These neighbors want the city to take action in slowing traffic

Megan Raposa -

Simplified: About two dozen folks from both downtown and the All Saints neighborhood gathered Monday evening to ask city traffic engineers how they can make 14th Street safer for pedestrians.

Why it matters

  • Monday's meeting at times became tense and heated as neighbors said they've been voicing the same concerns for over a decade about the danger of walking across and along 14th Street with little to no response from the city.
  • Several neighbors, including Zach DeBoer and Joe Batcheller, shared support for the idea of implementing a "road diet" to bring 14th Street from a four-lane road to a two-lane road with a turn lane in the middle (similar to 26th Street between Cliff and Minnesota Avenues.)
  • One of the concerns that came up more than any other was frustration that the city's approach to planning streets focuses more on getting cars to go fast than it does on creating conditions for people to walk safely.
"How can we flip the script so the city sees downtown as a pedestrian zone and includes our neighborhood in that," said Katrina Lehr-McKinney, president of the All Saints Neighborhood Association.

Tell me more

Principal Traffic Engineers Troy Miller and Heath Hoftiezer fielded questions for over an hour about the potential options for increasing pedestrian safety – including more responsive traffic lights, slower speed limits, more signage, more crosswalks, etc.

Among the short-term solutions the city brought to the table were to include a "leading pedestrian interval" at traffic lights.

  • It's a way to time the lights so the "walk" symbol shows up for pedestrians before the light turns green for cars, giving the folks walking a better chance at being spotted by drivers.

Another option the city presented was using a "blank out sign" that shows a "watch for pedestrians" message and then goes back to blank (there's an example of one of these signs at 41st Street and Louise Avenue).

Neighbors pushed back a bit, saying they'd like to see more action taken, including more crosswalks along the street, for example. Traffic engineers expressed skepticism as to their effectiveness.

"There's crosswalks at every intersection around Sanford," Batcheller said. "Why can't we get treated the way Sanford does?"

Neighbor Steve Hildebrand said what the city was proposing was "not a solution."

"Slowing down traffic on 14th Street isn't going to hurt anyone in a car," Hildebrand added, amid sharing his own experiences with "near misses" trying to cross that street.

What happens next?

Miller and Hoftiezer said the city is considering adding some "bump outs" – visual cues for drivers to leave space for pedestrians – as early as this summer.

  • They also discussed the possibility of a temporary road diet to test how traffic moves if the street is reduced to two lanes and a turn lane.

Neighbors largely resolved to continue bringing this up with city officials until something changes.