Better Bus Project proposes new route network with less waiting time
A redesign of Miami-Dade County’s Metrobus network was unveiled Wednesday, promising to move people more quickly and make taking the bus a reliable, appealing transportation option.
“We want to untrap thousands of people,” said Azhar Chougle, executive director of Transit Alliance Miami, which led the two-year Better Bus Project. “They’re trapped in a network that is 30 years old.”
The proposed new system, which must be approved by county and city of Miami commissioners, would double the number of residents who live less than a 5-minute walk from buses that arrive every 15 minutes or less. In contrast with the existing network, the boost in frequency of service along key routes would boost access to job, shopping, government, healthcare and education hubs by 33 percent.
The new network presents a tradeoff between shorter waiting times and coverage to all corners of the sprawling county. Some labyrinthine routes with low ridership that Chougle once described as “the most creative form of abstract art ever to emerge from Miami” will be adjusted, consolidated or restricted to rush hour times. Riders on those routes may face a longer walk to their stop.
“This is not a magic trick,” said Chougle, who does not own a car and relies on mass transit. “Three percent more residents will be more than a 10-minute walk to a bus stop compared to today. Those are routes with, say, two boardings per hour. Those are the wholly inefficient parts of the system that don’t make any sense after 30 years.”
County Commissioner Eileen Higgins, a regular bus passenger, said the new plan will cost taxpayers nothing but the county and the city must collaborate to get it implemented because removing route duplication by city-run trolleys is critical to its success.
“We’ve got all these little trolleys going everywhere and no one ever said let’s coordinate,” Higgins said, showing a map of the current meandering Flagami trolley route and a map of the future streamlined one. “We actually don’t lose much because we are eliminating overlap. It’s a transformative project. But it’s also a political decision to adopt it on behalf of your constituents.”
Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava said she was initially concerned about cuts to routes in South Dade but that those will be preserved or run in conjunction with contracted vehicles and drivers. She supports reform because it will better serve growing pockets of a county gridlocked by traffic.
“Municipalities implemented these popular and free trolley routes but the county buses kept running along those same routes and buses were going empty,” she said of the cannibalization of bus routes.
Bus ridership has declined by more than 30 percent in the last five years, from 78 million to 52 million. Still, two out of three people who use mass transit use the bus. Currently, only five of the county’s 100 bus routes served by its 800-vehicle fleet arrive every 15 minutes or less throughout the day, leaving most people waiting 30 minutes to an hour, causing long commutes and missed connections.
Under the proposed system, high-demand routes would be strengthened. Fifteen routes would arrive every 15 minutes or less from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., including faster service to North Dade, Florida City, FIU and across four bridges to Miami Beach.
“We don’t live in a 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. community,” Chougle said. “We also plan for better frequency on Saturdays. Frequency equals freedom.
“The bus can be a tool for resiliency, equity and prosperity,” he said, citing the case of a nurse from Little Haiti he interviewed who would have easier access to more job opportunities under the new network.
Many people have given up on the system because they never know when their bus will arrive and it takes too long to get to their destination. Nor do they want to stand in the sun or the rain at bus stops with no seating or shelter.
If the new design is implemented in 2021, it would be the first time in 30 years of tremendous development in South Florida that the system receives an overhaul. It would be the first time municipal trolley systems would be integrated with the countywide bus system.
The Better Bus Project, spearheaded by the advocacy organization Transit Alliance Miami, amassed not only data on demand, distance, speed, density, walkability, wait times and “geometric tradeoffs,” but input from more than 2,600 residents participating in over 100 community events within the last year, plus 4,400 residents who responded to surveys. It’s the first time a major U.S. bus system was reconfigured by a nonprofit group seeking grass roots participation, Transit Alliance said. Chougle and assistant Richard Hankins also embarked on a 24-hour bus-riding marathon to experience all sectors of the system.
“Eighty-five percent of our respondents want change. We need to deliver,” Chougle said. “Anyone opposed is saying, ‘I don’t support more efficient use of tax dollars for all.’”
This story was originally published February 26, 2020 at 8:43 PM.
