At last month's Safe Routes to School 2026 National Conference, three organizations — Safe Routes Partnership, Cambridge Mobile Telematics, and the City of Minneapolis — presented findings from a Minneapolis pilot that looked at how driving behavior data and low-cost street improvements can help school zones and communities identify roadway risks and measure changes in a matter of weeks.

What Went into the Minneapolis Pilot?

Temporary curb extensions and flexible bollards were installed near two Minneapolis schools in late August and produced dramatic reductions in speeding, according to a news release.

Materials for the pilot cost $5,100.

CMT’s StreetVision technology uses aggregated, anonymized driving behavior data from connected smartphones and vehicles to identify safety risks without targeting individual drivers. The approach helps communities use street design, rather than enforcement, to address risky driving.

Key Pilot Results

At West Chestnut Avenue and Thomas Avenue South:

• Driving 10 or more mph over the speed limit dropped 41%.
• There was 56% less phone motion by motorists when driving.

At 51st Avenue North and Girard Avenue North:

• Trips above 25 mph fell 41% during school hours and 66% during the afternoon pickup window, compared to a citywide change of just 2% to 5% over the same period.
• There were 35% fewer trips above 25 mph compared to the year prior.

“This pilot shows the promise of proactively pairing innovative technology with low-cost, quick improvements to make streets safer for families,” said Marisa Jones, executive director of Safe Routes Partnership. “We know how to engineer our streets to be safer, and now we have the technology to guide where improvements should be made — without waiting for a tragedy to take place.”

“Too often, we wait for crashes to tell us where our roads are failing. This pilot shows we don’t have to,” said Andrew Rogers, executive director of the Modern Analytics for Roadway Safety Coalition. “The lesson is bigger than Minneapolis: By demonstrating what’s possible when predictive analytics are paired with practical, low-cost safety improvements and real-world driving data that exists right now, communities can make more informed decisions about how to make their roads safer, especially around schools where children and families should be able to travel safely. We should be putting these tools to work in school zones and communities across the country — not waiting for another crash to tell us where improvements are needed.”

Tips to Bring This to Your Region

For other communities interested in a similar project, the partnership offered a few tips:

1. Start with a safety question around one key location you want to study and understand better.
2. Pick a clear measure of change to monitor.
3. Work with local agencies to plan appropriate treatments that fit.
4. Start with a baseline measurement, then compare similar periods before and after for key changes.
5. Add community experience: Pair measured behavior with observations on how the changes altered perception.
6. Learn and share your findings, build another test, or plan for long-term change.