| Severity | Cost per crash |
|---|---|
| Deaths | $13,600,000 |
| Serious Injuries | $750,000 |
| Minor Injuries | $230,000 |
| Possible Injuries | $120,000 |
| No Injury (Property Damage Only) | $13,000 |
| Source: MnDOT Office of Transportation System Management. | |
Appendix C — Supplementary Tables
C.1 Cost of traffic injuries and fatalities
Cost of traffic serious injuries and fatalities come from a MnDOT analysis of comprehensive crash costs (Office of Transportation System Management 2022), as part of the state’s Benefit-Cost Analysis for Transportation Projects. The most likely values reflect Minnesota’s recent (three-year) crash history and procedures contained in Federal Highway Administration’s Crash Costs for Highway Safety Analysis (Harmon, Bahar, and Gross 2018) published January 2018, with comprehensive crash cost valuation consisting of both economic/monetary impacts (e.g. medical services, insurance claims processing, legal fees) and estimates of the intangible effects from diminished quality of life following injury crashes. Low/high crash cost dispersion is taken from the range of uncertainty for the value of a statistical life found in U.S. Department of Transportation’s “Departmental Guidance: Treatment of the Value of Preventing Fatalities and Injuries in Preparing Economic Analyses” (USDOT 2021) published March 2021.
C.2 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS)
The Clean Air Act, which was last amended in 1990, requires EPA to set National Ambient Air Quality Standards (40 CFR part 50) for six principal pollutants (“criteria” air pollutants) which can be harmful to public health and the environment. The Clean Air Act identifies two types of national ambient air quality standards. Primary standards provide public health protection, including protecting the health of sensitive populations such as people who have asthma, children, and the elderly. Secondary standards provide public welfare protection, including protection against decreased visibility and damage to animals, crops, vegetation, and buildings.
Periodically, the standards are reviewed and sometimes may be revised, establishing new standards. The most recently established standards are listed below. In some areas of the U.S., certain regulatory requirements may also remain for implementation of previously established standards.
Units of measure for the standards are parts per million (ppm) by volume, parts per billion (ppb) by volume, and micrograms per cubic meter of air (µg/m³).
Table C.2 are those used for Figure 14.1.
| Pollutant | Primary/Secondary | Averaging Time | Standard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | Primary | 8-hour | 9 ppm (10 mg/m³) |
| Carbon monoxide (CO) | Primary | 1-hour | 3 ppm (40 mg/m³) |
| Lead (Pb) | Primary and Secondary | Rolling 3 months | 0.1 µg/m³ |
| Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) | Primary | 1-hour | 0.100 ppm (188 µg/m³) |
| Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) | Primary and Secondary | annual | 0.03 ppm (100 µg/m³) |
| Ozone (O3) | Primary and Secondary | 8-hour | 0.070 ppm (140 µg/m³) |
| Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) | Primary | annual | 9.0 µg/m³ (1 µg/m³ prior to May 6, 2024)[26] |
| Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) | Secondary | annual | 1 µg/m³ |
| Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) | Primary and Secondary | 24-hour | 3 µg/m³ |
| Particulate matter (PM10) | Primary and Secondary | 24-hour | 10 µg/m³ |
| Sulfur dioxide (SO2) | Primary | 1-hour | 7 ppb |
| Sulfur dioxide (SO2) | Secondary | 3-hour | 0. ppm (1,300 µg/m³) |
| Source: EPA via Wikipedia, 2026-04-21 | |||
C.3 Performance Based Planning Targets
Federally required performance measures are tracked and must be reported upon on a regular basis. The Met Council is required to set short-term performance targets for these measures. The results of these measures are primarily concerned with the overall trend and whether this trend is meeting the desired expectations. If a measure is not trending toward achieving the target, federal funds may need to be re-directed to address the problem.
C.3.1 Safety performance (PM1)
All state departments of transportation and metropolitan planning organizations must adopt a program to measure system performance and set performance targets to monitor progress. Targets for the safety performance measures are required annually. Safety is one of five categories for federally required performance measures. The safety targets serve a dual purpose:
- Inform planning and programming to reduce fatal and serious injuries
- Track performance of the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP)
Federal requirements specify five safety performance measures for both state DOTs and MPOs that must have annual targets for each measure listed in Table C.3.
The Met Council’s targets are informed by the Imagine 2050 Transportation Policy Plan, which sets an objective to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roadways by 2050.
The Met Council annually adopts targets, last updated in December 2025.
| Target | Target value | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Total Traffic Fatalities | No more than 74 deaths | Figure 4.4 |
| Fatality Rate (per 100 million vehicle miles travelled) | No more than 0.26 | Figure 4.8 |
| Serious injuries | No more than 464 injuries | Figure 4.5 |
| Serious Crash Rate (per 100 million vehicle miles travelled) | No more than 1.64 | Figure 4.7 |
| Non-Motorized Fatalities/Serious Injuries | No more than 115 deaths or injuries | Figure 4.9 |
C.3.2 Pavement/bridge performance (PM2)
The Council reviews and adopts pavement and bridge condition performance targets. As an MPO, the Council has the option to either plan and program to support the adopted MnDOT statewide targets or adopt targets specific to the region.
| Target | Target value | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Interstate Pavement in Good Condition | 60% | Figure 1.8 |
| Interstate Pavement in Poor Condition | 2% | Figure 1.6 |
| Non-Interstate Pavement in Good Condition | 40% | Figure 1.9 |
| Non-Interstate Pavement in Poor Condition | 2% | Figure 1.7 |
| NHS Bridges in Good Condition | 20% | Figure 1.1 |
| NHS Bridges in Poor Condition | 5% | Figure 1.2 |
C.3.3 System performance and congestion mitigation and air quality (PM3)
| Target | Target value | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Reliable person-miles travelled on interstate | 82% | |
| Reliable person-miles travelled on non-interstate NHS | 90% | |
| Truck travel time reliability index | < 1.4 |
| Target | Target value | Figure |
|---|---|---|
| Peak-hour excessive delay per capita | 8.5 hours | Figure A.1 |
| Travel by non-single occupancy vehicle | 29% | Figure 6.2 |
| On-road mobile source emissions | 0.0 kg/day |
C.4 High-frequency transit stops and routes
As used in Section 15.3.
For each year, we sampled a comparable date from TransitFeeds.com and identified stops served by high-frequency routes, as defined by Metro Transit.
- stops served by routes that depart every 15 minutes or better,
- with at least three stops per hour,
- on weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Once stops were identified, we joined each stop with its 10-minute walkshed. We estimated population by using American Community Survey (ACS) block groups, intersected with the Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) area and walksheds.
| Year | Date sampled | Number of stops served by high-frequency routes | Number of unique high-frequency routes | High-frequency routes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | 2024-09-30 | 1,108 | 20 | Orange Line, Green Line, D Line, C Line, Blue Line, A Line, 724, 64, 63, 6, 54, 4, 3, 21, 2, 18, 122, 121, 11, 10 |
| 2025 | 2025-10-05 | 1,227 | 25 | Orange Line, Green Line, Gold Line, D Line, C Line, Blue Line, B Line, A Line, 724, 68, 64, 63, 6, 54, 515, 4, 38, 3, 2, 18, 17, 122, 121, 11, 10 |