Mankato Transit Community Advisory Panel

First Meeting

I recently volunteered to be on a Community Advisory Panel assisting in the development of a new transit plan for the city of Mankato. We had our first meeting on Friday.

Before the meeting the consultant hosting the meetings for the City of Mankato posted one of the interactive maps. After seeing the community comments from a similar map posted last year regarding a project on North Riverfront, I was pleasantly surprised at the number of reasonable and practical comments and concerns posted by the community.

Something that really stood out in the meeting was how difficult living in a low-density neighborhood is if you don’t have access to a car. There is a bespoke paratransit service available for ~$3.00 per ride but the service must be scheduled well in advance. The service is also frequently late. This is understandable since each ride is custom and difficult to predict.

Access to a grocery store was also difficult in many neighborhoods. This was especially true for the relatively large group of international students living near the Minnesota State campus.

Another item that popped up was the hours of operation made many trips to work or church impossible or impractical.