Does the Twin Cities need the “opt-out” transit agencies anymore?

Like the people of Lake Wobegon, the Twin Cities transit landscape is solidly above average, at least if you compare it to the rest of the United States.

By measures like operations efficiency, farebox recovery and governance structure, we do well in the (low-bar) United States. Twin Cities drivers and transit riders should be grateful for it, and if you don’t believe me, find out how transit decisions are made in most other American cities. It can definitely get worse.

The exceptions that prove the rule, and one that I have long found personally befuddling, are the existence of the so-called “opt-out” bus operators. In the Twin Cities metro, four transit agencies have operated independently out of the south and west suburbs for years, quietly and inefficiently doing their own thing, som