Assessment of Mn/DOT's Strategic Highway Research Program (SHRP2) Project C-I8: Pilot Test the Collaborative Decision Making Framework

Project summary:

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is leading a multi-jurisdictional and multi-modal collaborative effort to develop and implement a Complete Streets Planning Process in Grand Rapids, Minnesota, while simultaneously pilot testing the Strategic Highway Research Program 2 (SHRP2)'s Transportation for Communities Advancing Projects through Partnerships (TCAPP) Decision Guide. Mn/DOT has designed the research methodology to utilize the TCAPP Decision Guide on a prospective planning issue, i.e., for developing a Complete Streets planning process that better integrates community, economic, and environmental considerations into new highway capacity. The University's role on this project is to conduct the evaluation of the product as an independent and impartial team of policy and program evaluators. The evaluation team is quite familiar with the transportation system in the target community for Complete Streets Planning Process evaluation, having recently completed a study of transportation needs in Itasca County, where Grand Rapids is located. The University also intends to draw upon the extensive expertise of colleagues who have led evaluations of significant transportation policy issues on behalf of the public sector, including the Urban Partnership Agreement project on 35W and the 1-394 MnPass HOT lane projects in Minneapolis. As of March 31, 2012, a draft report of recommendations for implementing complete streets in Grand Rapids was finished, and the report evaluating the process was under way.