CTS at 40: Milestones Through Our History
As we celebrate our 40th year, we will be sharing key milestones in our story, adding to them throughout 2026.
The First Decade: Origin, Direction, Innovation, Invention
From Proposal to Reality: How CTS Took Shape
Four decades ago, three transportation-minded University of Minnesota (UMN) professors had an idea. Panos Michalopoulos, Yorgos Stephanedes, and Raymond Sterling in the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering (now Civil, Environmental, and Geo- Engineering) proposed the creation of a technology-focused transportation center at the University after consulting with the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and studying similar centers nationwide.
The proposal gained support from UMN leadership, which wanted to find more ways the University could apply research toward addressing problems throughout Minnesota.
At the state level, momentum was also growing as Minnesota received funds from a federal court judgment against the Exxon Corporation for overcharging customers for oil. MnDOT’s commissioner at the time, Richard “Dick” Braun, advocated with then-Governor Rudy Perpich to direct some of that money back to transportation.
“Innovation is crucial for meeting future transportation needs, yet only rarely is innovation possible without extensive research. The future transportation system must be made more effective and efficient, yet only through research will the necessary tools be available to do so.” —Dick Braun
Perpich agreed and recommended that $2.75 million of the Exxon funds be used to help launch CTS. Braun was named the Center’s first director in 1986, and an interim advisory committee was formed to chart an initial course. With Braun’s leadership and expanded funding, the vision evolved into a broader, multidisciplinary center aimed at matching the caliber of the U.S.’s top university transportation centers.
Additional financial support for CTS’s formation came from MnDOT and the Regional Transit Board. A second allocation of $2 million from the Exxon funds arrived in 1988, and three years later the Minnesota legislature approved operating funds for CTS through the state’s transportation bill. This partnership with the legislature remains a critical source of annual support for CTS research, education, and engagement.
Forty years later, CTS continues to shape transportation policy, infrastructure, and mobility across the state, region, and nation.
Setting a Direction
As part of the Center’s start-up work, an interim advisory committee recommended that CTS invite representatives from University of Minnesota (UMN) faculty, elected officials, state agencies, private industry, and other interest groups to help set a direction.
To that end, CTS established an advisory board, which included a subset of members from that group to serve on an executive committee.
Ray Lappegaard, who had held leadership roles in both the public and private sectors in Minnesota, was named the first chair of the advisory board. (Each year, CTS presents the Ray L. Lappegaard Distinguished Service Award to a transportation professional displaying outstanding leadership, mentorship, and support to the profession.) The advisory board held its initial meeting in March 1989 to help define transportation issues and research needs, and later that spring CTS issued its first request for proposals to UMN researchers on topics identified by the board.
The executive committee further refined its committee structure in 1990 by establishing program councils focusing on the transportation-based topics of:
- Transportation and the economy
- Safety and traffic flow
- Infrastructure
- Environment
- Education
- Information and outreach
CTS continues with a similar governance structure today. The CTS Executive Committee provides strategic direction to staff and oversees the implementation of CTS programs. CTS Councils provide a forum for transportation professionals and researchers to exchange information on current issues and trends.
Convening and Honoring Transportation Researchers, Practitioners, and Students
In support of the University of Minnesota’s wider public service role, CTS has developed a comprehensive outreach program to share information and provide opportunities for discussion between researchers and practitioners.
A cornerstone of CTS’s engagement work is its annual Transportation Research Conference. The first conference, held over two days in May 1990, featured more than 60 presentations on a wide range of topics and attracted more than 300 transportation professionals. Like today, attendees represented a wide cross section of the transportation field: departments of transportation; county, city, township, and tribal agencies; public works; private engineering firms; academia; advocacy; policymakers; and others.
The CTS Transportation Research Conference, now a one-day event held annually in November on the University’s Twin Cities campus, continues to highlight new learning, emerging ideas, and the latest innovations in transportation while drawing renowned keynote speakers from across the nation. After pivoting to a virtual format during COVID-19, the event is once again held in person, with attendance climbing to among the highest levels in CTS history.
CTS also holds an Annual Meeting and Awards Luncheon in the spring to honor faculty researchers, transportation leaders, and student scholars. Awards recognize distinguished service and leadership in the transportation profession as well as an exemplary research partnership within the CTS program. The Research Partnership Award, named for former CTS Director Robert C. Johns, has been given to teams who have collaboratively drawn on their diverse expertise to significantly impact transportation. CTS Student Awards, which honor academic achievement and leadership, include financial awards.
These annual events represent just two ways CTS convenes and champions transportation excellence in Minnesota and beyond.
Innovation Puts CTS on the Map
A video-based vehicle detection system helped launch CTS as a national leader in transportation innovation. Conceived in the early days of the Center by a University of Minnesota (UMN) researcher, Autoscope is a technology that can replace underground loops and control systems with roadside cameras to detect vehicles in real-time traffic.
Developed with funding from CTS, the Minnesota Department of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration, Autoscope was designed by Panos Michalopoulos—at the time a professor in the Department of Civil and Mineral Engineering—and his research team. The system is an early example of not only technology innovation at CTS but also innovation leading to marketable real-world solutions.
Patented by the UMN in 1990 and commercialized in 1991, Autoscope has been incorporated into products sold and used worldwide. One such application: MnDOT’s ubiquitous highway traffic camera networks were built and extended based on Autoscope technology. Years after it was first commercialized, a share of the technology’s sales continue to support CTS research. This practice of marketing technology has since expanded dramatically with support from Technology Commercialization within the U’s Research and Innovation Office—CTS’s institutional home.
Around the same time that Autoscope helped propel CTS onto the national stage, the Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Institute was launched within CTS, supported by funding from the federal transportation bill of 1991. The ITS Institute jump-started even more opportunities for innovation at CTS. It helped leverage federal funding for research aimed at improving the safety and mobility of road- and transit-based transportation, particularly with human-centered technology. In addition, CTS—through the ITS Institute—strengthened its role as a key research partner with MnDOT and its GuideStar program, an incubator for advanced transportation technologies.
Taking Off: Expansion, Education, Engagement
MnLTAP: A Cornerstone of CTS’s Commitment to Local Excellence
Recognizing the need to support local transportation agencies at cities, counties, townships, and tribal nations across the state, CTS created the Minnesota Technology Transfer (T2) Program in 1992. Later renamed as the Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program (MnLTAP), this program has become a cornerstone in CTS’s work to provide training and continuing education for transportation professionals as well as innovation-sharing opportunities between agencies in Minnesota and beyond.
Over the years, MnLTAP has expanded to include programs that support local innovation and best practices. The Build a Better Mousetrap Competition encourages employees at all levels to stretch their creativity and share homegrown ideas, innovative gadgets, equipment modifications, and safety improvements. The Local Operational Research Assistance Program (OPERA) provides funding for local project ideas that will improve transportation or maintenance operations. At the heart of MnLTAP is an extensive training program, which over the years has provided opportunities for thousands of transportation professionals to learn new skills and adapt to new technologies. In addition, the Roads Scholar Program offers certificate programs for transportation professionals at every stage of their careers.
These efforts reflect how CTS and its partners are committed to providing Minnesota’s local transportation agencies with the tools they need to lead with excellence.
Charting a Smarter Path for Regional Growth
The Twin Cities, like other metropolitan regions in the 1990s, faced mounting concerns about traffic congestion and urban sprawl. How could planners and policymakers be better prepared for the region’s long-term growth?
At the time, many regions across the country were experiencing similar pressures as commercial and residential development surged, raising fears about infrastructure, social, and environmental costs.
To help chart a way forward, CTS launched the Transportation and Regional Growth Study in 1998, in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Transportation, the Metropolitan Council, and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board. The multiyear effort explored the links between land use, commercial development, and transportation in the Twin Cities metropolitan area.
The study produced 16 separate research reports intended to identify transportation management and investment alternatives that aligned with the region’s growth plans. It also marked a milestone as CTS’s first large-scale interdisciplinary research effort, demonstrating the power of bringing University of Minnesota experts from multiple fields together to address regional challenges.
Overall, the enterprise set a framework for regional transportation planning in the Twin Cities—and served as a precursor to the University’s pioneering work in accessibility-based transportation system evaluation. On this foundation, CTS established the Accessibility Observatory and its decade of annual Access Across America reports that measure destinations available to travelers instead of congestion and throughput.
AirTAP: Building Capacity at Minnesota’s Airports
The nearly 200 public and private airports across Minnesota vary in physical size and breadth of operations, but the challenges faced by their staffs are often similar.
Until 2001, Minnesota lacked a centralized hub for airport managers and operators to access for guidance on technical, regulatory, or operational issues. That changed with the creation of the Airport Technical Assistance Program (AirTAP), formed through a partnership between the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s Office of Aeronautics and CTS. The Minnesota Council of Airports also played a role in the program’s development.
Thanks to AirTAP, airport managers and operators have access to training, technical assistance, experts, and educational resources to help them improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of airport operations.
AirTAP, which is modeled after CTS’s Minnesota Local Technical Assistance Program (LTAP), provides support through workshops, publications, and online resources. In addition, AirTAP hosts the annual Minnesota Airports Conference and offers a wildlife hazard control workshop along with educational webinars on emerging topics, such as Advanced Air Mobility and electric aviation.
AirTAP touches scores of Minnesota airports—those with and without commercial operations—as well as seaplane bases, ensuring that both large and small facilities benefit from professional training, resources, and a peer network for exchanging best practices.
The program is another example of how CTS applies its entrepreneurial spirit to serve an important transportation link for Minnesota communities.
CTS Convenes at National Level with Oberstar Forum
U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar, remembered as a national champion of transportation, inspired CTS to establish an event that carried his name—the James L. Oberstar Forum on Transportation Policy and Technology, held annually from 2002 to 2008.
The inaugural forum in 2002 marked the first time that CTS convened experts on a national level, signaling its emergence as a respected leader in the U.S. transportation community.
Oberstar represented Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District from 1974 to 2010 and served as chair of the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee from 2006 to 2010.
The forum was created to examine and improve national transportation policy by facilitating an open exchange of ideas and perspectives among state, national, and international leaders in transportation and academia. Oberstar envisioned an event at which “ideas can clash well and thoughtfully and constructively to produce good new ideas for the cause of transportation.”
Forum topics reflected critical issues of the time, including transportation changes after 9/11, intermodal systems, alternatives to the gas tax, and the importance of walking and biking.
Discussions on rural transportation challenges during the 2004 forum contributed to the development and launch of the UMN’s Center for Excellence in Rural Safety, which received funding in the 2005 federal transportation bill—and served as an example of the forum’s power to elevate local ideas and inform national transportation policy.
Roaring Twenties: New Programs from Rural to Metro
How CTS Helped Shape Minnesota's Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) Program
In 2001, leaders who shared a concern about safety on the state’s roadways gathered in the Twin Cities to discuss ways to reduce the number of fatal and severe-injury crashes. On behalf of the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Minnesota Department of Public Safety (DPS), CTS brought together agency representatives in engineering, law enforcement, and public health; traffic safety advocates; University of Minnesota researchers; and international experts for a multi-day workshop, titled “Connecting the Minnesota Safety Agenda: Toward Zero Deaths.” The workshop focused on a bold vision—that even one traffic-related death on the state’s roadways was unacceptable. With this, the groundwork was laid for what would become Minnesota’s Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) program.
In 2003, a TZD program team was formed to coordinate and focus the state’s traffic safety initiatives. A year later, TZD was launched statewide as a deliberate, interdisciplinary approach to traffic safety with DPS, MnDOT, and the Minnesota Department of Health providing leadership and funding. Currently, the program relies on the sustained work of dozens of organizations across the state as well as dedicated individual volunteers. Held during an annual conference that draws hundreds of attendees from across Minnesota (and beyond), an awards program recognizes exceptional achievement across seven categories.
Through an agreement with MnDOT and the DPS Office of Traffic Safety, CTS provides ongoing administrative support, coordination, and outreach for the TZD program team.
CTS also serves on and administers the Advisory Council on Traffic Safety, a legislatively mandated body established in 2023 to advise the governor and key state agencies on improving traffic safety.
The Center’s early leadership and ongoing support helped transform a shared approach to traffic safety into a sustained, statewide commitment to preventing deaths and serious injuries on Minnesota’s roads.
'TIRP' Sheds Light on the Impact of Transit Investments
The Twin Cities metropolitan area has invested in transit infrastructure in new ways over the past two decades. New and expanded light-rail lines, bus rapid transit corridors, and dedicated transitways are changing how people in the region get to jobs, services, school, and entertainment.
As these projects have taken shape, so has the need to better understand the impact of these significant investments. Researchers at CTS have stepped up to provide that insight through the Transit Impacts Research Program (TIRP), which studies how transit contributes to mobility, economic development and job access, equity and opportunity, public well-being and safety, and sustainability. TIRP is funded through a unique model where local and regional governments—together with transit providers—work with CTS to identify and prioritize research questions to pose to UMN experts.
Now in its 20th year, TIRP has covered a diverse body of research with enduring impacts for public transit’s decision-makers in Minnesota and across the nation. Recent studies have highlighted the benefits of dedicated transit rights-of-way, the importance of understanding transit customers who ride during non-peak times, and the impacts of highway and transitway construction on nearby businesses.
Started in 2006 as the Transitway Impacts Research Program and focused on rail and bus rapid transit corridors in the Twin Cities metro, TIRP expanded in 2023 to include analysis of the overall transit system, including potential projects throughout the state. Current research funders include Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington counties; the Metropolitan Council (including Metro Transit); SouthWest Transit; and the Minnesota Department of Transportation.
Through its collaboration with local partners, TIRP continues to provide the timely, relevant research needed to strengthen planning and decision-making for Minnesota’s transit future.
The Evolving Legacy of 'Access to Destinations'
For decades, transportation system performance has primarily been measured and judged by congestion: how long a trip by auto actually takes in congested traffic compared to a free-flowing state. CTS researchers saw an opportunity to rethink that approach by focusing on individuals: How many opportunities—such as jobs—can a person access from a specific place (e.g., home) within a certain travel time?
A landmark series of studies known as Access to Destinations, which CTS launched in 2004, established a new body of work that illuminated how land use and transportation work together. The research ultimately led to the creation of new methodologies and data to measure and compare the ease of reaching destinations by automobile, walking/rolling, bicycling, and public transportation. That shift matters because accessibility has become a powerful tool for building equitable, connected communities.
The effort brought together key planning and operational transportation partners, including the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Hennepin County, and the Metropolitan Council as well as the McKnight Foundation.
Access to Destinations continues to have an impact today. Many departments of transportation and transportation agencies have adopted accessibility metrics to evaluate transitways, roadway investments, and multimodal networks. The work also led to the establishment of the Accessibility Observatory (housed at CTS) and its Access Across America series of reports, which for 10 years has tracked how access to jobs and services changes over time.
In addition, Access to Destinations helped spark the first World Society for Transport and Land Use Research conference—now in its 15th year—and the creation of the Journal of Transport and Land Use (JTLU). An early example of an exclusively online academic journal, JTLU publishes worldwide research on the interaction of transportation and land use.
The legacy of Access to Destinations endures through its body of work, which has reshaped transportation planning and advanced efforts to create more equitable, connected communities. Perhaps most visibly, the Access to Destinations work lives on through a decade's worth of reports and data produced by the Accessibility Observatory.
Read more about the Observatory's 10th annual Access Across America study.
Advancing a National Discussion on Rural Road Safety
Throughout its history, CTS has advanced transportation innovation through influential research—backed by significant federal funding—to help address critical transportation challenges.
The Center for Excellence in Rural Safety (CERS), which launched in 2005, is a powerful example of this. A joint program of CTS and the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs State and Local Policy Program, CERS was created to address a national safety issue at the time: More than half of U.S. traffic fatalities occurred on rural roads, despite those areas having a much smaller share of the population overall.
CERS was part of federal transportation legislation that established four national centers for transportation excellence. The late U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, who represented Minnesota’s 8th Congressional District from 1974 to 2010, championed the effort to secure one of the centers for Minnesota. CERS remained active until 2013.
CERS researchers examined the full range of factors contributing to rural crashes—everything from driver behavior and local culture to emergency response time, roadway design, and emerging technology. The goal was to understand why these crashes happened and how they could be prevented.
Beyond research, CERS provided safety information to all drivers and hosted the national Rural Highway Safety Clearinghouse, giving all U.S. communities access to evidence-based solutions.