The Dakota County Board of Commissioners discussed current and future transit in Dakota County at the Sept. 17 Physical Development Committee of the Whole. Dakota County Transit, both within the county itself and connecting it to the Twin Cities has long been a focus of county funds. Traditional modes of transit, from regional park and rides to Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA) buses have radically changed, however, since the COVID-19 Pandemic. Transit ridership in the Twin Cities region has dropped to 58% of pre-pandemic levels, although that number is rising annually according to the 2050 Transportation policy plan draft.
While ridership numbers are again rising from pandemic lows, the societal changes from the pandemic including the proliferation of remote work have decimated former staples of local public transportation. Hardest hit has been the regional park and ride with a 78.4% decrease from 2019-2023, according to the Metropolitan Council Year End Ridership Presentations to the Transportation Committee.
The increased transit in recent years also showcases how riders are using public transit differently than before the pandemic. Weekend ridership is growing faster than weekday ridership and midday and afternoons have peak ridership instead of morning commuters.
The conversation focused on gathering more information about current trends in Dakota County transit for the Oct. 29 workshop, in context with the Dakota County 2040 Transportation Plan which was adopted in 2021.

Public transportation and Hastings
Hastings and District 1 of Dakota County are uniquely cut off from many of the transit lines across the county.
“If District 1 were a county, it would be one of the least connected counties in the state,” said District 1 Commissioner Mike Slavik. Putting it more bluntly: “We have nothing,” said Slavik.
This lack of public transit in Hastings is compounded by the fact that the city has the second highest number of households without access to a vehicle in the county at 18.5%. With nearly a fifth of Hastings households without access to a personal vehicle, options for public transit in the district and within Hastings are largely micro transit.
Micro transit, a relatively new term whose specific definition and examples was requested for the Oct. 29 meeting by the commissioners, is a middle ground between public transportation and private vehicles. In Hastings these services are the LOOP, a dial-a-ride bus service operating only one day a week and designed for seniors, and Transit Link, a shared-ride regional public transportation service provided by the Metropolitan Council.
Micro transit is often designed to fill the niche between regular routes and stops of public transportation and private ride-sharing apps like Lyft and Uber. For a smaller fee than calling a private ride share like Uber, riders can dial a shared bus whose route changes based on the requested stops of riders.
Transit Link for example, operates across the metro with rides generally costing less than $5. Riders call and provide details of where they are going and when they need to arrive or need to be picked up. Buses arrive within 30 minutes of the pickup time due to their dynamic routes. A key issue with many micro transit services including Transit Link is that rides are not guaranteed. “All trip requests are subject to availability,” according to the Transit Link website. This lack of a guaranteed ride makes relying on micro transit as a main form of transportation difficult.
As exemplified by micro transit services, much of the previous transit programming has been designed to provide options for those without any.
“Who are we targeting with these options? Historically it’s been the other,” said Commissioner Halverson.
Transit has been designed specifically for those without access to vehicles or in areas that lack other public transportation services.
The commissioners discussed the utility in creating transit options that are useful even to those with access to other forms of transportation, referencing the immense popularity of widely used public transportation like busing to the Minnesota State Fair. “I think it’s more carrot than stick,” said Halverson.
Much of the difficulty in connecting Hastings and District 1 to other county transit is that it is geographically isolated from other areas in need of transit options. The 2040 Transportation Plan outlines levels of Transit Market Areas (TMA) from 1-5 based on factors like demographics, population density and land use with TMA 1 having the highest potential for transit ridership and 5 having the least.
Hastings, while containing areas ranging from TMA 2-4 which would be conducive for more transit options, is surrounded by areas labeled as TMA 5, meaning they have much lower population densities and needs for public transit, making it difficult to establish regular options from the city.
One solution mentioned in the plan is the Red Rock Corridor. The Red Rock Corridor “is a proposed 20-mile transitway, connecting the Twin Cities’ southeastern suburbs to St. Paul and Minneapolis. The transitway will originate in Hastings and stop in Cottage Grove, Newport and St. Paul’s Battle Creek neighborhood before connecting to the St. Paul Union Depot,” according to the project’s website.
An implementation plan was adopted for the corridor in 2016, but much of the work has been delayed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, with a “vision refresh,” adopted in January 2024 in order to address the transit needs of the area as they have changed post-pandemic.