The Herald reports this morning that more people are turning to transit these days, but not proportionally consistent with the large population of South Florida. It’s something we regularly say on this site: that as gas prices increase, so will transit ridership. Unfortunately the article tends to reflect the whole car culture of South Florida by putting a somewhat negative spin on numbers that reflect a significant growth in transit usage in the region. Yes, when compared to the whole three county population our transit ridership is low, but how about the fact that our system just isn’t there yet. The more lines that are added, the more connectivity the system has, the more choices people will have to get to where they are going.
Our cultural fear of transit has nothing to do with safety, or socio-economic condition, or any of the other symptoms that critics wage at transit. Our fear has to do with being stranded somewhere without any way of getting around. The flexibility that you have with a car, and don’t with our local transit is enough to keep anyone from riding.
What we need are abundant lines, and more frequent stops that are close to where people can walk to them (not more than a five minute walk!)
My favorite line from this article comes from the head of the Expressway Authority Javier Rodriguez, ”I think we’d be doing great — not just good, but great — if we could get 4 percent transit usage across South Florida.”
Riggggght. Hey guys at the Herald, next time you do a story on transit try to get someone from the Transit Agency to give you a quote, not the head of the Expressway Authority!
Aww jeeez.
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.
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.
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.
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.