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Previous: Strategy 6
CITIZENS' AGENDA : STRATEGY 7
Identify measurable short-term and long-term transportation goals in Minnesota law and require MnDOT and the Metropolitan Council to report annual progress toward achievement of those goals.

Goals should include benchmarks for:

• Increasing mode share for public transit, bicycling, walking, and carpooling.

• Reducing congestion and identifying “acceptable levels” of peak hour traffic congestion for different categories of roads.

• Reducing annual vehicle miles traveled per person.

• Reducing air toxics and greenhouse gases from transportation sources.

• Reducing per-capita rates of injury and death in motor vehicle crashes.

• Reducing oversupplied parking.

The few goals for transportation contained in MnDOT and Metropolitan Council plans are not ambitious. Measurement of progress toward these goals is spotty. While plans may describe a need to reduce congestion, increase transit ridership, or decrease emissions from motor vehicles, we must ask by how much and when?

Although government in the region spends over $2 billion on transportation projects each year, the legislature and the public cannot accurately determine if Minnesota is getting results from the investments being made. Did a highway expansion project lead to reduced congestion and improved safety in a corridor over the long term? Did new bus service increase rates of transit ridership and contribute to increased development along a corridor? When employers charge for parking or offer transit incentives do employees drive alone less often?

Policy makers and the public deserve to know if transportation investments are getting results.