I love driving. I was born to drive.”

Dave E. Douglas

When passengers book a ride with the new Transit Link On-Demand, drivers like Dave E. Douglas are notified with a ping on the tablet mounted to the dashboard of their buses.
Douglas is a retired medical transportation business owner who says he has been driving since he was 8 years old in Los Angeles where he grew up.
“I love driving. I was born to drive,” said Douglas from the driver’s seat of the bus last Wednesday.
Douglas drives the Transit Link On-Demand bus, which residents can call for on-demand rides within city limits through the new Transit Link On-Demand pilot program which launched in Hastings last week.
The new pilot program, which runs 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Mondays and Wednesdays, allows residents to get a ride on demand for local stops such as doctor’s appointments or grocery shopping, all for the flat fee of $3.50 per ride.
The program is an expansion of the current Transit Link program which residents can use to schedule rides around the metro with pricing depending on the length of the ride.
Users can request rides by calling 651-602-LINK (5465) or by downloading the Metro micro app on your phone.
After a ride is requested, the white Transit Link bus pulls up to the requested location in just a few minutes.
The first day of the new pilot program was slow in Hastings with hours passing between calls. Douglas read from a 2023 World Almanac and Book of Facts in the Walmart parking lot to pass the time.
That lull was to be expected, however, said Sheila Williams, senior project administrator for the Metropolitan Council’s Contracted Transit Services: “The first week is usually pretty slow as the word gets out.”
The Transit Link On-Demand pilot program rolled out last week for three “standalone” cities: Forest Lake, Stillwater, and Hastings.
The program was designed in Hastings because 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. represent a lull in the scheduled Transit Link services and a better way to provide public transportation to communities that lack many others for residents.
The pilot program was scheduled specifically to avoid other local transportation options like the DARTS bus. Transit Link On-Demand is “not meant to compete, but to enhance” transportation options, said Williams.
While the program is still technically a pilot program, it doesn’t have a term date, and Williams was clear it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon: “We aren’t going to put the genie back in the bottle.”
The program is an echo of the much-loved TRAC bus program that ferried Hastings residents around town until 2010 when the program ended due to lack of funding and in order to provide “more equitable service” across the metro area, said Williams.
Williams was at the Hastings City Council meeting in 2010 when the TRAC bus program was ended: “It was jam-packed […] It was beloved and the beloved service was going away.”
That beloved program was brought up during the conversations that lead to the creation of the on-demand pilot in Hastings, said Williams.
Last Wednesday, Williams boarded the Transit Link bus as part of service monitoring for bussing across Transit Link. She rides buses for potentially hours each day, “sometimes for a full day,” making sure buses are clean, stocked with pamphlets and otherwise operating smoothly.
The first day of the program, there were still issues to be smoothed out like GPS leaving questions of where exactly to pick up and drop off passengers at their requested location and how to quickly end one ride and move to the next.
Williams was open that the pilot program could grow and change depending on the level of use and other issues within the program.
For Douglas, the opportunity to drive professionally was one he jumped at.
“I love to drive and I love people,” said Douglas, calling his discovery of the driver listing a way God was speaking to him.
“I want to serve God and that’s it,” said Douglas with a laugh, although he is happy to not have to deal with running a business outright letting him be “just a driver.”
As a former bus driver herself, Williams is quick to correct Douglas’s self-depreciation: “You’re more than a driver.”