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^ Atlanta has 48 miles of Heavy rail while Miami now has 25 miles with an extension to the Airport that opened in July of 2012. Also the Metromover is not a monorail but a peoplemover that is free and does carry 30,000 people a day. If you stayed at the Marriot Marquis you must have seen the Metromover since it's about a block away from there.
As for Miami being a car cultured city please tell me that ATL, Houston & Dallas aren't either!
Miami has Metrorail, Metromover and Tri-rail commuter rail.
By the way it's unfair to compare DC's Metro system to any other since the FEDS practically paid for most of it and is 4 times larger than Miami's Metrorail.
^ Atlanta has 48 miles of Heavy rail while Miami now has 25 miles with an extension to the Airport that opened in Juky of 2012. Also the Metromover is not a monorail but a peoplemover that is free and does carry 30,000 people a day. If you stayed at the Marriot Marquis you must have seen the Metromover since it's about a block away from there.
As for Miami being a car cultured city please tell me that ATL, Houston & Dallas aren't either!
Miami has Metrorail, Metromover and Tri-rail commuter rail.
Of course, I agree that Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas are car cultured cities as well. I never rode on the PeopleMover, haha had no idea if it were to go to the areas I wanted too and I drove to Miami to see my dad there while he was on his last American project there, so I got around great by car. Too great, Miami easily has the most upscale and most dynamic and decorated parking garages I've ever seen in my life. My car was happy there, unlike my city at the time, Austin where both myself and my car hated the driving experience there.
I've been quite critical on Miami and Houston's transit legacies in the past because I think they are the type of cities that shouldn't play a back seat to anyone. One is a highly affluent economic powerhouse and the other is an international icon, the fact that they show dismal reports in transit to Washington DC sort of saddens me. I know, I know, the federal government and stuff about Washington transit but the real truth is that the people in the DMV area and the developers here have had to pay for it, I wont deny it being aggressively pushed for extension thanks to the federal government but they haven't given the system any sort of special treatment financially from what I've been told.
I'm pretty car cultured myself, so the fact that these cities are isn't an issue for me. I would get along just nicely in Miami with my car, with the specifications I have for it and all of that, however there are some down days where I just like being away from the wheel and let someone else do the "transporting" while I kick back and enjoy a good Lusine trek on my iPhone.
Agreed on all accounts. I was kinda fooled by DART also when looking at it's rail-charts and seeing how far it went. Metro-Rail cracks the top 10 ridership numbers in the US. And Metro Rail is older and ugly looking(Tin can looking), but it does have Wi-Fi. And the DT people-mover looks nice and sleek.
Metro rail cracks the Hrt top 10. Not overall though. I'll still take DART rail slightly over metro in Miami because Dart takes you more places. I say slightly because metro in Miami is heavy rail. Not to mention there will also be a connection to the DFW next year. Both systems are improving though. I think Dart rail has higher ridership numbers than metro rail though.
Metro rail cracks the Hrt top 10. Not overall though. I'll still take DART rail slightly over metro in Miami because Dart takes you more places. I say slightly because metro in Miami is heavy rail. Not to mention there will also be a connection to the DFW next year. Both systems are improving though. I think Dart rail has higher ridership numbers than metro rail though.
More Places doesn't necessarily mean better places.
DART takes you to a lot of fields. Just because you can go to a field in Arlen does not give an advantage. MetroRail connects you to a range of populated/economically active places. Not saying that DART doesn't take you places. I know how you react to any critisms of DART. Just saying I am questioning the DART takes you more places mantra I keep hearing. DART was built with speculation in mind. I was built with EXPECTED TODs in mind. These TODS are yet to take off. The Developments that are taking off that happened to have transit, were taking off despite DART
Ridership by Rail
MARTA 218,000
DART +TRE 110,000
MetroRail + MetroMover- 100,000
MetroRail 37,000
Ridership by Bus largest Southern Cities
MDT 254- Miami
MTAHC 238- Houston
MARTA 187- Atlanta
VIA 147- San Antonio
BCT 139- Miami
DART 136- Dallas
Total Transit Ridership
MDT+BCT+PT- 560,000+ daily ~~~Miami MSA
MARTA- 407,000 + daily ~~~~ Atlanta
MTAHC + GCT -293,000 + daily ~~~ Houston
DART + TRE-252,000 + daily ~~~ Dallas Fort Worth
VIA - 150,000 + daily ~~~ San Antonio
CMTA- 126,000 + daily ~~~Austin
CFRTA- 95,000 + daily ~~~ Orlando
CAT - 85,000 + daily ~~~ Charlotte
RTA- 54,000 + daily ~~~ New Orleans
HARTA 50,000 + daily ~~~ Tampa
RTS- 50,000 + daily ~~~ Gainsville
TARC- 49,000 + daily ~~~ Louisville
PSTA- 45,000 + daily ~~~ St Petersburg
JTA- 45,000 + daily ~~~ Jacksonville
EPMT- 42,000 + daily ~~~ El Paso
MTA + RTA -39,000 + daily ~~~ Nashville
MATA -35,000 + daily ~~~ Memphis
Metro rail cracks the Hrt top 10. Not overall though. I'll still take DART rail slightly over metro in Miami because Dart takes you more places. I say slightly because metro in Miami is heavy rail. Not to mention there will also be a connection to the DFW next year. Both systems are improving though. I think Dart rail has higher ridership numbers than metro rail though.
Metro rail already has a connection to MIA(Brand-spanking new, nice design also). But like I said, metro-rail takes you to most places of interest in Dade-County(save Miami Beach) including the U of M(great benefit for students), but if you want to hop a train to the outer counties(Broward, Palm Beach) you also have tri-rail as an option that can take you 60+ miles North to WPB. Metro-Rail doesn't take you to as far as DART, because Tri-Rail is used in place for metro-rail as a commuter line for the rest of the metro. But rest assured, metro-rail takes you to just as many places of interest as DART does, as Miami is geographically smaller than Dallas. In terms of places of interest, MetroRail takes you just as far as DART would relative to how large Dallas is and how small Dade-County is.
Metro rail already has a connection to MIA(Brand-spanking new, nice design also). But like I said, metro-rail takes you to most places of interest in Dade-County(save Miami Beach) including the U of M(great benefit for students), but if you want to hop a train to the outer counties(Broward, Palm Beach) you also have tri-rail as an option that can take you 60+ miles North to WPB. Metro-Rail doesn't take you to as far as DART, because Tri-Rail is used in place for metro-rail as a commuter line for the rest of the metro. But rest assured, metro-rail takes you to just as many places of interest as DART does, as Miami is geographically smaller than Dallas. In terms of places of interest, MetroRail takes you just as far as DART would relative to how large Dallas is and how small Dade-County is.
Well I was only comparing DART rail to Metro rail. I wasn't bringing in the other rail systems such as the commuter rail and yes, this is where Miami area does come out on top. Dallas area only has very slow TRE and the new DCTA that will take you from the city of Dallas to Denton and North Texas University which I believe is the 4th largest university in the state. Not to mention that Dallas has a streetcar system and is currently extending it right now including building one from Oak Cliff to downtown.
Metro rail already has a connection to MIA(Brand-spanking new, nice design also). But like I said, metro-rail takes you to most places of interest in Dade-County(save Miami Beach) including the U of M(great benefit for students), but if you want to hop a train to the outer counties(Broward, Palm Beach) you also have tri-rail as an option that can take you 60+ miles North to WPB. Metro-Rail doesn't take you to as far as DART, because Tri-Rail is used in place for metro-rail as a commuter line for the rest of the metro.
Again it is not the length of the system but where it goes. There is no denying that Miami on a wehole has much better rail and bus than DFW and Houston
Quote:
But rest assured, metro-rail takes you to just as many places of interest as DART does, as Miami is geographically smaller than Dallas. In terms of places of interest, MetroRail takes you just as far as DART would relative to how large Dallas is and how small Dade-County is.
Probably more places of interest too. Outside of a few spots DART takes you to a lot of empty fields.
It had been a while since my last visit to Miami and trust me I was more than impressed with the developments. All the new buildings, The easy access of the Rail from the airport. It seemed like they took a huge leap ahead in a few years. I am jealous of all the work there
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