Transportation Planning Studies and Reports

Purpose: 

Federal law requires large MPOs to adopt and periodically update a Public Transit-Human Services Transportation Coordinated Plan. The current plan was last adopted in January 2020 and is recommended to be updated approximately every five years. The purpose of the plan is to increase understanding of public transit and human service transportation coordination among stakeholders, elected officials, and the Metropolitan Council in the metro area and identify opportunities for better coordination with the assistance of federal funding, especially regarding service duplication and unmet needs in the region. 

Tasks: 

• Review past plans and activities accomplished. 
• Establish technical working group with agency partner representation to provide plan direction. 
• Review changes in state and federal laws or rules. 
• Establish and prioritize needs and strategies for associated federal funding sources that support coordination within the delivery of human services transportation. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q2 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $100,000 
• 2025 Budget: $70,000 

Purpose: 

The Regional Pedestrian Safety Action Plan identified that significant percentages of pedestrian crashes happen near transit stops or stations, although this does not mean that transit is causing these crashes. While these locations are common destinations for pedestrians, they are also proxies for where more people are likely to be walking. To help reduce the numbers of pedestrians who are killed or seriously injured in the region, this project will conduct additional study on the relationship with pedestrian safety and elements of transit system design and roadway design that can affect traffic safety outcomes for pedestrians, such as stop spacing, crossing enhancements for mid-block stops, pedestrian countermeasures, etc. This study will develop a methodology to identify locations where improvements are needed and identify strategies to address these needs. It will build on related work from MnDOT and other partner agencies. This study may also engage transit riders and residents living near transit to collect information on the barriers that are challenging for safely accessing transit services by walking, rolling, or biking to stops or stations. 

Tasks: 

• Review literature and best practices for transit and roadway design elements affecting pedestrian safety. 
• Engage riders and nearby residents on safety-related barriers to accessing nearby transit services. 
• Analyze data for risk factors relating to transit system design and severity of pedestrian crashes. 
• Create methodology and identify locations where improvements may be needed and strategies to address those needs. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q2 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $200,000 
• 2025 Budget: $75,000 

Purpose: 

The Regional Travel Demand Management (TDM) Action Plan and 2050 Transportation Policy Plan identified a need to better integrate TDM considerations into highway project development processes as one action to help reduce the need to for highway expansion. The Congestion Management Process also places TDM as high-priority strategies for congested corridors. However, the TDM strategies are high level and do not provide detailed implementation guidance for project managers to put into practice. This project will create detailed tools for how TDM strategies can be incorporated in different phases of highway project development, including post-construction considerations.  

Tasks: 

• Work with partners to document existing highway project development processes for different project types where TDM may be an appropriate tool. 
• Relate TDM Action Plan to different project types to create a context sensitive approach. 
• Create tools, such as guides, decision matrices, and model process, that can easily integrate into existing processes. 
• Identify cases studies, as available, that illustrate real world examples of applied approaches. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q3 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $150,000 
• 2025 Budget: $75,000 

Purpose: 

The Council has assessed various existing tools for estimating pedestrian and bicycle demand include MnDOT’s Suitability for the Pedestrian and Cycling Environment (SPACE) and Priority Areas for Walking (PAWS) tools and the regional travel demand forecast model. These tools have some value, but the Council is interested in a tool that is specifically developed for the metro area and is able to be updated regularly with new data. A new tool would facilitate better demand estimating for funding prioritization processes like the Regional Solicitation and Active Transportation. The tool could also assist local agencies in planning for pedestrians and bicycles when working on local transportation plans or comprehensive plans. 

Tasks: 

• Identify key characteristics of pedestrian and bicycle demand using a combination of literature review, data analysis from sources like the Travel Behavior Inventory and observed counts, and stakeholder engagement. 
• Design a geographic-based data tool that reflects key characteristics of pedestrian and bicycle demand and calculate results using latest available data. 
• Validate output using observed data and stakeholder reviews. 
• Test application of tool with a set of expected use-cases. 
• Provide a how-to guide for updating the data and recommendations on the frequency of updates. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q2 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $150,000 
• 2025 Budget: $100,000 

Purpose: 

The Excess Highway Capacity Study will be a joint effort between MnDOT Metro District and the Met Council to identify trunk highway corridors where there is or is not excess motor vehicle capacity on the transportation system both today and into the future. The effort will focus on MnDOT’s freeways and arterials to better understand each corridor’s importance to local and regional travel while accounting for both the capacity of parallel routes and needed redundancy of the system. The study may also include city and county owned minor arterial routes that are parallel to MnDOT owned facilities. The study will examine the entire trunk highway system to better understand if there are segments that have too much capacity and may be candidates for capacity reductions or road diets, segments where there is no clear answer and more detailed study is required, and segments that are poor candidates for any future reductions in capacity. This regional-level study will be exploratory in nature and potential follow up studies may be needed. Study findings may inform other future Work Program items (e.g. the Twin Cities Incident Management and Redundancy System Plan). Study results should be combined with local corridor planning efforts for future project development. 

Tasks: 

• Identify the benefits and drawbacks for reducing capacity on the freeway or arterial system, and connections with 2050 TPP and the Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan. 
• Analyze both existing and future capacity needs on MnDOT’s system. 
• Identify trunk highway corridors/segments with excess capacity or opportunity for reduced capacity as well as corridors where capacity should not be removed because it would cause regional problems (identify what those problems/issues are).  
• Place segments into different tiers based on study findings and analysis. 
• Identify reasons why reducing capacity may still be appropriate even if there is not excess capacity on a segment (e.g., major pedestrian safety issue on an arterial).  
• Document missing links in the existing system such as missing interchange ramp movements or overpasses could add needed redundancy to the system. 
• Propose next steps for further studying this issue. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q3 2025 – Q4 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $250,000 
• 2025 Budget: $20,000 

Purpose: 

While the region has a wide range of data available about roads, less is available for pedestrian facilities on the regional scale. Individual agencies may have data about the location of sidewalks with varying degrees of detail, but this is not consistently available in common formats across the region. This lack of data hampers planning for walking and rolling. Earlier Council internal work determined that the best course of action would be to create a regional dataset rather than trying to compile existing data from communities and filling in gaps. This work builds on the previous Council assessment and pilot and is envisioned to be done in two phases. Phase 1 would be a consultant study to assist the Council with reviewing the internal work done in 2018 and 2019, convening external and internal stakeholders to prioritize data needs, and reviewing best options available for addressing these data needs. Phase 2, which would begin in 2025, would entail selecting an option(s) to acquire, purchase or collection the sidewalk data, along with identification of fundings for the recommended path, consistent with the recommendations from the Phase 1 work. 

Tasks: 

• Create a technical advisory group of external and internal stakeholders to guide the Phase 2 work. 
• Implement recommendations for Phase 2 regional sidewalk data collection. 
• Review quality of data and prepare for availability for internal and external partners. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q4 2025 – Q4 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $10,000 – TBD 
• 2025 Budget: $10,000 

Purpose: 

This project was identified as a need in the Equity Evaluation of Regional Transportation Investments study completed in 2024. A more equitable distribution of transportation benefits and burdens starts with including community in identification of a project’s purpose and need. This guide will draw on existing work, like the Federal Highway Administration’s Community Impact Assessment: A Quick Reference Guide and other resources, to develop a project-level guide. This guide will provide guidance on identifying and defining community, methods for mapping community assets and context, methods for engaging with communities about their transportation needs, and integrating those findings into a project’s purpose and need, planning, development, and decision-making. Community assets include, but are not limited to, demographic characteristics of people; past or ongoing transportation policies or investments that have benefited or harmed the community; the physical environment such as current transportation barriers or access, tree canopy, bodies of water, parks and trails; the social and cultural environment, such as community centers, schools, religious centers, employment and businesses; and other data. 

Tasks: 

• Review and summarize relevant local, regional, state and federal work related to methodologies for identifying community assets. 
• Engage community members and our partner staff and policy makers at key points to develop this guide. 
• Develop guide to provide assistance with developing transportation projects. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q4 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $150,000 – $200,000 
• 2025 Budget: $30,000 

Purpose: 

This project continues implementation of the Equity Evaluation of Regional Transportation Investments study with training for local partners on the use and application of the framework and tool.  

Tasks: 

• Develop training plan and schedule and deliver training sessions. 
• Review evaluations and implement any needed changes. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: ongoing 
• Est. Total Budget: ongoing annual budget of $50,000 
• 2025 Budget: $50,000 

Purpose: 

This study will follow up on global, national, and state work on greenhouse gas reduction strategies to further develop local priorities and implementation details in coordination with partners. The work will build off the Regional Transportation and Climate Change Multimodal Measures Study which is identifying methods for estimating the emissions impacts of projects. It will further consider solutions and implementation strategies. This work will follow from the state’s Climate Action Framework, Statewide Multimodal Transportation Plan, MnDOT’s Carbon Reduction Strategy, and other local and regional work. It will include work in the areas of electrification, transportation choices, low carbon infrastructure, and operations. 

Tasks: 

• Review and summarize relevant local, regional, state, and federal work related to greenhouse gas reduction strategies, greenhouse gas inventory and forecasts methods, and strategy evaluation methods.  
• Conduct a scenario planning exercise to explore the impacts of potential futures including business as usual, a variety emphasizing specific strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and a variety of mixed approaches. 
• Evaluate greenhouse gas reduction strategies  within the areas of electrification, vehicle miles traveled reduction, land use, and construction practices (e.g., low carbon steel and concrete, electric powered equipment) for a variety of considerations including cost-effectiveness with respect to greenhouse gas emission reduction, equity, public health and other co-benefits, implementation ease, and geographic context. 
• Develop local priorities and implementation details (e.g., funding, roles of various agencies, needed technical support, applicability to different geographies of the region). 
• Engage partner staff and policy makers and the public at key milestones during this project. 
• Propose next steps for further work in the area of greenhouse gas reduction in the region. 

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q4 2025 – Q2 2027 
• Est. Total Budget: $400,000 
• 2025 Budget: $10,000 

Purpose: 

Accessibility measures frequently focus on how many jobs people reach in a certain amount of time by different travel modes (for example, bus, car, bike, etc.), but people need to access more than just jobs and shopping centers. To maintain and improve their quality of life, people need access to services such as food, health care, educational facilities, restorative open spaces, and social and cultural events. This study will help communities identify where and how they can improve peoples’ access to these services.  

Tasks: 

• Work with partners to identify and then create an inventory of essential destinations in different community contexts (including rural areas) that positively contribute to public health. 
• Expand existing accessibility analysis to include an evaluation of accessibility to these public health destinations across the region.  

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q2 2025 – Q2 2026 
• Est. Total Budget: $100,000 
• 2025 Budget: $30,000 

Purpose: 

The goal of this project is to follow up on Phase 2 of ActivitySim implementation (conducted in 2023-2025) by adding sub-models and ancillary models based on policy needs, re-calibrating existing components based on new local data as necessary, and further enhancing network and other data handling within the model.  

Schedule and Budget:  

• Est. Project Dates: Q4 2025 – Q1 2027 
• Est. Total Budget: $300,000 
• 2025 Budget: $20,000