$3.6B Plan for transit expansion (Miami, Miami Beach: bus, airport, kindergarten)

[projectmaximus]

Knowing next to nothing about the environment in Miami, this looks promising to me.

County Preparing To Spend $3.6B On Rapid Transit

[ruski]

Why do they always have to come up with cute acronyms? LOL@ SMART.

[AnnRyan]

Hopefully, they'll spend the money in a SMART way. (probably not)

[ruski]

Originally Posted by AnnRyan

Hopefully, they'll spend the money in a SMART way. (probably not)

Usually projects with such names end up completely opposite of what their kindergarten marketers named them.

[roadtrip75]

Originally Posted by projectmaximus

Knowing next to nothing about the environment in Miami, this looks promising to me.

County Preparing To Spend $3.6B On Rapid Transit

It looks promising for the bank accounts of politicos and connected developers.

[bale002]

There has been talk about this plan for a while, and it is still just talk. And the article cited does not read like it was written by a native English speaker.

The other day, Commissioner Suarez expressed a preference for a free trolley down Kendall Drive, similar to what Coral Gables and other communities have, citing the fact that people actually use them and, despite being free of charge at point of use, it actually saves money considering the billions it takes to build railroad and the hundreds of millions per year to subsidize their operation.

Maybe he's got a point there.

[hurricaneMan1992]

Originally Posted by AnnRyan

Hopefully, they'll spend the money in a SMART way. (probably not)

The thing is: what money? Unfortunately, there is no funding source yet, so the "plan" is more like a wish list at this point.

Even if it gets done, it will leave gaping holes in the most vibrant up-and-coming urban parts of Town: Little Havana, Wynwood, Upper East Side, Little Haiti, North Beach. Not even clear whether it will reach Ocean Drive and Lincoln Road here in South Beach, or stop short at 5th and Alton! So unless you're going downtown you would still either drive or end up on a slow bus. Common flaw in transit systems here in the US: they go pretty far out, but once you want to go somewhere that's not downtown, forgeddaboudit. You can always drive a bit further from your place to a station (most planned stations have nothing in walking distance), but on the other end, you generally don't have that option.

[hurricaneMan1992]

Originally Posted by bale002

There has been talk about this plan for a while, and it is still just talk. And the article cited does not read like it was written by a native English speaker.

The other day, Commissioner Suarez expressed a preference for a free trolley down Kendall Drive, similar to what Coral Gables and other communities have, citing the fact that people actually use them and, despite being free of charge at point of use, it actually saves money considering the billions it takes to build railroad and the hundreds of millions per year to subsidize their operation.

Maybe he's got a point there.

Frequency is the key! If it were every 10 minutes, it could be popular. Every 30-60+ minutes, meh. Dedicated bus lanes and transit signal priority would help tremendously--the trolley might even be faster than driving/Ubering during peak hours. There's a lot we can do to improve our bus system, it's cheaper than rail, but still not that cheap if you do it *right*. And I doubt Suarez or any other commissioner is ready to propose "taking" car lanes for the bus, despite the fact that it would actually increase the *people* capacity of the road.

[WrongStreet]

I heard about this plan, yeah I think it has been in the works for quite a while. Honestly, I feel like they should start with just an East-West expansion of the Metro-Rail from the airport to Miami Beach, that would alleviate so much traffic. Then they can work on expanding North-South.

[roadtrip75]

Give the money to MDX and let them plant a few hundred more palm trees