In 1984, a Minnesota legislative study commission on metropolitan transit concluded that "the three functions of effective transit service - planning, arranging, and delivering - are misallocated among the various agencies and levels of government." The commission believed that the region's public bus operators, the Metropolitan Transit Commission (MTC), could not objectively plan new transit services to meet local needs. In addition, the commission was concerned about rising costs, declining ridership, and the lack of local involvement in transit planning. The 1984 legislature established a transit planning structure, based on the commission's recommendations, that is unique among large U.S. metropolitan areas. The legislature limited the MTC to transit operations and short-term planning and allowed the region's metropolitan planning organisation, the Metropolitan Council, to continue long-range transit planning and policy setting. In addition, the legislature established a third agency, the Regional Transit Board (RTB), to conduct midrange planning, implement the policies and plans of the Metropolitan Council, and arrange for transit services. This paper is a discussion of whether this organisational arrangement has worked as intended. Overall, although the 1984 changes improved service planning and increased attention to unmet service needs and the transit system's cost-effectiveness, the RTB still needs to prove itself as an effective problem solver.
Abstract