Comments on: Gas & Public Transit

By: Armando

Armando — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:54:06 +0000

Palmetto, Okeechobee, the whole northern half of the line is barely used. If there isn’t enough parking, then make more.

So there are what 100 spots and they are all taken. Then great we have 100 - 200 people from those sites using the system.

Build a big parking garage at each station and make parking free and you will most definitely see a difference.

By: John Hopkins

John Hopkins — Sun, 04 May 2008 21:55:08 +0000

Where is there Metrorail parking that doesn’t fill up during every morning rush hour? At Dadeland south and north, and at the University station — the three I’m most familiar with — it’s rare to find a parking spot if you arrive after 8 a.m. So I don’t think making the parking free would put one more rider on the trains.

By: Armando

Armando — Sun, 04 May 2008 16:18:51 +0000

I think one simple change the would very much promote MetroRail usage in South Florida is to dump the parking charge at the MetroRail stations outside of the urban core. I think its pretty ridiculous to ask somebody who would rather drive to work to have to pay to park at the MetroRail station and then again to ride the MetroRail. Why would you pay to park in a MetroRail station at a suburban stop where all the nearby shopping centers have free parking? I have spoken to a number of people who have expressed the same thing. Removing the parking charge would also improve the economic argument for using mass transit instead of driving.

Another change would be to develop partnerships with organizations such as the Miami Heat that could help drive mass transit use.

For example, say we replace the current system with the card based system they use in Boston and NYC. Then we have some system for marking the cards or for scanning them and finding out when they were last used. If a card was used 2 hours or less before a Heat game, you can get a free soda at the game. The Heat can even use it as a marketing gimmick to encourage suburban residents to ride into downtown for the game.

A third idea (I don’t know if this is even on the mark, so please comment) is to rebate some amount of local gas taxes to people that buy transit cards. Or, develop a system where local gas taxes get appropriated between roads and mass transit depending on the increase in mass transit usage.

My last idea is to give people that live IN the urban core (downtown, Brickell, etc.) free transit cards, or make outbound trips from the urban core free, thus encouraging those that live in the area to drop their cars. You could also add a provision that says that if the person or family must not own a car to benefit from it.

Lets think outside the box! But, lets use positive reinforcement, not negative reinforcement, to fix this problem.

By: Tracy Bossinger

Tracy Bossinger — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:02:38 +0000

I think another thing that could be added is maybe more frequent running of some of the lines… once an hour (and not knowing if they’ll be on time, early, or late) just doesn’t cut it if you NEED to be somewhere at a certain time and don’t want to be there an hour early just to ensure you are there when you need to be. Add to that connection times that don’t mesh between routes, and you may need to leave 2 or 3 hours ahead of time, added to your actual transit time. Something that might take 45 minutes to drive (bad as that is) can turn in to a 2-3 hour commute, not counting wait times.
Accountability on the part of drivers (as in, don’t stop, order a pizza & wait 1/2 an hour for it WITH passengers on the bus… don’t stop for a cafecito at the corner WITH a full busload, right after leaving a stop where you had a 30 minute layover, etc.) would take the route times more in line with what the schedules say, but planning would take it the extra mile into something useable.
And I can’t say I’m surprised at the Herald interviewing someone not even in the right agency for their article.