Transit Miami

How’s it going, Miami? It’s The Sprawl Hater back to spread the good news and offer some fresh perspectives. Well, it turns out that “high” prices at the pump have an upside after all. APTA, the American Public Transit Association, has recently reported a 4.25% increase in transit ridership nationwide for the first quarter of 2006. According to APTA officials, the increase in ridership has a strong correlation with rising gasoline prices, which are approaching the record high of $3.057/gallon in the wake of Hurricane Katrina last year. Perhaps Thomas Friedman wasn’t so crazy when he said that the sooner we get to $100/barrel oil, the sooner Americans will change their consumption habits.

*Noteworthy Transit Aside: APTA estimates that U.S. riders of public transit help save the county 855 million gallons of gasoline per year!

Moreover, nearly every metropolitan area in the U.S. has set forth initiatives to expand their mass transit services. Although this is good news nationally, it means less federal dollars will be available to help fund local projects here in South Florida. My suggestion: Miami-Dade Transit, MDX (Miami-Dade Expressway), and SFRTA (South Florida Regional Transportation Authority – the group that runs Tri-Rail) need to form a partnership similar to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York City, which would not only handle public transportation, but also tolls for bridges and expressways. I know this can be a parsimonious town, but seriously tolls here are pretty modest when compared to some of the major Northeastern cities. If tolls were raised to $3.00 - $3.50 in certain locations, there would be a ton of extra revenue leftover after road maintenance to help fund/expedite the expansion of our local and regional transit systems. If 100,000 cars per day passed through the new tolls at $3.50 a pop, that’s an extra $200,000 per day and as much as $70 million in additional revenues annually. I know this suggestion probably sounds radical to many South Floridians, but we’ve got to find a way to be more sustainable and less dependent on oil. This is especially important considering the University of Florida estimates an additional 1.8 million residents will reside in South Florida by 2020. This means that even with good urban planning (isn’t likely if history has told us anything) congestion is expected to triple over the next 15 years.

Scary.