The portion of H Street in question runs between Mill Avenue and 13th Avenue Northeast. Mayor Dave Badeaux, who lives in northeast Brainerd, told council members during a safety and public works committee meeting Monday, July 20, the portion of street is the one he gets the most complaints about in northeast Brainerd.
As part of a reconstruction project last year, this portion of H Street was narrowed from 44 feet to the city’s standard of 35 feet. At the time, city staff hoped that narrowing would help slow down traffic. Badeaux said he thinks it has helped some, but traffic speeds might not be the big issue.
“As you’re driving down H Street and you get to the top, it looks like that road just continues on,” Badeaux said, speaking of driving east on the road toward 13th Avenue Northeast. Because of a hill, drivers approaching 13th Avenue cannot immediately see H Street ends and traffic must make a 90-degree right or left turn.
“These trucks get to the bottom of the hill, they have no idea what’s happening,” Badeaux said.
Part of the issue, City Engineer Paul Sandy said, is Google Maps promotes the stretch of road as the fastest route when driving from Merrifield to Crosby, as it avoids the stop light at Highway 210 and Mill Avenue. Sandy said he has reached out to Google through the company’s complaint process but has not heard anything back and does not expect to.
Many of the truck drivers using the route, Badeaux said, are likely not from the area and rely on their GPS for directions.
Badeaux said he himself has been in two close calls with semitrailers on that stretch of road — one when a truck pulled out in front of him and he was able to swerve around it, and one when the truck ended up almost running off the road into the grass.
“It's just a really super dangerous situation, and we've got to figure something out,” he said.
Council member Wayne Erickson, who lives on 13th Avenue Northeast, agreed with Badeaux.
“It's just amazing how many people — how many trucks — take that cut across and if I was living on there … I would be very upset,” Erickson said, noting the speed is a problem, too, and this issue needs to be addressed.
Brainerd City Council members discussed the portion of H Street between Mill Avenue and 13th Street Northeast during their meeting Monday, July 20, as there have been many complaints about high traffic speeds on that stretch of road from vehicles wanting to bypass Highway 210. Theresa Bourke / Brainerd Dispatch
Essentially, Sandy said the city needs to put measures in place to slow down traffic so Google’s algorithm will no longer promote H Street as the fastest route. One way to do that, he said, might be more stop signs on that stretch, though stop signs can come with unintended consequences.
“I’ve always preached that there are some unintended consequences with stop signs,” Sandy said, “including higher crash rates, non-compliance — which inevitably decreases safety, and sometimes it does increase speeds because I think drivers get that perception of lost time when you’re stopping at multiple stop signs in a row.”
As immediate action, the council — during its meeting following the safety and public works committee meeting Monday — approved the restriction of semitrailers on H Street from Mill Avenue to 13th Avenue Northeast. Badeaux said that is a good place to start, as he believes large trucks are the biggest issue.
As the street is a state aid road, Sandy said he will work with Crow Wing County and the Minnesota Department of Transportation to get signs placed at both H Street and Mill Avenue, and H Street and 13th Avenue Northeast, notifying truck drivers to take a different route.
In the future, Sandy said the council may want to look at adding stop signs at one or two of the intersections as well. There is already a stop sign at H Street and 10th Avenue Northeast.
Committee Chair Kelly Bevans encouraged other members of the safety and public works committee to drive the road in the next two weeks and come back to the next council meeting with suggestions — if any — of where stop signs might work.
THERESA BOURKE may be reached at theresa.bourke@brainerddispatch.com or 218-855-5860. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DispatchTheresa.
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July 21, 2020 at 04:00PM
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