The Miami-Dade County Commission unanimously adopted an ordinance in October that would require cities to provide real-time data for trolley and local circulator bus services to the county. The trolley information would be integrated into the county transit tracker app, making transit trip planning seamless for riders.
The legislation, sponsored by County Commissioner Daniella Levine Cava, is designed to close a critical information gap for transit patrons. It would allow third-party applications like Google Maps to provide much more accurate, real-time trip planning across all modes of transit funded by the County Transportation half-penny sales tax. Those transit modes include city trolleys, Metrobus, Metrorail, and Metromover systems.
“As we work to bring new mobility options to our residents and businesses, and seek options to reduce traffic by reducing the number of cars on the road, this will provide critical, accurate real-time information to the whole system,” Commissioner Levine Cava said.
Right now, city trolleys are operated like separate transit systems even though they are all funded using the PTP (Peoples Transportation Tax).
“Many of them are quite popular and are a critical part of our overall transportation network,” Commissioner Levine Cava explained. “You can use the phone in the palm of your hand to connect all of these trolleys to the county’s transit system, providing an easy way to get you to many more destinations without needing a car.”
The ordinance also requires cities and the county to provide quarterly reports to the county commission showing daily data for city and county ridership, to more accurately reflect the total transit use throughout the county.
So…Does that mean that NOW these tony little city trollies will pick up the OTHER people waiting along the US1 busway stops as their trollies use this busway to take their people all the way to Dadeland? It seems like the only proper thing to do, since trolley riders are not charged a fare.