With increasing trends and public requests for crosswalks, agencies are seeking resources on best practices for pedestrian crossings to improve safety, comfort, and consistency of the transportation network. This guidebook provides a comprehensive overview of rural pedestrian crossings for both pedestrians and drivers by examining Minnesota statutes, summarizing key features of pedestrian crossings, synthesizing findings from existing research reports and studies, and integrating other relevant resources.

The use of channelized right-turn lanes at intersections can improve driver safety and traffic mobility but can be challenging for bicyclists and pedestrians, particularly those with sight or other impairments. This project examined the current practice of CRTs to identify design solutions and mitigation strategies to better accommodate the safety and accessibility needs of all road users. It offers guidance for the use of CRTs based on the project scenario and recommendations for traffic control, design features, and mitigation strategies intended to improve CRT safety and/or accessibility for vulnerable road users.

Constructing and maintaining safe road networks for bicyclists, pedestrians and other nonmotorized road users requires knowing the number and destinations of these travelers. Estimating these traffic volumes has been challenging because monitors are limited compared to vehicle traffic counters. Data from mobile devices, routinely collected through a variety of platforms, offers a potential source of traveler routes. Using monitored nonmotorized traveler data to validate mobile datasets, researchers produced a data visualization tool to estimate bicyclist and pedestrian counts within the Twin Cities area.

Thursday, April 17, 10-11 a.m.

Join MnDOT's Office of Research & Innovation and the Minnesota Local Road Research Board for the next Research Radar webinar. It's free and open to the public, registration required. We're featuring the following research projects:

• Identifying Deer-Vehicle Collision Concentrations in Minnesota
• Species From Feces: A New Tool to Identify Bats in Culverts and on Bridges
• Assessing a New Tool for Early Detection of Endangered Turtles on Proposed Transportation Projects 

Have you or one of your co-workers recently built an innovative gadget or developed an improved way to do a job? Show off your creativity and help other agencies solve problems by submitting an entry to the Minnesota Build a Better Mousetrap Competition.

Your entry can be anything from the development of tools or gadgets to equipment modifications to processes that increase safety, improve efficiency, reduce costs, or improve the quality of transportation. The Minnesota competition is sponsored by the Minnesota Local Road Research Board and administered by Minnesota LTAP.

Submission deadline is May 16, 2025. To learn more and submit your entry, go to Build a Better Mousetrap Competition.

It was great to see so many colleagues and friends at the 2025 Minnesota Transportation Conference & Expo last week! Thank you to all who stopped by the LRRB/ MnDOT booth to chat, pick up our latest guidebooks and check out the new projects we highlighted - go here to learn more and subscribe to project updates.  Photo at right (l-r): Briah Carlson and Elizabeth Arndt, MnDOT, staff the booth.

The LRRB project, Expanding the Transportation Workforce: Roadway Maintenance Workers, was featured in a conference session in which project leaders discussed the development and launch of the new transportation career website, Minnesota Transportation Maintenance Careers. A project of MnLTAP and the LRRB, the site is designed to help local agencies and jobseekers connect. Pictured (l-r): Mark Ray, City of Burnsville and LRRB member; Katherine Stanley, MnLTAP; and John Siqveland, Center for Transportation Studies.