The TPO will have to make a decision on its SMART Plan

The 2018 Budget and Tax Reform
James E. McDonald.

August 30 will be a significant day for the Transportation Planning Organization (TPO) and for the people of Miami-Dade County, especially the fastest growing area of the county – Southwest Miami-Dade along the US1/transitway corridor – all the way to Homestead and Florida City.

At issue is whether the TPO will take a significant first step to begin implementing the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) by adopting the recommendation of the consultant working for the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation & Public Works (DTPW), after more than two years studying and looking at all options and deciding a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system is the best solution to relieving traffic congestion on US1. This recommendation is supported by the county’s transportation and public works department, Mayor Carlos Gimenez and three of the five municipalities situated along the route – Pinecrest, Homestead and Florida City. Opponents of BRT want Metrorail extended – either to Cutler Bay or all the way to Homestead and base their support on “promises” made almost two decades ago by politicians, whom for the most part are no longer in office, and to a population that has grown exponentially since then and is suffering due to the lack of a viable rapid transit system.

From the discussion at the July meeting of the TPO, it seems that body is taking a careful look at the underlying facts and funding available and leaning toward a compromise that provides for building an all new BRT system with state-of-the-art vehicles that act and look like trains, except with rubber wheels, stations fully covered with prepay level boarding, just like Metrorail, and those new stations designed to be retrofitted for rail when ridership increases to a level to support the cost of rail.

A BRT system is affordable, roughly $350 million as opposed to a Metrorail extension that would be anywhere from $1 billion to $1.5 billion and importantly, BRT can be up and running in approximately three years as opposed to a rail extension that will take at least seven to 10 years. Additionally, as was stated by TPO chairman Esteban Bovo, the TPO is prepared to support BRT with a proviso when ridership reaches a level that meets federal guidelines for rail, there will be an automatic “trigger” to require the county to begin the conversion to Metrorail. The TPO should consider incorporating language in its resolution to instruct the county administration, when designing the new BRT stations, to lay the rails for future conversion to Metrorail at the new BRT stations, with a covering for the BRT vehicles to travel over those rails. The laying of rails in the new stations would demonstrate the commitment to convert to rail at the appropriate time in the future and would also avoid future construction and disruption at those stations.

It is important the TPO members remember they are charged with dealing with our traffic congestion problems on a county-wide basis. The south corridor is one of six corridors. Over the coming years there will be approximately $8 billion available for new transit projects under the half-penny sales surtax. If that $8 billion is converted to net present value the amount becomes approximately $2.7 billion. By going with a BRT system for the south corridor at approximately $300 million, the TPO can bring relief to South Miami-Dade in the near term using only $100 million of the half-penny revenues, as opposed to waiting perhaps eight more years until rail could be built, if ever, assuming additional federal and state funding would then be available. It’s not realistic to expect the TPO will commit to spending a significant portion of available rapid transit funding for one corridor, especially when there is a viable option that is more affordable and doable in the near term.

BRT, as proposed for the transit way, is a train on rubber wheels that will provide rapid transit relief for the people of South Miami-Dade in the near term as opposed to Metrorail a decade in the future. BRT will spur economic development along its route, as BRT has done in many cities across the U.S. and world. A BRT system will help to reduce traffic in many of our neighborhoods and can be the first concrete step in implementing the SMART Plan in a comprehensive transit system for the entire county!


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11 COMMENTS

  1. even if the rail system is at ground level, it is dedicated. there’s no way the bus system will be dedicated since cars won’t follow that rule, if it’s part of system. and, the city is not going to take up an entire lane on a major thoroughfare, like US 1, in each direction, for an express bus, regardless of the wheels, the body, or the color. when elected officials want money for developers, to give them breaks, to give them land, to give them tax breaks, they find the money. claiming a rail system is too expense after all these years is an insult to taxpayers/residents.

  2. 25% of The money was/is diverted to cities and the cities do not want to give up their slush funds. This has been done all the while to the disadvantage of the rest of
    county residents. Its no wonder that nothing will be done about taking this money back or stopping this theft from the general public because the cities sit and vote on the tpo. Only the few cities that have the morals and a sense of fairness to do the right thing have stepped up in support of a truly viable ELEVATED plan. Anything else is a bs move to make people think electeds are doing something constructive. There will be no rail…ever…especially since the plan they have enacted will guarantee the ridership will never justify rail. Its an orchestrated prophecy. And ps. The smart plan has NO requirements for Any financial cooperation/assessments paid by adjacent cities. This is just another transfer of wealth.

  3. The proposed Metrorail extension is “at grade” also and not elevated. So east-west traffic would still be stopped for a passing train. The new buses would be faster than existing buses due to level boarding and pre-payment of fares like you would on a train

  4. I agree with the plan for so many reasons. People say, “we were told we would get rail, and we want rail.”
    Metro rail was partially federally funded boondoggle – a failed plan from the start, because it had to be elevated, and had too few tracks.
    We may have to spend more to get REAL efficient transit that people would be willing to use.
    But how much do we spend now on private cars that pollute the air and create massive traffic?
    If we had spent all that money on dedicated busways on east – west arteries, and wherever the old train tracks used to run (like where a proposed bike path runs parallel to 69th Avenue – just east of 69th avenue … north / south through from the airport south all the way to 80th Street) we would have perhaps had a different generation of commuters than we have currently.
    Unless we create REALLY convenient transit, the kids who are 10 and 12 years old now will be drivers in 6 to 8 years, and they will NOT use transit. Even when traffic stinks.
    And so the carbon footprint will just crush us … people talk a good talk about Global Warming, but when the chips ar down, they use cars as much as ever.
    A Metro rail type system has to be elevated, adding expense and time for the commuter going up and down escalators and elevators; it only has 2 tracks so you can’t run both expresses and locals, and it would not stop every 1/2 mile like the BRT could do.
    A BRT could run expresses and locals. AND we need convenient express buses running on all expressways, in dedicated lanes. Start dedicating lanes, and people will switch from cars to buses.
    Also consider that people need jobs. Right now people are driving Lyfts and Ubers, which is fine … but if we allowed commercial jitneys and provided more local public transit shuttles, we might also alleviate unemployment and get people ut of their cars.
    We ALSO need convenient, frequent EAST-WEST buses in dedicated lanes on all the major and semi-major arteries (the ones “on the 8s, 6s, 4s, 2s and 0s”:
    Unless we also provide parking lots and parking building along the highway, we need to expect commuters to take Ubers and cabs to the stops, or provide shuttles. Will they?
    Like in the Pinecrest / Palmetto Bay Area, WILL commuters take an east /west bus from communities along “the sevens Avenues” (Red Road, Ludlam, 77th, 87th) to an east/west connection?
    Will we get sufficient ridership to reduce car use for long distance commutes? IF we hav a BRT and dedicated bus lanes, I think it could work.
    We need convenient transit from Kendall (88th) east / west … so whenever possible we need to run large buses on the MAJOR Streets (88th, 104th, 112th, 124th, 136th, 144th, 152nd, 160th, 168th, etc…) with sufficient frequency to lure the average car driver.
    … and smaller shuttles through neighborhoods on streets like 120th, 128th, 132nd, 140th, 148th, etc…)
    I think we need to let the market flourish and allow commercial jitneys to STOP and pick up people anywhere they are flagged down. THEN you would have convenience and people might get out of their cars. In New York, the Lexington Avenue subway was stops 1/2 mile apart, In the Florida heat, few people want to even walk two blocks, much less a quarter mile.
    I am trying to imagine a future where suburbans would use mass transit to locations other than downtown, or major malls along US 1.
    A lot of the traffic Palmetto Bay and Pinecrest residents complain about, is LOCAL Rush hour traffic related to long haul commuters mixing with people driving their students to and from schools, or driving to local jobs (not only downtown.)
    I am imagining a case in which I would walk from my house at SW 87th Avenue, to a stop at SW 87th Avenue and SW 144th street, to catch an eastbound shuttle, taking me to 67th Avenue, and then transferring to a southbound at a 67th Avenue bus stop, to take me to my work at 14850 SW 67th Avenue.
    Since there are NO side walks from 144th to my workplace, walking is tough and dangerous.
    Even in bad traffic at 7:45 am, the three mile one way drive only takes 15 minutes. Would I be able to get there by mass transit in the same amount of time?
    If there were commercial jitneys allowed, I think it could work. We would hav to stop worrying about whether jitneys compete with public transit. And as for safety … they will mostly run on streets with 35 or 30 mph limits. Any “center aisle” mini bus would be safe enough.
    In the neighborhoods, the buses use the same roads as cars, so traffic would only improve if enough car drivers like me, switch to bus transit an jitneys, locally.
    If I worked downtown or along US 1 or a major east west artery, it would be worth it (hopefully) NOT to have to drive or sit on traffic – to take the 10 minute walk from 87th and 144th to the BRT station (currently the busway) at US1 and 144th … then read all the way to my stop…
    When people remember the single-wage earner days fondly, and bemoan the “shrinking middle class”, they forget that we spend SO much money on cars today! So many 2 person families (even with no children) have 2 cars!
    In the “old days”, many families only had one car, or in urban environments, NO car. They had more disposable income in those days, because it was not being sucked into expensive cars, insurance, gas, oil and maintenance! IF we spent more as taxpayers on REALLY effective mass transit, WOULD we reduce car ownership and car use – and therefore, our collective carbon footprint? De we CARE enough to make the sacrifices necessary to use public transit instead of our cars?

  5. Good answer – the bus lanes remain empty while the cars heading North out of Palmetto Bay on US1 are at a complete stand still – open up the busway as a toll road makes all the sense in the world and is a win win for the greedy politicians!!

  6. THere is not enough money for train transit. The funds from the one-half cent sales tax subsidize the operation of the current rail system. From 104th street and South Dixie Highway south, the current busway should be opened to cars as a toll road. That will increase the capacity of the roads going south and north and raise revenue for the bus system. Moreover, it will not slow down the infrequent buses and emergency vehicles which now use the busway lanes.

  7. This is really easy: professionals will take a rail system, but none will ride the bus. Even if it is a rapid transit bus.

  8. FIRST, the 23 member TPO rarely achieves a quorum.
    Usually only 12 0r 13 show up then a few leave before a vote can be taken. Their preference is to defer/delay and not be accountable for their failures.
    SECOND, the majority of TPO members do NOT do any preliminary homework, investigation, or analysis of any issue before a vote.
    They simply rely on the personal recommendation of the Commissioner or Commissioners who are from the district(s) effected.
    It seems like they are only realizing now that the $2.8 billion collected since 2002 from the half cent sales tax, that was supposed to give us the Metrorail extensions, has been squandered. They seem to be afraid to investigate, discipline, and fire those in the responsible County departments.
    THIRD, as Bonnie Hutton states above, surface run busses will NOT alleviate US-1 congestion.
    Quite simply folks living east of US-1 cannot easily access the busway without a horrendous wait to cross US-1. At peak times it takes 4 to 8 light cycles (3 or 4 minutes each) to cross US-1. Then a further delay to even get into the busway’s sometimes full parking area. All this negates any time saving taking a bus is purported to offer.
    For pedestrians living east of US-1 the thought of walking or biking across US-1 to access the busway is a death wish, especially through Palmetto Bay’s separate north and southbound stretches of US-1 (as one has to cross twice and if they push a pedestrian crosswalk signal they further back up traffic flow). The computer control of the traffic signals along US-1 from Dadeland south to Cutler Bay has already resulted in massive east/west cross street delays and backed up traffic for folks attempting to make left turns from north & southbound US-1.
    The computer signalling has also caused increased cut thru traffic thru residential neighborhoods as more and more folks try to avoid US-1.
    FOURTH, Commissioner Cava and the Palmetto Bay Council successfully NIXED the County’s FULLY FUNDED (and even then it would take two years to be operational!!!) attempt, through the TPO, to assist traffic to FLOW thru Palmetto Bay by bridging 87th Avenue at 163rd Street. Consequently Palmetto Bay remains a bottleneck because the “not in my neighborhood” folks seemingly want to sentence the majority of Palmetto Bay residents to increased cut thru traffic.
    FIFTH, now we have politicians (who realize they have made seriously horrendously bad judgement decisions) pushing a band-aid fix by wanting to ADD even more busses, running more frequently, which will cause even more congestion on US-1 and it’s cross streets and by design cause even more cut thru traffic thru residential neighborhoods, all just to get re-elected or elected.
    SIXTH, common sense dictates what needs to be done in the interim until realistic transit and traffic solutions are ironed out is to complete the arterial grid as the County pointy heads have been pushing for almost 50 years.

  9. Yes
    Someone needs to explain this
    I don’t see the benefits
    Will the stations be covered and provide seating?
    Will the rubber wheel buses run every 5 minutes during rush hour?
    Will east/west buses go into the neighbor hoods and get people to rapid transit bus stations?
    Will they run in harmony with the rapid transit bus to avoid long wait times in the summer heat or during torrential rain?

  10. Bonnie: You are absolutely right. If anything, it will probably slow east-west traffic as well as access to (north-south) US1.

  11. I would like to see someone explain how any ground level system to alleviate congestion on the north-south bound US1, will be able to run any faster than existing buses, without impeding east-west traffic crossing US1. We are already suffering delays in crossing east-west in the existing scenarios. I can’t see how this solution won’t make it worse.

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