Will it work? From experiences in other cities, there is no doubt. A well designed cityscape, enhanced with streetcar mobility, will lead to greater quality of life for city residents.

See, transportation and housing have a symbiotic relationship. However one is built, the form of the other will follow suit. That’s one reason why buses don’t work, because they are still merely a functional entity of the automobile realm. In the case of the Miami Streetcar, it is proposed along a fairly dense corridor that will be booming with infill development in the coming years. In a strange twist of fate, the City of Miami is finally trying to be progressive by building the streetcar now to compliment proposed future development instead of just reacting to a congestion problem that needed fixing 20 years prior.

Moreover, the pro-bus argument is just not logical (well, it is Miami logic). Adding more buses to the streets when traffic is expected to as much as triple in the next 25 years doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, does it? So of course you’ll counter by saying something like “Oh, but the streetcars are not different because they’ll be in the roads, too”. Wrong. As I said above, the streetcars (as well as other fixed rail transit) will stimulate infill development that will be mixed-use and much more pedestrian-friendly. This will allow people living along the rail corridors to live a more traditional urban life where the pedestrian realm is much more prominent and people don’t have to depend on driving for everything.

Lastly, I’m guessing that most streetcar/rail-haters are either car-lovers or live in some suburban-style neighborhood where they rely on cars for everything, think transit should only be implemented to lessen congestion (so they can drive easier), and have not experienced tradtional urban lifestyle.

Oh, and another thing; stop saying that Miami is “broke” because that is false (as pointed out in today’s Miami Herald). Even if the City is tight on cash, which scenario is more logical? Scenario A: Do the Miami thing and go for a cheap, short-term fix to congestion while traffic gets worse and worse or Scenario B: Start implementing long term solutions now to prepare for future growth and congestion, opposed to waiting another 20 years to build anything when traffic will be much worse than today and any project will be much more expensive

I choose B.

What about the FEC Corridor? Let’s get that funded. Isn’t it 85 miles long and 135′ wide?

Let us use buses. Buses fit in our budget. (We are broke.)

Do not forget what happened with the PAC Center. It came in over $100 Mil over budget and years late. Now it loses $100,000 per month. Guess who covers the loss?

I have used buses and subways in NYC and in Boston. Both NYC and Boston are more dense than Miami and both have routes that have been in place for a century.

The NW 2nd Avenue route proposed for the $350+ Mil rail based streetcar does not go to dense job and residential centers. The vast majority of medical workers at the Jackson/U of M/Courthouse area cannot afford $500,000 condos at Midtown Miami, for example.

There is no reason the City and the County cannot simply add buses and create several new routes that they know from experience will be used. The other great benefit of buses is that more buses can be added to routes that are popular. And all that for one tenth the cost of a rail based system.