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About 23 percent of the money collected for the People’s Transportation Plan – approximately $4 billion over the past two decades – has gone to municipalities for local projects. Mariana Price, Municipal Program Manager for the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust, discussed local transit and transportation projects on CITT’s video podcast, Mobility Matters, broadcast by Miami’s Community Newspapers.
“I am responsible for overseeing the municipal program which is the portion of the half penny sales surtax,” said Mariana Price, Municipal Program manager for the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust. “Thirty three of the 34 municipalities in the county participate in the program.”
Price, recently interviewed on CITT’s video podcast, Mobility Matters, explained the cities must use 80 percent of the money they receive on transit and the balance can be used on transportation.
“It’s an important distinction because transit is more towards mobility efforts, getting around, moving around. Transportation is more your run-of-the-mill public works type projects, such as roadway improvements, filling potholes, restriping, clearing trees and traffic calming,” she said. “Every municipality has their own challenges and their own opportunities. The city of Miami is very different from Medley.
“The thing that we love to see the most is when they spend their money on fixed route circulators,” Price said. “You can rely on fixed route circulators buses and trolleys to arrive at a certain point… on a certain time of day and certain days of the week, so those are reliable.”
She also said CITT encourages on-demand services, like Freebee, because they provide first/last-mile solutions by connecting people and transit services, taking them from their homes to the fixed route circulator.
Price emphasized a major component of the municipal programs is that they integrate with the county’s Metrobus, Metromover and Metrorail systems so that it all works in a seamless way to maximize efficiency and get people to where they need to go.
The municipal program also is encouraging bicycle and pedestrian paths that connect to the transit services.
“This is not a one-size-fits-all,” Price said. “It’s not necessarily something that works for every municipality.”
To learn about the Trust’s role in overseeing how surtax dollars are used to enhance transit and transportation projects in Miami-Dade County, watch upcoming Mobility Matters video podcast, streamed live every other Thursday, starting at 9 a.m., via:
www.facebook.com/TransportationTrust.
All Mobility Matters programs can be viewed on demand at: www.youtube.com/@communitynewspapers1946.
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