The Fargo City Commission met on June 12, 2023, at 5:00 PM in Commission Chambers. The meeting covered a range of topics including street racing solutions, Growth Plan progress, appointment of interim finance director, development agreement for a new dispatch center, and placement of monthly financial reports on the regular agenda. The consent agenda was approved with one item moved to the regular agenda. The meeting adjourned at 6:16 PM.
Good evening, Mayor and Commissioners. Chief Zablowski and myself, he's got a couple of slides in here, but we wanted to come back and update you a little bit. We were able to meet, and we've been discussing internally some options in regards to street racing and speeding. So, first of all, I'd like to visit a little bit about what engineering solutions we even have to review as we look at the different situations out there. We'll talk a little bit about police department enforcement solutions, and then what's next? So, engineering solutions. Here are some of the engineering solutions that we look at when we have speeding issues. We look first at speed tables, speed cushions, speed humps. We look at lane reductions, curb extensions, lane narrowing, center planting medians and islands, speed feedback signs, and then signal timings. So speed tables, uh cushions and humps. Um, our current city policy would not allow them on arterials or collectors due to the emergency response. Uh some of the issues with that is they would need to be very frequent to be effective, and they would encost some increased traffic noise. They would also increase congestion and carbon emission and cause that driver frustration, which really does increase crashes. Um, and they would also need to be removed for winter. And so, you know, engineering supports the policy as it is and would not recommend a change in regards to tables, cushions, and humps on the arterials or collectors. Um, then we have lane reductions or road diets. Those have been implemented by engineering on uh multitude of roadways. So 2nd Street here along City Hall went from a four-lane to a three-lane, 17th Avenue from 45th to 42nd Street, used to be four lanes with no turn lane, and we've changed it to a two plus one with the turn lane. Our main avenue project has gone from four to two lanes, and then 42nd Street from Main to 13th Avenue was reduced from four lanes to um three lanes. And then that was just done by striping. We have not reconstructed that road yet, so we did that just by striping. So as I said, it can either be a reconstruction or done by modifying the pavement markings. Curb extensions, um, these are difficult to do when we don't have parking, but they are an option when we do have parking along the collectors or arterials, and that does help reduce our speeds at the intersection, but it does cause a little an issue with maintenance and snow removal. There's just a little more work when we get to snow removal. Lane narrowing is uh has been implemented on all of our constructed reconstructed roadways. So our lanes um historically have always been 12 foot, especially on anything federally funded. It was a requirement that they be 12 feet, and a lot of those have been reduced from one to two feet, depending on where that lane is. And so you see this on Main Avenue on 13th Avenue from West Fargo to I-29 on 32nd Avenue on the new section, and then on 4th Street from 13th Avenue to the YMCA area. It's usually done as part of our new roadways and reconstructions, but it can also be accomplished through pavement markings in some of the areas. And then the center planter planting medians and islands. Um, we try and add those on our reconstruction projects where the right-of-way will allow us. So you see these on Main Avenue on 13th Avenue between West Fargo and I 29, and then on 32nd Avenue, we've added some medians in there also. And they have the similar benefits to the curb extensions, they're just kind of a natural traffic calming, speed reduction, and um making the lanes feel a little bit narrower. And then they do have an increased maintenance, so dependent on how wide we can make it, kind of depends on what we can put in there to make sure we have a if we do require maintenance that they have a safe place to work. And then we have our speed speed feedback signs. Um, they are currently used on some corridors, more typically in school areas. They, you know, they require some maintenance and a power source. They may reduce the average driver's speed slightly, but unlikely to reduce the the really high speeders. And then we kind of have to balance how many you get out there because it the drivers do tend to become immune to them as if they're overused as a tool. And then signal timings. The traffic signals are timed for the posted speed limit. There is a little bit of wiggle room in there. So if you're driving much faster than the speed limit, it will result in the arrival of reds at the next signal. Most of the signalized intersections run coordination till about 10 30 and then they run free, which means if someone comes up to the side that allows that red to hit to happen. And then very few of our signals run in flash mode overnight. Most of those are in the downtown area that do that. Now hand it over to Chief Sablowski. Yes, you can. Thank you, Brenda. Good evening, everyone.