Transportation Needs in Daily Life

A Metro Transit bus and Nice Ride bikes.The Met Council is leading a study to understand why and how residents in the Minneapolis-St. Paul region travel in their daily lives. This study will collect stories about how people travel using interviews and small group discussions. The information collected will build on the Travel Behavior Inventory household survey travel data to help inform decisions about regional transportation policies.

Study goals

This study aims to understand how our region’s transportation system — roads, bridges, buses, trains, sidewalks, bikeways — works for the people who live here. Identifying the kinds of barriers people face in getting to places and accessing what they need will help us understand how we can plan for a more inclusive and responsive system, specifically:

  • Understand how people’s values and needs influence their daily travel decisions
  • Incorporate people’s lived experiences into the region’s Transportation Policy Plan and transportation projects in communities across the region
  • Ensure regional transportation resources support those who need them most

Process

The project team will conduct interviews and hold small group discussions about feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of travel and of how the transportation system today works or doesn’t work. These conversations with residents across the region include a focus on people and groups who have the hardest time getting where they need to go. Planning for travel needs for residents who experience health disparities, have lower incomes, are aging, and those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of color, can drive a more equitable transportation system.

If you have a group who is interested in being part of a focus group for the Transportation Needs in Daily Life study, please fill out this form.

Contact

Jonathan Ehrlich
651-602-1408
[email protected]