2040 Comprehensive Plan: Envision Shakopee

volunteers through short-term counts on an annual basis, in a few locations. The short-term counts are subject to external factors such as weather, time of year/week/day, and local travel patterns. An established monitoring program using long-and short-term automated counters at locations throughout the community would support the analysis of volume data. MnDOT operates a pedestrian and bicycle count program with local communities, and Shakopee can join this effort. For example, Hennepin County recently used automated portable equipment to periodically measure traffic in a selected location. Extrapolation factors were later applied to that data to estimate average daily traffic and provide before and after volumes. More information on this program can be requested via email to bikepedcounts.dot@state.mn.us. Collecting bike and pedestrian data through such a monitoring program is useful for evaluating the effectiveness of Safe Routes to School, which is largely measured by the program’s inputs (number of events, school partners, etc.) rather than outputs. Long- term and before-and-after data collection on numbers of children walking and biking would help to measure the impact of Safe Routes to School infrastructure projects. The data could help to indicate what infrastructure improvements and designs are most effective.

Eventually this could be used to estimate increases in walkers/ bikers, and support project prioritization. It should be noted that the costs of staff hours and budget must be evaluated when considering implementing such data collection efforts. This effort would greatly aid in the planning process, but should only be pursued when staff and funding levels are deemed sufficient to effectively implement. DEVELOP SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL PLANS Safe Routes to School (SRTS) is a national movement that works to create school communities where walking and bicycling to school is safe and comfortable. Where conditions are appropriate, SRTS encourages students to walk and bicycle. Where it is not, SRTS works to make it safe, especially through safety education and building infrastructure such as sidewalks and multi-use trails, and improving roadway crossings. There is an opportunity for Shakopee to develop SRTS plans that will help the community: 1. Understand where students live in relation to the school and assess current walking and bicycling conditions. 2. Develop preferred walking and bicycling routes based on student home address densities, and a. Balancing the most direct route with the fewest roadway crossings b. Identifying barriers to direct routes, such as highways, creeks and streams, challenging topography, etc. c. Opportunities for off-road connections that place children away from high volume and higher speed roads. d. Assess school zones to ensure they are properly marked with adequate crossings and speed limits that support safety for pedestrians and bicyclists.

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