For decades, the Grand Avenue crosswalk situation between Snelling Avenue and Macalester Street in St. Paul has been the second most absurd street crossing in the metro area (behind the fiasco at the Cedar Lake Trail in St. Louis Park). But that might finally be about to change.
Here’s the situation: Macalester College isn’t that large, with an enrollment of about 2,200 undergraduates, most of whom live on campus. The campus is a long block-wide rectangle that stretches from Summit Avenue to St. Clair Avenue, and Grand Avenue is the only city street that runs, for one city block, right through campus.
In theory, people are supposed to cross Grand Avenue at the street corners, where the official crosswalks exist. In reality, internal campus paths that cut through though the quad bring almost everyone through the middle of the block. Thus, the vast majority of people use the three “crosswalks” across Grand Avenue, each clearly signed (for legal reasons) so that automobiles — not pedestrians — have the right of way.
The crosswalk impasse is nobody’s idea of a good situation. Because of the lack of curb cuts on the mid-block “crosswalks,” crossing the street through the heart of campus is not only awkward, but onerous for anyone with limited mobility. That’s why it’s good news that St. Paul Public Works is reconstructing a half-mile of Grand Avenue, including the block through Macalester College. If done right, it’ll transform the absurd relationship between cars and people so that the troublesome block no longer relies on vague, unpredictable goodwill.
Convoluted signage
“It’s a super-well-traveled part of campus,” Zak Yuhdishthu told me, describing how Grand Avenue fits at Mac. Yuhdishthu is a senior who’s been actively engaged with the neighborhood process and even tabled outside the student union, gathering input from his classmates.
“It’s the division between a big block of dorms and everything else,” Yuhdishthu said. “Anyone living on campus, to get food to go to class to study any of those things, they’re crossing at that intersection.”
Luckily, most drivers stop for students to cross the street. This makes the actual crosswalks a bit of a gray area: state law gives pedestrians right-of-way at all crosswalks, but not at mid-block quasi-crosswalks. Because these crossings fall into the latter category, they’re not official and drivers don’t technically have to stop. Thus the convoluted signage, which most everyone blissfully ignores.
[image_credit]MinnPost photo by Bill Lindeke[/image_credit][image_caption]The convoluted signage, which most everyone blissfully ignores.[/image_caption]
It’s important to note that foot and car traffic is not evenly distributed. During class changes, hundreds of students swarm from the classroom buildings, and it can be a few minutes of waiting for the stream of students to cease. That’s when tempers flare.
“One of the most frustrating things is [that] you’ll have a long line of students going across the street, and I have seen cars just lay on the horn,” Yuhdishthu, the student, told me.
It wasn’t alway this way. When Macalester was first built here back in the 1880s, Grand Avenue was a dirt street, maybe even full of bicycles, and when the streetcar finally came through the neighborhood, it ran through the middle of campus. But in that era, streetcar streets had a more pedestrian character. They were almost an amenity for students walking around the grounds.
[image_credit]Courtesy of the Minnesota Historical Society[/image_credit][image_caption]Macalester College in 1910.[/image_caption]
That was never a good situation, for drivers nor students. Shifting the street design dynamics around Macalester College has long been a goal, especially after three different students were killed or seriously injured by drivers around the edges of campus, on Snelling and Grand Avenues, in 2012 and 2014.
A decade later, the city is finally planning a full reconstruction of the street, slated to begin in 2024. A reconstruction allows city engineers to redesign the entire right-of-way from scratch. In theory, planners can create a safer, slower landscape. The city released plans earlier this year, and the Grand Avenue designs have bump outs on the corners to slow cars, along with expanded sidewalks and boulevard space.
[image_credit]City of St. Paul[/image_credit][image_caption]There are five different options for redesigning the crosswalks, where the formerly hostile median will be replaced with curb cuts and safer designs.[/image_caption]
It would also be nice to narrow Grand Avenue on the commercial streets to the west, where both sides of the street boast thriving businesses and shops. There’s no reason why the asphalt on Grand Avenue needs to be 48 feet wide.
“That would be a huge deal,” said Yuhdishthu, referring to the raised table (where the street comes up to the curb’s level) of Option 5. “It would make it easy to cross, and hopefully be a clear signifier to drivers that you’re on a college campus — the rules and expectations are different.”
This problem isn’t unique to Macalester, and other colleges face the same tensions. Higher education can be an internally-focused bubble, dense places where most everyone walks, but often surrounded by ubiquitous high-speed roads. Getting that balance right can be a lost cause, but in many recent examples — most notably the University of Minnesota’s East Bank campus — engineers have dramatically slowed car traffic and prioritized people on foot.
If it happens, the change through the Macalester College will be a huge improvement. It’ll quickly change the way that people walk and drive around the campus greens.
“A lot of Macalester students haven’t thought explicitly about urban design, but they feel the discomfort, ” explained Yuhdishthu, after he tabled and talked to his fellow students. “The cars speeding by, it’s an intuitive thing. When you’re crossing the street, when they think about it, they have similar complaints as I do.”
If it works, the transformation at Macalester will be swift, one of the brilliant things about college campuses. By the time the school year starts in 2024, new students will never know about how stupid the street crossing used to be. Within a few years, an entirely new group of undergraduates will be strolling across a new and improved Grand Avenue, and nobody will even remember what once was.
I drive through there every day. How about a foot bridge like they have over at the U?
At the U, Washington Avenue is below grade at the location of the bridges and includes LRT tracks and bus lanes–a much different scenario than Grand Avenue at the Macalester campus. How about not driving your car through the campus?
Pedestrian bridges always sound like a good idea to people who don’t have to think about climbing them as part of their regular travels. From that perspective, they always feel like an annoyance, and people will avoid them if they can, so they’re also a waste of money if a potential user can cross at the next intersection. Pedestrian and bicycle routes need to attempt to be as flat and direct as possible so they’re easy for people to use and not feel like a hike, whereas my car doesn’t complain about having to climb a hill or go out of its way to reach a destination.
Yes! The perfect solution.
It would be great to deal with the class changes when mobs of students are crossing. I think that is the key to solving the problem- been through there many times with handful of students and we & others always stop. Other issue is that it is a wide sidewalk feeding into a crosswalk close to Snelling, which is technically a highway with backup to Snelling during class changes. I do like the feel and look of the median and sides with trees, raised beds, & shrubs. The closeness makes you slow down. Perhaps move the sidewalk feed from the cafeteria area at a 45 degree angle?
Gas tax could pay for the bridge Mr. Tester suggests- it would need a long approach and jerseys & fences to prevent jay walking there. Not sure it would work as I don’t know the traffic patterns.
Painting bicycle lanes onto the street next to car parking spots is something else that St. Paul needs to reconsider.
Grand Ave bounded by the Macalester campus seems like a good candidate for closure to vehicle traffic. Grand is not a thoroughfare in the way Selby/Marshall or St Clair or Randolph Avenues are, it’s more of a destination in and of itself than a road between two places. East/west traffic has no shortage of alternative routes to use given Saint Paul’s fleshed out grid system in that part of town
Now we’re talking. Washington Avenue through the East Bank of the U of MN is a game changer for that campus. But we still need the #63 bus to be able to go through there, so it’s not likely to work very well here.
I would still want the road to be accessible to University vehicles, so maybe a pedestrian and transit mall à la Nicollet Mall is the ticket
Something should be done about the section of Grand that goes through Macalester, but I’ve not seen any problems in the commercial district. Leave the “thriving businesses” alone.
Close that block of grand to motor vehicles and route them north a block to Summit?
Bill, normally I’m not a fan of changes that create car traffic slowdowns simply because an occasional pedestrian fails to follow the law or use common sense – But for this one I would gladly make a “volume” exception! The bigger problem here is not times of high foot traffic. It’s the rest of the time, and the penchant of Mac students to enter that mid-block quasi-crosswalk without looking up from whatever they’re engaged in. Our family refers to that block as the “Macalester Zone of Death”! I hate driving through it, at any speed, especially after dark. Just harrowing… We’ve lived in the TC since ’84, so we’re now barely missing hitting the grandchildren of kids we barely missed – Mac student behavior is not going to change! We have kind of a dark humor running joke: When we see somebody ELSEWHERE walk into traffic without looking, one of us will say “Must have studied at Mac!” Anything that will save these poor souls, short of closing the block altogether (which sounds like it’s not an option) would be much appreciated, as would avoiding the heartache that would surely accompany hitting someone there.
Excellent points, James. I’ve had similar experiences on Grand through the Mac campus, so I try to avoid that stretch–even though my home and some destinations are both on Grand.
I appreciate your article, Bill. Informative, thought-provoking.
Might it help to install a traffic signal in the middle of that block? Would that even be possible?
It will be interesting to see how this is handled. I appreciate that the students need to be able to traverse their campus easily. But they also need situational awareness, since Grand Avenue IS a city street with non- college traffic. A few weeks ago I was driving that section on a weekend afternoon and a student with earbuds in ran right out into the street in front of my car without even looking. I was able to stop and no one was hurt, but as a driver, I would like to see pedestrians at least acknowledge that there might be cars on the road!
When I walk, I wish mid-block crosswalks with refuge islands were everywhere. It feels so much safer to cross one lane of traffic in one direction, then have a median to wait and repeat, without the complexities of turning vehicular movements found at intersections. The only problems appear to be the lack of curb cuts for accessibility, and the lack of consistency with other crosswalks where people walking have the right of way.
I (like other posters) have also had students cross without looking and even at times, wait curbside then jump out into the street at the last moment. It makes me wonder after one of those events…. these are our future best and brightest?
How about a nice, high, classy fence along the Grand on both sides, and just one pedestrian crossing access in the middle of the block with right angle access to slow the students down.
Given that signs posted state that vehicle traffic does have the ROW, there must be some covenant from times prior that I am unaware of this. Again, I have had close calls here even when driving much slower than the posted speed limits when some kid dashes across.
If they were to close this stretch through the campus because the students refuse to learn how to cross streets properly, and because of that, the business see a downtown in revenue, who is left on the hook to make up for that shortfall?
When I lived in the area (1980 through 1998) I avoided that stretch of Grand like the plague. I always went a little farther north and used Summit, or used St Claire.
It has always been interesting to me that Mac student pedestrians are prioritized differently than the rest of us common pedestrians who are directed to crosswalks at roadway intersections. Pedestrian safety could be increased at no public cost by requiring that the school install six foot (decorative) fencing or a similar barrier along that stretch of Grand that daylights at each of Snelling Ave and Macalister Street. I fear that with any of these current plans the students will continue to assume that vehicles do not exist or that some higher power will ensure that every driver does in fact see them and will automatically stop regardless of the inattentiveness of the pedestrian. The school should take first position in solving this problem. As a driver I am not on a college campus. The college campus abuts the public street.