Minneapolis officials once again will ask the Legislature to grant a request to use cameras to catch speeders and enforce other traffic laws.
Speed cameras on list as Minneapolis looks for ways to cut traffic deaths
The city has updated its efforts and is accepting feedback through Dec. 11.
November 20, 2022 at 9:30PM
Two bills that would allow the city to establish a speed safety pilot program were introduced during the 2021 session but failed to gain approval. The city identified the camera pilot in a draft of its Vision Zero Action Plan as one of 17 strategies and 70 actions to take over three years to reach its goal of ending traffic deaths and severe injuries by 2027.
Last year, 23 people died in crashes on Minneapolis streets, the deadliest since 2007. And speeding was a factor in two-thirds of the fatal crashes, which included 11 pedestrians, according to a report presented to the city's Public Works and Infrastructure Committee earlier this month.
"This gives me a sense of urgency, many of our team a sense of urgency to work to get to zero," Ethan Fawley, the city's Vision Zero program coordinator, said while presenting his report. "Those lives lost are unacceptable."
Minneapolis adopted Vision Zero in 2017 and created an action plan to eliminate all crashes resulting in a death or serious injury within 10 years. The new report builds on the original plan and sets priorities for 2023 to 2025.
The push for the camera pilot comes after speeding was identified in a data analysis as the leading cause of fatal crashes in Minneapolis and ranked second for crashes resulting in a serious injury. It also comes as the police department is without a traffic enforcement unit. Officers stopped fewer than 3,000 drivers in 2021 for moving or equipment violations —compared with about 16,000 traffic stops in 2019 and about 90,000 in 2012, according to the action plan.
If the camera pilot is successful, the city could consider using cameras to focus on drivers who run red lights, another leading factor in life altering crashes, according to the plan.
This spring, the city installed bollards to shrink driving lanes on Dowling Avenue between Penn and Washington avenues where two fatal crashes, 10 severe injury crashes and more than 200 other injury crashes have occurred since 2011. The city installed concrete medians, extended curbs and retimed stoplights to give pedestrians more time to cross the street.
The plan suggests those and other traffic calming measures could be used on other "high injury streets." Ideas include raised pedestrian crossings, speed humps, mini-roundabouts at busy intersections or removing some turn lanes.
The city in 2020 reduced the speed limit on city-owned arterial streets to 25 miles per hour, and the plan suggests that the city partner with Hennepin County and MnDOT to lower speed limits on their roads in Minneapolis to 25 mph.
The city will hold an online open house at 6 p.m. Dec. 1 and accept feedback on the plan through Dec. 11. A final version will be brought to the City Council for approval in early 2023.
The governor said it may be 2027 or 2028 by the time the market catches up to demand.
