The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) recently completed the 2025–29 Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), a comprehensive framework designed to reduce fatal and serious-injury crashes across the state.
Minnesota first created an SHSP more than 15 years ago, with the state’s Toward Zero Deaths (TZD) program at its core, and updates the SHSP every five years. The Minnesota TZD program was launched in 2003 by the Departments of Public Safety, Transportation, and Health as a deliberate, interdisciplinary approach to traffic safety.
At this year’s Metro Minnesota TZD Regional Workshop, held in Oakdale in May, MnDOT State Traffic Safety Engineer Derek Leuer previewed the latest plan, which provides a structure for analyzing crash trends, prioritizing safety improvements, and unlocking crucial federal transportation funding. Workshop attendees included a wide range of regional traffic safety stakeholders from city, county, state, and tribal entities, including police officers, engineers, public safety and health employees, driver educators, and emergency medical and trauma services personnel.
The SHSP is grounded in five guiding principles:
- Use of the Safe System Approach
- Promotion of a strong traffic safety culture
- Integration of equity
- Identification of emerging issues
- Continuation of proven practices
The Safe System Approach acknowledges that while human errors are inevitable, roadway deaths and serious injuries are not. It emphasizes shared responsibility, proactive interventions, and system-wide redundancy. Using a “Swiss cheese” model, the plan employs multiple overlapping layers of safety: safer people, safer roads, safer speeds, safer vehicles, and effective post-crash care. Crashes become deadly only when all those layers fail.
A sobering trend
Minnesota is experiencing a disturbing trend in roadway fatalities that began during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have to face a sobering truth,” Leuer said. “2021 saw the highest number of fatalities on Minnesota’s roadways in more than a decade, with 2024 close behind.”
According to Leuer, the causes of crashes are multifaceted—ranging from roadway design to driver behavior. Addressing these requires collective action. “No one agency, no one entity, can deal with this problem on their own,” he noted.
Shared responsibility
While MnDOT facilitates drafting the SHSP, Leuer stressed that the plan is a statewide effort. Partners in public safety, public health, and transportation have all contributed to the development process.
The SHSP is more than a policy document—it’s a financial gateway. “This plan is the key that opens up hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding,” Leuer explained. The federal government sets aside dollars ($37 million in 2024 for Minnesota) for Highway Safety Improvement Program projects; 60 percent of these funds go to local safety projects. To apply, a state must have a current SHSP.
Community-driven development
The 2025–29 SHSP’s development began in 2023 and progressed through data analysis, public engagement, and strategy planning. In spring 2024, the team conducted 11 engagement sessions across the state, gathering input from more than 800 residents. These events targeted voices not previously included, such as Minneapolis and St. Paul neighborhood associations, motorcycle groups, disability advocates, racial justice organizations, and bike/pedestrian coalitions.
Feedback consistently pointed to four critical concerns: distracted driving, speeding, impairment, and dangerous intersections.
Plan priorities and focus areas
That community feedback echoes the story told by the data. According to Leuer, nearly 90 percent of Minnesota’s fatal or serious-injury crashes involve at least one of six risk factors: speed, inattention, intersections, lane departures, impairment, or seatbelt non-use. To address these, the SHSP outlines 75 strategies and 242 tactics.
The SHSP will be regionalized, with separate geographic regions in Minnesota receiving a tailored mini-plan incorporating their local crash data, community input, and recommended strategies and tactics.
Changing the culture
Beyond engineering solutions, the SHSP emphasizes cultural change as a long-term safety strategy. “Changing culture doesn’t happen overnight—it takes decades,” Leuer said, pointing to indoor smoking bans and shifting norms around drunk driving as past examples of successful public safety campaigns.
Rather than targeting only high-risk individuals, the SHSP promotes an allyship-based approach. “If you believe the people around you want you to drive safe, you are more likely to drive safe. If they believe you want them to drive safe, they’ll drive safe as well,” Leuer explained.
This values-based model promotes the concept that changes in beliefs influence decision-making, which ultimately alters behavior.
The final version of the SHSP was published in July 2025. Going forward, the Advisory Council on Traffic Safety will be instrumental in implementing the plan’s recommendations.