In the House
On Monday, February 23rd
Chair Brad Tabke (DFL, 54A) held the gavel in the DFL’s first committee hearing of the session.
The chair organized the committee thematically to focus on important issues of traffic safety, with a specific focus on safety for our state’s most vulnerable road users—those who bike, walk, roll, and use public transit.
Our Streets was asked to speak on the traffic safety epidemic we see across the U.S. and in Minnesotan communities. Michael Wojcik, the executive director of the Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota (BikeMN) and a statewide expert on bike and pedestrian safety, joined in on the conversation.
The presentation framed the conversation on safety through national and state data, case studies, and stories from those most impacted by the crisis in pedestrian safety. Despite safety improvements through the 2010s, safety has decreased significantly since then and has increased significantly since then.
At its core, this trend points to a deeper crisis of intentional engineering and design decisions—creating a system built to move a lot of cars quickly rather than keep all road users safe. Smart Growth America coined the term Dangerous by Design in their 2024 report, a great resource on national pedestrian safety trends.
Bills heard included several enforcement measures, including traffic cameras, that don’t address the root of these design issues.
An important chair’s initiative from Rep. Tabke was laid over to be heard at another meeting. The bill, which Our Streets supports, creates a community-based pedestrian safety program that would make it easier for residents to request safety improvements in their communities, listen to the voices of those most impacted, and save lives.
On Wednesday, February 25
Co-Chair Koznick (GOP, 57A) held the gavel and heard several bills, including cancer-related disability parking certificates, requiring vehicles approaching school buses to stop for flashing red lights, fines for drivers without insurance, and other small technical changes.
In the Senate
On Monday, February 23
In the Senate, Chair Scott Dibble (DFL, 61) led the confirmation hearing of Robin Hutcheson as Metropolitan Council Chair. Senator Dibble raised critical points about the council’s structure, a large state agency with no elected leadership, which has resulted in the Met Council having very little democratic accountability to Metro communities.
While the Met Council chair was approved, the broader discussion on making the council more transparent, responsive, and democratically accountable should continue. These discussions should also include a broader discussion of lessons learned from the Green Line Extension Project so we can deliver high-quality transit projects faster, more efficiently, and at lower cost.
On Wednesday, February 25
The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) presented two agency bills with technical changes and new initiatives. One would reduce the number of reports it provides to the legislature. In 2025, Our Streets worked on legislation to move transportation information from obscure legislative reports to a public portal accessible to community members. While current reporting requirements are highly technical and largely inaccessible to the public, MnDOT’s proposal left key questions unanswered about whether reducing reporting would actually improve how information reaches communities.
A second initiative would raise the cost thresholds defining a “major project” to $30 million in the metro and $15 million in Greater Minnesota—currently, the thresholds are $15 million in the metro and $5 million in Greater Minnesota. This threshold has not increased in many years, even as construction and other costs have increased significantly.
Major projects carry additional reporting requirements and must comply with the state’s Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) reduction law, which aims to reduce emissions. Raising these thresholds would exempt more projects from oversight and emissions accountability. Our Streets will continue to track the matter, but currently, even with a higher threshold, expansion projects will likely not be able to bypass the driving down emissions law due to the huge costs highway expansions incur to the state.
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We’ll let you know about action alerts, opportunities to testify, and other transportation-related legislative happenings.