Ever wonder who controls Minneapolis traffic lights? Here’s a look inside.

Doors Open is the perfect festival for the nosy, offering a sneak peek into many buildings normally closed to the public.

Historic homes, art centers and public works facilities were among the offerings available over the weekend.

MPR News joined a tour through one popular location: the Minneapolis Traffic Management Center.

The Doors Open location competed with traffic from the Minneapolis Farmers Market across the street on Saturday morning. People of all ages packed the space despite sunny, warm weather outside.

There were eight stops.

The first room had signalized controllers from across time, with TVs displaying photos of the center’s work. People posed with and explored traffic devices before the guided tour got started.

Traffic controller archive room

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There are wall-sized screens in the control room where city employees keep an eye on every signalized intersection in Minneapolis. They typically work from peak-to-peak traffic hours but will come during big events to adjust traffic signal timing as needed.

Allan Klugman, director of parking and traffic services in Minneapolis, said Taylor Swift’s 2023 tour was the biggest event the division has managed traffic around.

Traffic control room

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Down a few hallways is “the brains of the operation,” as an employee called it. Cabinets exist for every single traffic signal in Minneapolis — 820 in total.

'The brains'

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The sign shop makes every sign in the city. Shane Morton, who runs the shop, said there are 6,000 reported accidents a year and many involve knocked-down signs. Signs used to be made with vinyl, but that was labor-intensive. Now, they’re printed and applied onto aluminum.

Sign shop

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There were three different painters on the tour. This stop showcased methods to paint bike trail lines, as well as traffic and light poles.

Painting bike trails

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Gretchen Pederson and Dan Rooney are some of the people who install metal signs across Minneapolis with lift trucks. Citywide, there are more than 100,000 signs, both regulatory and directional — signs with street names.

The workers shared additional tidbits, such as a blue directional sign indicating a snow emergency street.

Sign shop continued

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Dan Oleary, city striping operations foreman of striping operations for the city, said the city uses a smart truck to paint road lines. He works from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m., using as much as 480 gallons of paint a night.

Painting road lines

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The last stop highlighted crosswalk painting. A new road might get thermoplastic which is melted into grooves and may last five years, according to Van Love, a lacquer varnish machine operator. Crosswalks are coated with glass beads to provide reflectivity.

Crosswalk painting

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Correction (May 11, 2026): Photo captions in an earlier version of this story misspelled two names.

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