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March 2007
Hennepin County, U of M form transitway research program
As traffic congestion continues to worsen, transitways—corridors dedicated exclusively to buses or rail—are receiving growing interest. Much is unknown, however, about the economic, travel, and community impacts of transitway corridors in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
The Transitway Impacts Research Program is intended to answer those questions. Formed last fall, the program is an initiative of the Hennepin County– University Partnership, and is supported by CTS and the Humphrey Institute’s State and Local Policy Program (SLPP). Initial funding is being provided by Hennepin County and the University’s Consortium for Metropolitan Studies .
At an organizational meeting in October 2006, a Program Management Team (PMT) was formed to prioritize research questions, oversee the research projects and data collection efforts, and answer policy questions related to the research program.
Members of the PMT representing government entities are Jon Olson (Anoka County), Lee Sheehy (City of Minneapolis), Allen Lovejoy (City of St. Paul), Sam O’Connell (Dakota County), Marthand Nookala (Hennepin County), Mark Fuhrmann (Metro Transit), Arlene McCarthy and Mark Vander Schaaf (Metropolitan Council), Mike Schadauer (Mn/DOT), Kathy Fischer (Ramsey County), and Mike Rogers (Washington County).
Other metro-area communities are represented by Sarah Erickson (Association of Minnesota Municipalities). Venkat Pindiprolu (Federal Transit Administration) has also participated on the PMT.
In addition, several University of Minnesota units are represented on the PMT: Tom Scott (Center for Urban and Regional Affairs), John Adams (Metropolitan Studies Consortium), Lee Munnich (SLPP), Kathie Doty (Hennepin-University Partnership), and Robert Johns (CTS).
The program will create knowledge and information needed to improve planning and decision making for transitway expansion. It will also help educate legislators, agency leaders and staff, and the University research community about current issues, innovations, and trends pertaining to transitways. In addition, the program can serve as a national model of interjurisdictional collaboration between government and academia for transitway research, education, and outreach.
“The research program will shine a spotlight on transitway issues rather than steering the public debate, which is an appropriate role for the University,” said Johns.
The program grew out of a previous collaboration between Hennepin County and the University of Minnesota, which resulted in the completion of the Inventory of Data and Research on the Economic and Community Impacts of the Hiawatha LRT (1.4 MB PDF).
The first outreach effort of the Transitway Impacts Research Program will take place at the CTS Transportation Research Conference (see article). A conference session will include preliminary results of the before-and-after study for the Hiawatha light-rail transit line as well as news of transitway planning in Hennepin and Ramsey Counties.