I am sure that there are many streets that one by one we can make safer for everyone and restrict the flow of traffic and re-direct it.
Sure, as a local resident, I'd love to see a single lane of traffic on Snelling Ave. - it would be great for the neighborhood. However, I don't think that Snelling and West 7th can be compared at all. I don't know, but I'm guessing that the traffic statistics are radically different and there is not equivalent of Shepard Road as an alternative.
From what I've heard, only a section of W7th has been restriped, the busiest portions remain two lanes in each direction (is this correct).
The decision to restripe any particular street needs to be made based upon the specifics of that street. Comparisons between Fairview and W7th were made to indicate that this was not something NEW being done to W7th, rather it is happening on numerous St. Paul streets. However, the fact that it many or may not be working on Fairview, is not a clear indicator that it would work on W7th. My own sense, as an amateur observer (without traffic statistics) is that W7th can handle the traffic, even reduced to one lane. I very much doubt that the same is true of Snelling.
I don't know this, but I'm not convinced that the intention was really to divert traffic off of West 7th. I'm guessing that this change was only made, because traffic engineers believe that W7th can handle the traffic with only one lane. Of course, in public policy it is very difficult to talk about intentions, because lots of people involved in a decision each approach it with different intentions (even when they have the same goal in mind). Snelling can be a nightmare with 2 lanes of traffic open in each direction. In the Midway, I don't think it could ever handle a single lane of traffic in each direction - the result would be lots more cars driving down residential streets in my Neighborhood.
Not a good thing.
Anyone else have a comment?
Any other ideas for streets that ought to be restriped?
Best wishes,
Tim Erickson Hamline Midway [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Tim Erickson http://www.politalk.com St. Paul, MN - USA 651-643-0722
[EMAIL PROTECTED] iChat/AIM: stpaultim
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