Skip to main content

Key Initiative

Changing Choices Along the C Line

Move Minnesota is developing culturally-relevant education models with communities along Metro Transit’s C Line to support people walking, biking, and using transit.

The Issue

The METRO C Line is fast, reliable, and more affordable than using a car. A replacement for local bus route 19, the corridor has seen huge growth in ridership since the C Line launched in 2019. But not everyone knows about these service improvements, some do not know how the C-Line connects to broader transit and transportation networks, and still others don’t feel welcome to ride. We’re working to connect people to the C Line and make it easier for neighbors to walk, bike, or roll their way to one of the region’s best and newest transit resources.

The Solution

In collaboration with partners and individuals, Move Minnesota is gathering personal and neighborhood narratives, collecting and employing data, and creating models for behavior change that are rooted in lived experience. Together, these efforts will help residents make budget-friendly transportation choices that also protect the environment and the health of the community.

Move Minnesota will partner with, and subgrant to, local entities, organizations, and community leaders to develop outreach materials; reach out to C Line community members; and support community-based transit navigators. The purpose of the stipend is to resource Twin Cities residents and organizations as they help Move Minnesota reduce one-way car trips and identify culturally specific barriers to using sustainable transportation options for positive behavior change. In addition, the navigators will collect data on resource gaps and the number of one-way car trips they are reducing per month. This new initiative is supported with pilot funding from the US Department of Transportation and the Metropolitan Council.

Why It Matters

Building awareness and support of the C Line will ultimately reduce car trips near the C Line corridor, which in turn will result in cleaner air and safer streets. Further, understanding and addressing barriers to using multi-modal transportation along the C Line corridor will allow Move Minnesota and our partners to develop a behavior change curriculum that can be used in other communities.

Our Objective

Project goals include gathering data and personal narratives that tell the story of community experience in making daily transportation choices, and distilling these narratives and data into toolkits and educational materials to help elevate transit ridership, decrease regional traffic congestion, and improve air quality.

METRO C Line at a Glance

  • 90,000+ residents along the C Line
  • 7,000 businesses along the C Line
  • 6,000 daily transit rides on the C Line before COVID-19

C Line Riders Say

“I ride the bus to save on gas. I work four days per week at a fast food restaurant. The drivers are good—really nice. I spend my time doing art. Taking the bus is a connection to the community.”

– Rich S. | Minneapolis, MN

“The bus has helped get me to go where I gotta go when I don’t have money for Ubers or when people can’t give me a ride.”

– Gabby E. | Minneapolis, MN

“Mom would take me on the bus, and I learned the bus to go anywhere. You meet people on the bus.”

– Karima Abdul – Malik | Buffalo, MN

“Bus drivers are careful—no accidents like when people drive a car. . . . When you ask the bus driver, they will show you with clear direction where to go to reach your connection.”

– Georgette | Plymouth, MN

Take the Pledge!

METRO C Line Changing Choices Pledge

There are so many great ways to get around the Twin Cities, including the METRO C Line! Pledge to bus, bike, walk, or roll at least once a week this summer.

Move Minnesota is listening to local residents and leveraging the power of community partnerships to connect more people to the METRO C Line.

In the process, we’re creating a new model for transportation behavior change.

How Can You Take Action?

Join the conversation around the C Line.

Do you live along the C Line? Is your organization or employer located along the C Line? Contact project manager Theresa Nix!

Depending on your perspectives, there are opportunities to share your story about your experiences on transit or moving around, participate in surveys, shape our organizational toolkit, or become a community navigator.