Transit - Transportation Performance in the Twin Cities Region

Are the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council adequately measuring the key indicators that would drive Minnesota to address the challenges of rising gas prices, an aging population and climate change?

Transit for Livable Communities, along with the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, released Transportation Performance in the Twin Cities Region, which is intended to spark deeper conversations about the future of transportation planning in Minnesota. The report states the two agencies need to spend more time measuring key emerging trends, developing methods to better meld transportation and land use policies and providing greater accountability for achieving goals.

“Minnesota’s planning agencies must ask whether their choices of transportation projects are truly addressing 21st century challenges,” said Dave Van Hattum, Policy and Advocacy Program Manager at Transit for Livable Communities. “Right now, Minnesota’s transportation policies are the result of looking in the rear-view mirror rather than toward the future. This needs to change.”

The report was released at a panel discussion on August 5, 2008, which featured MnDOT Commissioner Tom Sorel, Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell and University of Minnesota’s Richard P. Braun/CTS Chair in Transportation Engineering, David Levinson.

The report makes several recommendations, including:

• Financial transparency of MnDOT and Metropolitan Council transportation projects;
• Measure efficient land use through vehicle miles traveled per capita;
• Improve transportation choices by tracking more than once a decade;
• Measure energy efficiency through greenhouse gas emissions per capita from the transportation sector;
• Measure health impacts through air quality ratings;
• Measure environmental impacts through impervious surfaces per capita;
• The Legislature should add greenhouse gas reduction and serving an aging, more diverse population to current goals;
• The Legislature should require a joint MnDOT and Metropolitan Council biennial regional performance report;
• The two agencies should make all key performance reporting documents easily available on their websites.

Our report aims to spur greater clarity and transparency in how taxpayers’ dollars are being invested in transportation,” said Anne Canby, President of the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership. “For instance, how much is spent on preserving existing roads and bridges versus adding new highway capacity. The report should also help to create a better link to real outcomes the public cares about, such as how well transit serves the communities within the Twin Cities region.”

Read the full report here (PDF 8.5MB)