II.2. Hopkins Safe Streets for All Plan Update; Gallagher
CITY OF HOPKINS
Memorandum
To: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
Planning and Zoning Commission Members
Mike Mornson, City Manager
From: Sam Gallagher, Associate Planner
Date: July 21, 2026
Subject: Hopkins Safe Streets for All Plan Update
_____________________________________________________________________
PURPOSE
To seek feedback on Hopkins Safe Streets for All Plan, including identifying how this
Plan aligns with community goals and preparation for a leadership commitment.
INFORMATION
Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A)
On December 18, 2025, the City of Hopkins entered into an agreement with the U.S.
Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration for the SS4A grant. In
April 2026, the City hired Alta Planning + Design to develop Hopkins Safe Streets for All
Plan (Plan) with a particular focus on helping people move Hopkins safely, especially
the most vulnerable road users. With light rail transit starting in 2027, the Plan will
address changes in vehicle habits and walking, rolling, and biking patterns across 55.2
miles of roads within the City. The Plan aims to reduce and eliminate roadway fatalities
and serious injuries in Hopkins through action plan development and implementation.
The Plan will also update the City’s Pedestrian and Bicycle Plan from 2013 and will
incorporate a Safe Routes to School Plan to serve as a comprehensive guidebook for
multimodal safety improvements in Hopkins.
The final Plan will center the voice of Hopkins community in setting a clear vision for the
future of safety and mobility, including a clear path on implementation with funding
sources to implement design and policy recommendations, into one accessible
document.
The Plan will also provide most of the data necessary for the transportation chapter of
the 2050 Comprehensive Plan.
High Injury Network and Equity Memorandum
The Plan’s Project Team analyzed trends, travel patterns and contributing factors
associated with crashes on the City’s roadway network to highlight areas of elevated
risk and work towards developing a High Injury Network (HIN) that prioritizes the most
vulnerable roadway users (people walking, biking or using a mobility device) by
weighting pedestrian and bicycle crashes in Hopkins. The HIN creates a foundation for
Planning & Economic
Development
the Plan by identifying roadways that experience high fatality and injury rates and
understanding what types of crashes have occurred in Hopkins . The Crash Trend
Memorandum prepared by Alta and Stantec found that:
• A total of 719 crashes were reported within city limits over the five-year analysis.
• Angle crashes (23 percent of crashes) have the highest crash density at
intersections along 11th Street, Hwy 7, and Blake Road.
• Rear end crashes (25 percent of crashes) are clustered at signalized
intersections along Excelsior Boulevard and Hwy 7.
• All fatal crashes (4) involved a pedestrian. Pedestrian (3 percent of crashes) and
bicyclists (2 percent of crashes) make up 5 percent of the total crashes, but 55
percent of fatal and serious injury crashes. A third of pedestrian and bicyclist
related crashes occurred at non-intersections and were due to motorcyclists not
noticing pedestrians/bicyclists entering the roadway at unexpected crossing
locations, according to crash narratives.
• More than 22 percent of youth related crashes occurred when they were walking
or biking.
• Intersection/access point related crashes make up more than half the crashes in
Hopkins and 70 percent of Hopkins’ fatal and serious injury crashes with drivers
failing to yield, improper turning and following vehicles too closely.
Equity Segment Analysis Memorandum
To support equitable mobility outcomes, additional analysis was conducted to better
understand how Hopkins residents in Environmental Justice Areas (EJAs) travel and to
help identify which corridors, destinations, and travel modes are most important to those
equity priority populations. EJAs as defined by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
(MPCA) includes Census tracts with higher shares of people of color, low -income
households, residents with limited English proficiency and tribal communities. The
Equity Segment Analysis Memorandum prepared by Alta found that:
• Residents in EJAs rely heavily on 11th Avenue South, Blake Road North,
Excelsior Boulevard and 5th Avenue South and segments of U.S. 169 and 7th
Street South.
• EJA residents use public transit at nearly twice the rate of non -EJA residents.
The Project Team is also evaluating future Green Line Extension Light Rail Station
(LRT) ridership levels to project future trip analysis and create a High Priority Safety
Network (HPSN) to proactively support safety improvements for future transit riders and
changing travel patterns coming when LRT opens in spring 2027.
Hopkins Safe Streets for All Stakeholder Group
The Stakeholder Group is a technical group of partners engaging in key questions,
deepening shared understanding on key transportation safety issues, sharing
opportunities for future collaboration, and includes members from the Minnesota
Department of Transportation (MnDOT), Hennepin County, Metro Transit, Hopkins
School District, The Blake School, Hopkins City Council, Access Hopkins, Hopkins
Business and Civic Association (HBCA) and Hopkins Youth. The Stakeholder group has
held two meetings thus far to discuss the purpose of the Plan, goals for community
engagement, and review existing conditions and project insights from MnDOT and
Hennepin County while biking around Hopkins.
Community Engagement
The Plan is collecting feedback on existing conditions, ideas and travel patterns from
people who live, work and visit Hopkins via online survey, an interactive online map,
community engagement website and pop-up in person events. Staff are jointly engaging
on the 2050 Comprehensive Plan, Housing Plan, and Safe Streets for All Plan at
community events. Staff have attended a variety of events including but not limited to:
Metro Transit’s Open Trails to the Rail, Hopkins Pride, the Farmer’s Market, and Activity
Center Open House. Staff plan to table at future events including: the Sunset Series,
Activity Center Lunch and Learn + Walk & Talk, National Night Out, Hopkins Library,
Fire Department Open House, and more.
Key takeaways from City staff conversations and feedback from roughly 280
participants across five pop-up events held thus far and 154 online survey participants
include:
• Pedestrians and public transit users shared that people who drive do not appear
to see them crossing the street, especially along Blake Road North, Excelsior
Boulevard, Mainstreet, and at the trail crossings along 11th Avenue South.
• There are sidewalk gaps and inconsistencies along east and west streets in The
Avenues neighborhood.
• A safe route to school that increases visibility for students crossing Hwy 7 at 12th
Avenue North was suggested, based on high traffic volumes, perceived high
speeds, and long crossing distances.
• Mobility device users shared that adding curb cuts and increasing trail
maintenance throughout the City are top safety improvement requests to make
Hopkins more accessible.
• Signal timing along Mainstreet is not right for pedestrians and suggested
automatic recall and leading pedestrian signals.
• Bicyclists shared that the bike infrastructure in Hopkins is some of the best in the
Twin Cities, participants bike from around the Metro to Hopkins’ regional trail
network. Participants recommended trail crossing improvements along the
Minnetonka Trail in the Avenues and along the Nine Mile Creek Trail.
The Community engagement websites, including the online interactive map with
additional comments, are hyperlinked below.
FUTURE ACTION
The Plan’s Project Team will come back to City Council with a Vision Zero Policy
resolution that sets a goal for the City of Hopkins to eliminating deaths and serious
injuries on Hopkins streets and roadways by a specific date. This goal will utilize
information from tonight’s discussion to collect additional information and set a target
that is specific to transportation safety needs in Hopkins.
SUPPORTING INFORMATION
• Hopkins Safe Streets for All Plan City Webpage
• Hopkins Safe Streets for All Plan Online Engagement Webpage
• U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All webpage