TRG Research Project Directory
The TRG Study encompasses six major research projects, selected to address the broad spectrum of issues confronting the Twin Cities region. Each research project is addressed by a separate research team, which prepares one or more final reports for distribution in print and electronic (PDF) formats.
I. Twin Cities Regional Dynamics [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Analyze the underlying Minneapolis-St. Paul regional dynamics – housing market behavior, fiscal structures (including tax policies), regulatory constraints and so on – that direct development and generate demands for transportation.
- Clarify the role of transportation infrastructure and public transportation services in facilitating spatial distribution of regional growth.
- Relate regional dynamics to development outside the seven-county region.
- Clarify the relationship between housing choices, private investment, and other location decisions in the expanded metro area and impacts on the geographical pattern of commuting.
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II. Passenger and Freight Travel Demand Patterns [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Document the passenger and freight transportation patterns that have resulted from (and have enabled) the actual pattern of development in the region.
- Review and assess projections of transportation demand. Evaluate potential application of new travel demand models.
- Analyze the potential market for public transportation, building on previous studies.
- Analyze the degree to which telecommunications will substitute for transportation.
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III. Full Transportation Costs and Cost Incidence [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Document the full costs imposed by a "base case" transportation system that is required to accommodate projected regional growth. These include agency costs (capital and operating costs), user and congestion costs, safety costs, and environmental costs.
- Document the incidence of transportation costs, i.e. investigate whether – under the existing transportation system and existing tax mechanisms – some locales are required to cross-subsidize the development of transport capacity and services of other locales.
- Identify and investigate costs of alternative delivery methods to the current transportation system.
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IV. Transportation Financing Alternatives [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Investigate a set of highway and public transportation financing mechanisms which are consistent with the region's desire to implement the Met Council's regional growth strategy. Base this analysis on experience in transportation, as well as in other systems (e.g. water resources, electric utilities) where there are high fixed costs.
- Investigate privatization and mixed ownership options for highways and transit.
- Investigate means of recovering full user costs for transportation facilities. Project the effect of a "full user cost" regime and relate this to the Met Council growth scenario. Compare "full user cost" regime to total costs of other alternatives (as defined in 3C).
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V. Transportation, Urban Design, and the Environment [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Analyze how urban design concepts have influenced the current transportation system and regional urban form;
- Determine implications of urban design concepts for redevelopment, infill and greenfield development (such as compact, mixed-use, connected/integrated land use models, Transit Oriented Design "TOD", traditional neighborhood development/new urbanism) on transportation demand (vehicle miles traveled, mode choice, and other pertinent factors);
- Create alternative urban design models and strategies that address infill, redevelopment, and greenfield development. Analyze environmental impacts (water quality, surface water runoff), urban form generated, and transportation system impacts.
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VI. Institutional and Leadership Alternatives [top]
Scope and objectives:
- Evaluate the institutional structures and political decision-making processes that have contributed to making the current level of regional development possible.
- Investigate legal and institutional changes in the transportation planning, management and investment process that most effectively implement the Met Council's regional growth strategy.
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