The alternative headline was “We’re the government and we’re here to help you, we just don’t know what the hell we’re doing!”
For New Year’s Eve last night, in order to keep local revelers safe and as a nice, Big Brother wants to end the Old Year and start the new one showing that he cares gesture, Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota had announced that Metro Transit would let customers ride free from 6 p.m. to the end of service on all routes including the return trip on the Northstar commuter rail after the Vikings-Packers game at U.S. Bank Stadium. The “Miller Lite Free Rides” promotion covered all buses and light rail, sang the public transit authority: “No fare, no coupons; simply hop on and take a seat for free!”
However, for some ridiculous reason, many of the main lines were scheduled to complete their final runs before midnight. The official reason was because Black Lives Matter planned its first 2024 mostly peaceful demonstration as the new year rang in downtown, and didn’t want white celebrants to be able to flee.
Just kidding! In fact, there was no reason at all for the self-defeating schedule other than typical municipal government bureaucratic incompetence
“Words cannot describe how dumb it is to have a light rail service that doesn’t operate after midnight on NYE,” wrote the proprietor of the Black Hart bar, which hosted a New Year’s Eve party last night near the Green Line’s Hamline Station. “What? On NYE?,” wrote another critic on social media. “When people rely on late-night public transportation to keep cars off the road after drinking? What on Earth are you thinking?”
Nothing! The officials weren’t thinking at all. Fortunately, social media did itself proud this time. After being slammed for its self-defeating schedule by X-ers, Instagrammers and Facebook Friends, Metro Transit announced on December 30 , just in the nick of time, that it was extending its schedule so that every line would have a final train or bus leaving after Midnight. Not long enough after 2024 arrived to be convenient for the drunk and disorderly in every case, mind you. For example, the final northbound Blue Line train left the Mall of America at 12:09 a.m.
It still was sufficient to make the free ride policy just mildly annoying rather than irresponsibly dangerous.
Ethics Alarms 
Don’t think I’d want to be on a ride with Vikings fans returning from the game. They were likely to be in an ugly mood after seeing their team get stomped by the Packers. A lot of them likely spent the second half imbibing since there wasn’t anything else of interest going on.