Vegetated roadsides in Minnesota help control stormwater quantity and pollutant levels before the water reaches lakes, streams and communities. Because leftover soil from road construction generally does not support filtration and plant growth, MnDOT and local engineers have continued research to identify organically rich, locally available industrial by-products to amend the soil. Engineered soil mixes with materials such as dredge sand, coarse street sweepings and ash sawdust show high potential for providing a sustainable, efficient solution.
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In rural Minnesota, transit planning apps could boost ridership
Reprinted from CTS News, February 11, 2025
Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) transit planning apps provide a simple, convenient way for transit users to plan trips, make payments, and book on-demand rides—enhancing the user experience and encouraging more transit use. While prevalent in urban areas, these apps are uncommon in rural settings.
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New Project: Best Practice for Oversized/Overweight Vehicles
As hauling practices change for waste collection, mining and other industries, local transportation agencies are receiving more permit requests for oversize or overweight trucks. These larger vehicles can have significantly greater impacts on pavements than passenger vehicles.
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New Project: Amount of Bituminous Surface Lost Each Year
Approximately 62,000 miles of Minnesota’s roads are bituminous, or asphalt, surfaces. Bituminous roads are cost-effective and offer improved ride quality and safety.
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New Project: User Understanding of Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon Operation
Pedestrian hybrid beacons (PHBs) are one tool to help pedestrians safely cross roads. PHBs provide red-signal control for vehicular traffic when needed at lower installation costs and reduced traffic delays than full traffic signals.
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Safety Considerations Associated with Driverless Shuttles
Driverless vehicles present an enticing opportunity for increased traffic safety and reduced labor costs. However, technical issues and concerns remain regarding the interaction between driverless vehicles and human drivers. This project included observing and analyzing the interactions of a driverless shuttle and other road users in a pedestrian-heavy area to develop strategies for decreasing potential threats. Increasing the speed of the driverless shuttle and displaying clearer electronic messaging on the back of the shuttle could improve safety challenges.
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Clear Roads’ National Survey Compiles Tenth Year of Winter Maintenance Data
Clear Roads has just published its tenth Annual Survey of State Winter Maintenance Data, which compiles winter resources, material and cost data from 41 states for the 2023-2024 winter season. The spreadsheet includes all submitted data, as well as calculated statistics, winter severity index data, and a United States map that displays many of these metrics. The spreadsheet also includes data from the previous nine surveys (winters 2014-2015 through 2022-2023) and displays averages and changes across winter periods.
Reprinted from Clear Roads, February 5, 2025
Improving Pedestrian Safety on Reservations in Minnesota
MnDOT has identified Native Americans as one of six priority populations in the state that experience disproportionate risks as pedestrians. To access everyday services such as grocery stores, workplaces and schools, pedestrians may have to cross a state or county roadway at unmarked crossings. Installing traffic safety countermeasures at these crossings is intended to reduce the risk faced by pedestrians. This project analyzed pedestrian safety at 23 locations within seven reservations and the effectiveness of countermeasures implemented at six locations.
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Administrative Rules and Structures of Speed Safety Camera Systems
Speed Safety Cameras (SSCs) detect the speed of vehicles through the use of radar technology or detectors that are embedded in the surface of the roadway, and associate those readings with a photograph or video of the vehicle. They can be deployed as fixed units (a stationary camera targeting a specific location), point-to-point units (multiple cameras that capture average speed over a set distance) or mobile (a portable camera positioned in a trailer or vehicle). The results are then “read” by trained analysts in a data center, who may or may not be members of law enforcement. Speeding tickets are then issued on the basis of this technology. The question facing the Minnesota Legislature in 2024 was, is this needed? And what are the best practices for implementing it?
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Mobile lockers, equitable freight planning, and cargo e-bikes will play roles in urban freight
Reprinted from CTS News, January 14, 2025
Freight transportation is evolving rapidly, and its future success will require managing increased residential demand, planning for equity, and incorporating micro-delivery options such as cargo e-bikes. At the 2024 CTS Transportation Research Conference, three experts shared their knowledge of these trending topics in a session focused on the future of urban freight.
In response to the increasing demand for residential package delivery spurred by the shift towards online shopping, U of M Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering PhD student Can Yin shared her research on mobile parcel locker scheduling. Yin explained that in the growing ecommerce market, last-mile delivery is the most expensive and time consuming. While door delivery is commonly used, it can be unsecure and inconvenient for customers.
“Parcel lockers are an alternative, but they come with the disadvantages of limited locations, expensive fixed cost, and the inability to adapt to varying demand,” Yin said.
A newer, more flexible alternative is the use of mobile, vehicle-based parcel lockers, which offer greater flexibility, higher accessibility, and lower fixed costs—particularly if autonomous vehicles eliminate the need for driver salaries. However, mobile parcel lockers also create challenges for e-commerce businesses such as estimating demand and customer choices.
To address these challenges, Yin’s research team developed a mobile parcel locker demand-estimation model. Additionally, the researchers found that compared with stationary lockers, mobile lockers offer a better value and demand fulfillment.
Another challenge surrounding the rapid growth of e-commerce and urban freight is racial equity in urban freight planning. In his presentation, University of Washington Urban Freight Lab researcher Travis Fried explained how his research is seeking to better understand these inequities and create a framework for mitigating them.
The past and present systems that perpetuate the segregation of people and neighborhoods have been well documented. However, Fried said there is little research exploring how these patterns play out in freight planning and their impacts on air quality, health, and road safety for people of color. Fried’s research looked at high-volume traffic exposure and found that low-income populations of color were disproportionately exposed to e-commerce traffic.
“By our most conservative estimate, BIPOC [Black, Indigenous, and people of color] populations were exposed to 35 percent more traffic related to last-mile home delivery on average, despite ordering less than half as many packages as white populations,” Fried said. That’s because delivery facilities and highways are disproportionately located near historically marginalized neighborhoods, he explained.
In light of this finding, Fried emphasized the importance of including equity considerations when prioritizing urban freight strategies. “Solutions focused on the upper end of the distribution chain have outsized benefits for marginalized communities, so we need to consider that in our cost-benefit evaluations and engagement strategies,” he added.
Using cargo e-bikes for last-mile freight delivery was the topic of the session’s final presentation from Marc Liu of Civilized Cycles. Liu explained how his company’s innovative semi-trike—which has as much cargo capacity as a small delivery van—can be used to move a significant amount of cargo over short distances, particularly within campus environments such as universities, hospitals, residential developments, and military bases.
“Regardless of what these campuses are moving, they have the same core challenge of moving as much cargo as possible while keeping operating costs as low as possible,” Liu said. “On top of that, emissions and safety are key concerns because most of this happens in pedestrian-heavy areas.”
Liu explained that the first customers for the cargo e-bikes are micro-mobility fleet operators at the forefront of sustainable transportation including Lime, Net Zero Logistics, and Amazon. Moving forward, the company is targeting campus environments for expansion. Liu said that “economics drives adoption” and believes the key to adoption is offering an affordable, American-made product that reduces vehicle fleet costs, increases safety, improves efficiency, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
—Megan Tsai, contributing writer
Crossroads 