Bill aims to reduce State Fair gridlock and improve transit options

Minnesotans love going to the State Fair — more than 1.8 million people went last year — but they don’t like fighting traffic to get there.

A bill introduced at the State Capitol last week would require fair operators by Aug. 1 to devise a plan to reduce gridlock around the fairgrounds during the 12-day extravaganza, address parking shortages and get more people to arrive via public transit.

“Our goal is always to provide the best possible guest experience we possibly can, and we realize that starts when people head out for the fair,” said State Fair CEO Renee Alexander. “It is a door-to-door experience. Sometimes that can be frustrating depending on the volume of traffic we have.”

The bill, introduced by Rep. Rick Hansen, DFL-South St. Paul, directs the State Fair Agricultural Society, which operates the fair, to work with the Met Council to come up with a multimodal transportation plan to be in place when the Great Minnesota Get-Together opens on Aug. 22. That includes increasing transit services by 100% over 2023 levels, expanding the number of places to park and store bicycles, and improving opportunities to use ridesharing companies such as Uber and Lyft, if they are still operating.

Last week both rideshare companies said they would pull out of Minneapolis on May 1 after the city passed a new ordinance boosting driver pay.

The House Agriculture Finance and Policy Committee forwarded the legislation on a voice vote Thursday to the House Transportation Finance and Policy Committee for further discussion.

About 736,000 people took transit to the fair last year, including those who rode express buses from the suburbs or took a bus from one of the fair’s 14 free park-and-ride lots, Alexander said. Though that represented 41% of fairgoers, traffic around the fairgrounds and surrounding neighborhoods was often snarled during peak periods, lawmakers said.

Demand for the fair’s 5,000 on-site parking spaces remained high as guests, vendors, exhibitors and employees looking for places to leave their vehicles contributed to traffic snarls. Construction on nearby Cleveland and Larpenteur avenues, direct routes to the fair, compounded traffic problems. A lack of express bus service from the suburbs also put a squeeze on parking, lawmakers said.

Rep. Lucy Rehm, DFL-Chanhassen, said she was one of the unfortunate ones who had difficulty parking at the fair. She ended up taking a SouthWest Transit bus instead.

“It was amazing,” she said during Thursday’s committee meeting. “If we could replicate that in other areas, I think that would be well-received.”

Metro Transit provided express bus service from four suburban locations last year, up one from 2022, but far below the nine it operated before the COVID-19 pandemic. Labor shortages forced the transit agency to cut back. Minnesota Valley Transit Authority and SouthWest Transit also offered service to the fair.

The bill is intended to boost that number.

Metro Transit has not yet announced its plans for 2024, but some lawmakers also wondered if establishing a park-and-ride lot near the Green Line could help mitigate parking and traffic problems at the fair if a lot large enough could be identified. Others suggested directing state employees working at the fair to park at the former Sears store near the Capitol.

The bill still has several steps to go before it would become law. The provision to boost transit service by 100% might get some pushback. Rep. Brad Tabke, DFL-Shakopee, doesn’t want additional investment in transit to the fair to come at the expense of those who still need to get to work, he said.

“We will continue these conversations,” Hansen said. “We will be working on this and be sure we have a good product for Minnesotans.”