parkway is the only part of the river without a parkway (in Minneapolis). Now is our only chance to correct this. Marshall should be designed for Minneapolis' 20mph municipal speed limit. This is the road that becomes Main St SE where people walking dogs comfortably cross the cobblestones in front of the Main Cinema and the Stone Arch Bridge. Main Street’s activated pedestrian infrastructure should extend all along the riverfront to give Northeast a true parkway. The Marshall parkway needs (and Northeast deserves) a 20mph riverfront. This means accentuating Marshall’s curves to keep drivers engaged. It means day-lit crossings so peds and bikes can see and be seen. It means medians to create pedestrian refuges as we cross the street and to reduce the amount of time people spend in front of traffic. And it means a maximum of three lanes in any particular spot: a traffic lane in each direction plus one other lane. This can be parking on one side of the st. It can be a turn lane here or there. It cannot be all cars all of the time. Marshall is a Hennepin County street and state statute overrides Minneapolis regulations and mandates a MINIMUM 30mph speed limit. This should be changed. In the meantime, Marshall needs every traffic calming measure we can throw at it to ensure that 30mph doesn't become 40mph as it does everywhere else in Mpls. (Read about more traffic calming elements here.) These are the protections that will keep families safe while they access the parks on the riverfront. Marshall can be better. Lending your voice to the project empowers planners and engineers to advocate for safety. Learn about the upcoming project and tell Hennepin County we want a street designed for the neighborhood, not for suburban freeway traffic. Write to project lead Kelly Agosto (remember to CC City Council Member Rainville): Kelly Agosto, project manager kelly.agosto@hennepin.us Ward 3 City Council Member Michael Rainville ward3@minneapolismn.gov Ward 1 City Council Member Elliott Payne elliott.payne@minneapolismn.gov |
 The Mississippi River from the Camden Bridge. (9/5/21)
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