Reflections on CTS at 40: Lisa Austin
As the Center for Transportation Studies celebrates its 40th year, I am reflecting on how CTS and University of Minnesota (UMN) research have been by my side over the last 20 years in my second career as a transportation professional. When I have the chance, I enjoy serving in the role of an innovator and changemaker—solving problems and improving processes. CTS helps me do that.
My work with CTS started before I joined MnDOT. I was a bicycle advocate and served as a citizen representative on the MnDOT State Bicycle Advisory Committee (SBAC). In 2006, SBAC engaged CTS and Gina Baas to host a workshop for city, county, and state professionals whose jobs included providing support for bicycling. Only a handful of the participants had bicycling as part of their job description, let alone were dedicated to it full time. At the end of the day, attendees expressed that having a statewide bicycle advocacy organization was the most important thing they needed to advance bicycling in Minnesota. That lit a fire for the SBAC volunteers. A couple of years later, we founded the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota. There have been countless improvements for bicycling and active transportation across the state since then.
When I joined MnDOT in 2008, I was struck by how we could talk about average annual daily traffic for motor vehicles on every type of road in the state, but questions about the number of people bicycling and walking were met with blank stares. Data drives so many decisions—from safety countermeasures related to crash rates to facility design and investment decisions. CTS was there to help me fill this gap by supporting a series of research projects with Greg Lindsey centered on counting bicycle and pedestrian traffic. Today, MnDOT has one of the most comprehensive statewide active transportation data collection programs in the country. At that time, other active transportation research projects evaluated trail crossing and roundabout safety and assessed the impact of better facilities on commuting levels with Frank Douma, John Hourdos, and others.
As my role at MnDOT expanded to include efforts to reduce congestion and improve air quality, CTS and Frank Douma supported my work in travel demand management, parking pricing, shared mobility, and mobility hubs with a number of reports, research efforts, and events. Because of that work, CTS now manages the Minnesota Shared Mobility Collaborative, MnDOT has dedicated shared mobility staff, and the ABC Parking Ramps are now mobility hubs. Understanding mode choice also led to qualitative research in travel behavior with Yingling Fan and work on transportation equity with Ying Song.
My current work with alternative non-highway uses of transportation right-of-way—such as under-bridge recreation areas, highway covers, and public art—has led to additional studies. These projects include research on innovative development of right-of-way and airspace, economic impact of highway conversions, and utilizing arts and culture to mitigate negative impacts of construction and transportation infrastructure. UMN researchers on these projects included Frank Douma, Camila Fonseca-Sarmiento, Brenda Kayzar, and Monica Haynes.
While many of these areas of study have now become standard practice, at one point they were emerging topics. Starting to explore them with research funding allows us to get innovative ideas out for public discourse. In the early stages, consultants might not have the expertise to prepare a report on these topics, or funds might not be available to hire them. Funding research helps build that knowledge in the workforce, as graduate students hired to help on these projects become the next generation of transportation professionals. As an additional benefit, CTS and the UMN can be media spokespeople for ideas that aren’t in the mainstream yet.
Thank you, CTS!
February 2026
Do you have a reflection, anecdote, or memory to share? Please let us know!