I’ve been waiting for this moment, probably for too long; it arrived rather uncerimoniously as I passed the Chevron at 72nd Av. on SW 24th Street in the unincorporated neighborhood of Westchester. Now, I’ve seen diesel being sold at $4.25 or so for at least the last month, but until this morning, I had not seen gasoline selling at more than $4.00 per gallon. That all came to an end as I noted the price of self-service premium at $4.09. I, on the other hand, paid a paltry $3.859 per gallon for self-service regular. It still cost $72.00 to fill up the tank on my mini-van.
Has anyone else out there experienced this soon-to-be usual sighting?
according to http://www.miamigasprices.com
$4.05 – Chevron – West Palm Beach – Fri, 6:45AM
1921 Okeechobee Blvd near I-95
$4.05 – Shell – Miami Beach – Thu, 8:35PM
1698 Alton Rd & 17th St
Yeah meanwhile the county commission is approving West-Dade sprawl that will inherently require an automobile to be used for every trip. Swell.
Let’s have a contest this summer for the first $5.00 sighting!
……i’m melting!!! melting!!!! melttinnnngggggggggggg
This post reminds me of a conversation I had with a county employee
who was in charge of the south corridor metrorail planning effort a few years back (2003 or 2004)…….He seemed a little discouraged, as though planning for the project was a waste of time, because he thought (correctly) that the project wouldn’t be built within our lifetimes….
At that time the feds were starting to cut back on FTA funds for similar projects, and the funds from the people’s Transportation half penny tax were being spent in a hundred different directions, on everything BUT metrorail.
I tried to tell them that things might change, and provide an opportunity to seek additional funding for the project….He asked, what could change? I said, $3.00 a gallon gas, for a start……(Gas was below $2.00 at the time) He just shrugged, as though that were an equally remote possibility….
It’s time we start letting our county commissioners know that the must make new Metrorail lines their first priority, and simply go back to the projects promised by the People’s Transportation Plan….
Cut out all the municipal transit shares, cut out all the road projects, cut it down to new Metrorail Lines and Bus service, and allocate the funds for only those 2 purposes. Put the MDX (Miami dade expressway authority) in charge of overseeing the spending, and
planning the Metrorail lines, let Miami-Dade Transit handle the bus lines and planning for same, but let them answer to the MDX board to make sure that the spend it on bus routes that people use.
And, don’t get me started about the toy train projects (Miami streetcar and Baylink) and how useless they would be, except as excuses not to build the Metrorail lines we need………
Dave,
You make some decent points, but you’re wrong to call Bay Link and the Miami Streetcar “toy train projects”. The Orange Line (North Corridor) is projected to cost $1.3 billion and forecast to have approximately 4 million boardings a year. Bay Link was projected to cost $500 million (less than half the price of the North Corridor)and was forecast to have 5 million boardings a year. Bay Link would be connecting the economic anchors and largest growth centers of South Florida, downtown Miami and South Beach. By connecting with Metrorail, it would also provide the missing rail transit link between South Beach and MIA (assuming Earlington Heights connector is built). With this in mind, I wonder how you can justify your point about it being a “toy train”.
The Miami Streetcar is an apples and orange scenario because it would be paid for by the City of Miami. Even then, it’s only projected to cost $200 million and is forecast to have 2-3 million boardings annually, which is certainly competitive with any Metrorail extension in South Florida. Oh and don’t forget that Bay Link and the Miami Streetcar would have significantly lower operating costs than a Metrorail extension.
Obviously I’m a strong proponent of the two major Metrorail expansion projects, but Bay Link should have gone first while the MDT focused on bringing Metrorail up to a state of good repair.
Ryan, If a lower price tag is your standard of value, then why not just stick with express bus service? By the Baylink consultant’s own projections, riding Baylink would have been not a minute faster than riding the bus routes that already serve South Beach from Government Center. Ask any transit rider of choice, and they’ll tell you that they choose transit over a car because ITS QUICKER.
People ride metrorail downtown from dadeland and South Miami because ITS QUICKER. It doesn’t get stuck in traffic. And, as I’ve posted before, it’s not for nothing that Metrorail costs five times more than a streetcar, it can move up to ten times the number of people in a given timeframe, at up to twice the speed.
Imagine being able to ride a train to or from South Beach and MIA, in about 20 minutes.
Or, imagine taking the Baylink from South Beach to Government Center (20 minutes) taking the stairs from ground level to the Metrorail platform (5 minutes) and waiting from 5 to 15 minutes for a Meterorail train, and another 15 minutes to MIA. 20 minutes versus almost an hour, and no changing trains, and no detour thru Government Center, a place one avoids after dark if they have any common sense.
The transit needs of Miami-Dade County now, and in coming decades justify the admittedly obscene cost of Full-Metro heavy rail, and with the possible exception of the Northeast/ FEC corridor, even a dedicated right of way light rail system like the London DLR wouldn’t do the job. WE NEED SPEED as well as capacity, and you only get it with Metrorail.
And, not for nothing, I might accept the above ridership projections for Baylink, (which are, after all about a fifth of Metrorail’s current ridership) but 2 to 3 million people a year riding between downtown and the design district? Maybe by 2050, after another 20,000 condos are built within a quarter mile walk, but no time soon, you can take that to the bank.
I agree that Heavy Rail is preferable in an ideal world, but I think gas is going to have to reach more like $6/gallon before we even consider more funding for even light rail. Also, because our citizens seem to have about 1-2 inches of foresight, I can imagine all gasoline taxes being repealed more easily than I can any transit funding being approved.
Hello Transit Miami,
I also agree with Dave’s point of view on this issue. I never liked the idea of the Bay Link street cars. I feel as if though it is more of an artistic choice than an efficient transit choice. Riding from downtown miami to miami beach on metro rail seems more efficient (as dave has pointed out) than riding in some crappy historic looking art deco bus decorated with possible wire hangers.
Even if they argued that the bay link would have it’s own empty separate lane to use i would still be against it.
as for Miamian’s not thinking 1 – 2 inches ahead of themselves… I disagree with the idea that Miamian’s are so blind that they can’t see 1-2 inches of foresight in front of themselves. Instead, I blame the lack of overall awareness that people have about mass transit in general, and the mass transit problems in Miami. I continue to believe that this site has so much potential power in creating awareness, and action towards the metrorails of tomorrow. I am always spreading the link out to people that I come across, maybe targeting the people who stand on the metro-rail station platforms would help unify a community of people who want to see mass transit flourish in Miami.
Create awareness, unite, and make those in charge listen to us seems like a better plan for Miami than watching it slowly rot in a poorly run mass transit system.
[...] site here. But most important of all, get on your bicycle this week and rest easy about the near $4/gallon gas prices because you won’t need to fill up as soon. Take that, Big [...]
Starting this weekend I’ve seen very few places where premium is UNDER $4 a gallon. I’ve seen several where mid-grade is now at or above $4 in Kendall. Don’t know what happened to make prices jump so high this weekend?
I disagree completely with the above poster, Eliot. The concept that a streetcar is some old-fashioned looking crappy art deco bus decorated with possible wire hangers is the clarion call for those uninformed about streetcars. They are a modern transit type that is prevelant throughout Europe and is starting to become prevelant throughout the United States as well.
With regard to Baylink, the idea is that the system would operate within traffic through downtown Miami and through South Beach, but would have its own right-of-way for the trip between the two locations. A metrorail extension to Miami Beach is not only impractical (making a 90-degree turn for example would take up almost half the width of South Beach) but overly expensive. Not only does Baylink scale down a lot of the property demands, it offers a greater chance for expandability in the future, both because of the relatively inexpensive nature and because of the flexibility the platform offers.
Just so this is not a completely negative post directed towards Eliot, I do agree that this site could be a unifying force in the fight against not only poorly run transit agencies, but poor planning as well. I also agree that the problem is awareness in Miami. Of all the people I have spoken with, 99% want metrorail to go down Kendall drive, but only a handfull of those people could actually make it to any of the meetings to voice their concerns. The end result of that was a league of homeowners associations shut down the idea because it didn’t mesh with the ideas of a handful of people. I do feel that Miamians can see the 1-2 inches ahead of them, I just feel that the county commission gets distracted by the developers dangling the money off to the side.
Please don’t misunderstand me, I like streetcars and light rail systems, in their proper environments. (see my article on London’s DLR)
I just feel strongly that, with the very limited resources available for new transit projects in Miami Dade, we need the projects that will move the most people, the quickest from point A to point B. And, I strongly believe that the Miami streetcar and Baylink would be a poor substitutes for Metrorail, and would represent only marginal improvements over the bus service in place today.
It’s about setting prioities, and the leadership of MD county has a dismal track record where transit is concerned. That should be the focus, getting our political leaders to MAKE building a world-class metro system a top priority. Then, and only then, will we start to see progress. The first step is a 30 year plan to build a county wide metrorail system, with the Orange line being first priority, with the next project (say the south corridor) in the planning pipeline should there be any delays in building the Orange line.
Looking ahead for a moment,surely the rising cost of fuel will create some action from the federal government to increase Federal funding for mass transit, just as happended in the 1970′s.
The question is, will Miami-Dade be positioned to take advantage of this opportunity, or will we have no coherent plan to build our metro system? Other cities surely will be ready to take the funding we lose out on, which is why there needs to be a plan in place.
In reply to Steven’s post about the metrorail on Kendall Dr: The situation with the metrorail down kendall dr and the baylink are actually identical. Remember that Baylink was opposed by the local neighborhood groups and homeowners associations and professional commission meeting attenders (can’t think of anything else to call them). They were able to delay the project until it got dropped by the county, once it was basically dead they relented and allowed a vote on the issue and of course the actual people of Miami Beach overwelmingly supported Baylink. The metrorail in Kendall is the same thing, the vast majority of residents want it but those who speak loudest do not want it.
no offense taken, baylink street cars, or metro rail just build!
While I think Steven does an excellent job articulating the transit niche Bay Link would serve, I think it’s important that as transit advocates we don’t get caught up bickering over which mode we like the best. The sad reality is that there’s only a handful of transit projects in Miami-Dade that have made it to the advanced planning stages in recent years, and I think it’s critical that we support all of them.
Making constructive points about how each of the proposed projects would function the best (e.g. route alignment, station location, urban design, funding strategies, etc) is something I’d rather focus on at this juncture.
I read similar article also named | Transit Miami, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me