2040 Comprehensive Plan: Envision Shakopee

IMPROVE ROADWAY CROSSINGS Given Shakopee’s extensive trail network along the community’s thoroughfares, a lack of safe crossings of those thoroughfares is the primary obstacle to walking and bicycling for transportation in the community. People need to be able to reach their destinations safely in order to consider walking and bicycling viable means of travel. Depending on traffic volumes, crossings of major streets could be made safer either by reducing the number of travel lanes and/or adding median refuge islands so pedestrians need only cross one or two lanes of traffic at a time or by adding some form of pedestrian- activated signalization, such as pedestrian hybrid beacons or full signals. Where signals are not warranted, yield-controlled crosswalks could be enhanced by the addition of pedestrian-activated warning beacons. A pedestrian and bicycle master plan could provide a framework for identifying and prioritizing locations for improved crossings. Locations where driveways and side streets cross these trails are the primary locations where paths of people walking and bicycling conflict with people driving. In these locations, crossings could be made safer by tightening corner radii to reduce the speed of turning vehicles and decrease the crossing distance. Crossings parallel to major thoroughfares could also be made safer by recessing the crossing farther from the intersection so drivers turning off the main road intersect with the crosswalk at a more perpendicular angle, providing better visibility. Where new construction permits, trail crossings at driveways and minor streets should be built at sidewalk-level with raised crossings to encourage drivers turning off the major street to yield to people crossing on the parallel trail. A large noted gap in the trial network is a crossing of U.S. Highway 169, this gap is unlike the others listed in that it would be required to be a fully grade separated crossing of the highway.

Below are examples of specific crossings that could be considered for improvement: » » Hwy 101 between Downtown and Huber Park » » CSAH 16 near Shakopee High School » » Hwy 169 between Canterbury Rd and Stagecoach Rd » » CSAH 83 at Eagle Creek Blvd and 17th Ave

» » CSAH 21 at Southbridge Pkwy » » CSAH 83 at Eagle Creek Blvd

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