Reprinted from Catalyst, June 22, 2026

Minnesota’s transportation landscape is rich with options designed to get travelers to their destinations safely and quickly. These modes, ranging from commuter bike trails and public transit to rideshares, buses, rail, roads, streets, and highways, are strategically interlinked; improvements or disruptions in one place reverberate across the greater transportation network.

Travel demand management (TDM) is an approach to transportation planning that encourages more efficient travel through a combination of mode choice and infrastructure design. This “big picture” approach centers the specific needs of local communities to create viable options for people to shift away from single-occupancy vehicles for at least some trips. Among the benefits of more efficient road use are improved congestion and air quality and reduced costs for road maintenance and construction.

A UMN research study led by Kaitlyn Denten, infrastructure policy researcher at the Institute for Urban and Regional Infrastructure Finance within the Humphrey School of Public Affairs and a CTS scholar, aimed to investigate how TDM strategies can best be integrated into highway construction projects.

In Minnesota, two factors are bringing the TDM approach to the forefront. The Transportation Greenhouse Gas Emissions Impact Assessment (Minn. Stat. §161.178 [2025]) is now part of highway construction and reconstruction projects. This statute requires projects to meet state greenhouse gas (GHG) and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) goals by either modifying the project, halting the project, or offsetting the GHG and VMT created by the project. 

Additionally, the Metropolitan Council, through its 2023 Regional Travel Demand Management Study Action Plan, recommended that a study be conducted to identify how TDM strategies could be incorporated into all phases of highway construction. The Met Council’s goal is to improve commuting, meet climate objectives, and reduce or delay the need for costly highway expansion projects.

In response to the Met Council’s recommendation, the UMN research team first conducted a nationwide scan to identify best practices for integrating TDM into highway projects. Examples in Colorado, California, New Jersey, Delaware, and Washington show how local, state, and federal transportation agencies and other entities coordinated to better understand local travel patterns and solve complex challenges. The scan revealed how TDM has been used to inform planning and policy, improve design and construction, encourage mode choice, and manage demand or emergency situations.

The researchers also studied Minnesota examples. The 2007 collapse of the I-35W Bridge in Minneapolis diverted 140,000 daily commuter trips. MnDOT, the Met Council, and regional stakeholders created travel alternatives from the time just after the collapse through the bridge’s reconstruction, which was completed in September 2008. TDM strategies included new transit services, fare subsidization, teleworking programs, and expanded park-and ride facilities.

In Duluth, a more northern expanse of Interstate 35W became a “mega project” between 2010 and 2012. During this time, 3 bridges and 12 miles of roadway pavement were replaced, shoulders and safety features were added, and intelligent transportation systems components were installed for emergency communications. TDM strategies helped facilitate communications between local and state entities, transit services, and the MnDOT construction teams to improve travel alternatives and ease the flow of traffic during this prolonged disruption.

TDM is becoming a more defined and important part of future transportation planning. “Ultimately, integrating TDM into highway projects enhances travel options and creates modal choices for travelers,” Denten says. “This reduces delay during peak times and improves safety and efficiency for construction crews. It can also remove the need for travel and push travel to non-peak times. Further, holistic TDM approaches for highway construction projects could lead to more efficient transportation systems and perhaps delay or remove the need for a highway project in the first place.”

The study offers best practices to help policymakers, planners, engineers, and local officials within the Metropolitan Council and beyond incorporate TDM into their projects. These strategies provide opportunities to shape policies and projects that respond to unexpected and intermittent challenges while supporting Minnesota’s long-term goals of reducing highway construction costs, climate impacts, and travel disruptions.

This research project was sponsored by the Applied Research in Transportation (ART) Program, which addresses time-sensitive research questions in a 6- to 12-month timeframe. CTS and the Minnesota Department of Transportation contributed initial funding to launch this pilot program in 2024, with the Metropolitan Council joining in 2025. To reinforce the applied nature of the program, ART projects must directly address a current process, document, or policy need with an initial focus on sustainability in transportation and climate change impacts. 

—Amy Goetzman, contributing writer