Ideas at work

Local plans and initiatives

Central Corridor Partnership
Business-led coalition (representing St. Paul, Midway, and Minneapolis) promotes the funding and development of an improved transit system in the Central Corridor.
Transit for Livable Communities
Works to improve the quality of life in Minnesota through a balanced transportation system.
University UNITED
Coalition of Midway businesses and citizens that work to revitalize the University Avenue Corridor
Minnesotans for Light-rail Transit
A grass-roots citizen organization working to build public/private support for the of the LRT system in the Twin Cities.

Research-based strategies

Listed below are proven, effective strategies linked to reports that provide data and information about how the strategies were implemented.

Balanced transportation system (1)
- Win-Win Transportation Solutions
  Victoria Transport Policy Institute, September 2007, 31 pp.
  Describes strategies and innovative policy reforms that help solve transportation problems by removing barriers and market distortions that encourage inefficient travel behavior.
Coordinated efforts (4)
- Preserving and promoting diverse transit-oriented neighborhoods
  Center for Transit Oriented Development, October 2006, 76 pp.
  Looks at the characteristics and benefits of transit-oriented neighborhoods, their future demand and policy suggestions.
- Guidelines for analysis of investments in bicycle facilities
  Transportation Research Board, January 2006, 119 pp.
  Includes methodologies and tools to estimate the cost of various bicycle facilities and to evaluating their potential value. Intended to help transportation planners integrate bicycle facilities into overall transportation plans on a project-by-project basis.
- Improving public transportation services through effective statewide coordination
  NGA Center for Best Practices, December 2002, 44 pp.
  Identifies the benefits of transportation coordination, the range of programs and potential players, mechanisms that states are using to create effective coordinating bodies, and available resources for achieving broader state transportation goals.
- Paths through the forest: Factors that influence transportation corridor success
  Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, November 1999, 20 pp.
  Summarizes research findings and offers planners and public officials a framework for developing corridor strategies.
Good alternative transportation options (4)
- Win-Win Transportation Solutions
  Victoria Transport Policy Institute, September 2007, 31 pp.
  Describes strategies and innovative policy reforms that help solve transportation problems by removing barriers and market distortions that encourage inefficient travel behavior.
- Parking management: strategies, evaluation and planning
  Victoria Transport Policy Institute, August 2007, 29 pp.
  Describes strategies that result in more efficient use of parking resources, and explains how to assemble them into an effective parking management program.
- Guidelines for analysis of investments in bicycle facilities
  Transportation Research Board, January 2006, 119 pp.
  Includes methodologies and tools to estimate the cost of various bicycle facilities and to evaluating their potential value. Intended to help transportation planners integrate bicycle facilities into overall transportation plans on a project-by-project basis.
- Improving conditions for bicycling and walking: A best practices report
  Federal Highway Administration, January 1998, 7 pp.
  Examples of pedestrian and bicycle projects that have been recognized for increasing walking and bicycling and improving user safety in communities across the United States.
Transit-oriented development (6)
- Preserving and promoting diverse transit-oriented neighborhoods
  Center for Transit Oriented Development, October 2006, 76 pp.
  Looks at the characteristics and benefits of transit-oriented neighborhoods, their future demand and policy suggestions.
- Tools for mixed-income transit oriented design
  Center for Transit Oriented Development, August 2006, 109 pp.
  Describes and evaluates tools and strategies that are being used to create mixed-income and affordable housing near transit in regions around the U.S. The first half of the paper explains how these various strategies are being used and the limitations and successes of each, and the second half discusses best practices and provides examples of each.
- Housing and transporation affordability index
  Brookings Institution, January 2006, 24 pp.
  This index from the Brookings Institution’s Urban Markets Initiative quantifies the impact of transportation costs on the affordability of housing choices and the savings derived from living in “location efficient” communities. It highlights the results from testing the index in a seven-county area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN. To demonstrate the usefulness of this tool at a neighborhood level, the report presents the effect of transportation and housing choices on three hypothetical low- and moderate-income families in each of four different neighborhoods in the Twin Cities.
- Transit-oriented development: Developing a strategy to measure success
  National Cooperative Highway Research Program, February 2005, 32 pp.
  Identifies and evaluates indicators of the impact of transit-oriented development, provides the results of a survey of transit-oriented development indicators, and identifies indicators to monitor and measure impacts.
- Paths through the forest: Factors that influence transportation corridor success
  Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, November 1999, 20 pp.
  Summarizes research findings and offers planners and public officials a framework for developing corridor strategies.