The Black Hawk County Gaming Association has awarded a $750,000 grant to improve public transit in Waterloo and Cedar Falls. A joint initiative between the cities and MET Transit is looking to raise a total of $4.6million to fund a micro-transit pilot program. The program will use smaller passenger vans to navigate designated zones to provide shared rides that connect riders directly to their destination or link them efficiently to MET Transit’s existing fixed route bus network. Ideally, it would be a “first-mile/last-mile” connector. Specific passenger fares remain under evaluation but the program aims to lower transit barriers, shorten travel times, and increase ridership across the transit system.
