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Other Options Considered <br />An Old Beach Road resident of 7 years was approached by Minnetonka Beach in 1993 to assist in <br />developing ideas for improving the safety of Old Beach Road and County Road 15. Orono staff <br />became involved as the residents of the road brainstormed many ideas The staff recommendation <br />to close Old Beach Road was made after carefuUy studying these numerous alternatives for over <br />10 months. Each of the resident-developed alternatives was found unacceptable due to <br />enforcement, liability or maintenance concerns. <br />Reasonable Alternative for Commuters <br />Closing Old Beach Road only makes sense if a reasonable alternative is available for the drivers <br />who currently use the road only as a short-cut. The intersection of County Roads 15 and 19 is a <br />reasonable alternative which improves safety for all, whether residents of Old Beach Road or not. <br />• Attached to this memo are illustrations of the travel times and distances comparing the use of <br />Old Beach Road to the use of tho 15/19 intersection. For a person making a trip from Tonka <br />Bay/Excclsior to Minneapolis, the additional distance is 3/10 of a mUe each way, or 6/10 of a <br />mile for a round trip In peak traffic, the additional travel time required could be as much as <br />64 seconds. On average the additional time can be expected to be less than 30 seconds, Md in <br />many cases there may even be a time savings (i.c., hitting the lights green instead of queuing <br />up at the ends of Old Beach Road to turn). <br />• Udng the 15/19 intersection cuts the number of turns required by 50% ~ from two <br />unprotected left turns and two right turns, to one protected right turn and one left turn with <br />green arrow assistance. <br />• Hennepin County is confident that the 15/19 intersection can handle the additional tr^c. The <br />intersection will remain a “B” intersection. The costly improvements to the intersection (e g., <br />protected right turns) were designed specifically for this purpose. <br />0 The green arrows have significantly aided the flow of traffic in the 15/19 intersection. Traffic <br />flow will be improved even more when the County is able to add the in-road sensors which <br />will increase the time of the green arrow to match the traffic flows. In addition, the City and <br />County continue to evaluate other steps to further improve the traffic flow. <br />• The rate of accidents for the three intersections (15 and Old Beach Road; 15/19 intersection; <br />and 19 and Old Beach Road) has dropped significantly since the closure of Old Beach Road. <br />The accident rate for the three interseaions combined has decreased from 1.63 per month (44 <br />accidents in 27 months) to 0.33 per month (1 accident in 3 months). <br />Resident SuDDOrt <br />All of the residents of Old Beach Road support the City staff proposal. We recognize that we will <br />bear 100% of the costs of installing the cul-de-sac.