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7 Responses to The Monkey Shuttle: Taking Over Where MDT Leaves Us Hanging
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Though I may be ignorant – but why does MDT leave “us” hanging? Are you arguing that MDT should be in the business of carrying small numbers of people around? That would be nice, but I can’t think of a whole lot of places offering that type of service, operated by a public agency. It’s a nice thing and potentially a good service. But I don’t know that I expect this from a transit agency. Rather, I would like the transit agency to connect people into places that would otherwise not be served.
Getting around Brickell can easily be achieved by walking / biking. Just a thought. If someone wants to put the money in place to do this, great. And I hope they succeed.
No, i am not ‘arguing’ that MDT should carry small numbers of people only that we need as service that is nimble, fast, on-demand – and accessible to the population. San Fran Muni, as an example, operates approximately 80 routes throughout San Francisco reaching to within 2 blocks of 90% of all residences in the city. Don’t know about you – but MDT is leaving me hanging. For cities like ours, with geographic challenges that make extending transit service everywhere impractical, having smaller fleets of on-demand transit service is an alternative that MDT still has not adopted. We already have STS service which provides an analogous system for the elderly or those with accessibility needs. The headline is a comment on how a similar service should be implemented around the county (not just in Brickell) for regular citizens because MDT can’t or hasn’t been able to do so. Doesnt have to be MDT – a private operator(s) would be great. That’s why Monkey shuttle takes over where MDT leaves US (the rest of the county that doesnt live within 1/2 mile of metrorail) hanging.
PS. Miami is bigger than Brickell.
Back in 2008 before cuts in service began, MDT had 3 or 4 routes running through Brickell including Route 24, B, 48. Because of what they call route duplication, the only bus I see going thru Brickell is the 24 which turns on SE 13th leaving the southern portion of the area unserved by Transit. In a city like Miami this can be frustrating. According to the TDP once these trolleys are in place, look to see more routes cut back. For example, when the Brickell and Coral Eay Trolleys start, route 24 will be truncated to end at Vizcaya or Brickell station and run limited stops on Coral Way after 37th ave to 12th ave in both directions.
Stuff like this pisses me off. Too many transfers reduce the usability of transit…
agreed
Agreed Mikey!
In the case of my bus the “B,” they cut the segment from Brickell station to downtown bus terminal because of the constant drawbridge delays, now only routes 8 and 24 cross the river. They encourage people to use metromover to make transfers, but it’s actually much slower than the bus, even with the drawbridge! Metromover takes 15 minutes to get from downtown to Brickell (including walking/stairs/elevators, and from Omni it’s more like 25 minutes). Doesn’t sound like much, but when the next bus you transfer to is running a 20-30 minute schedule, you often end up missing it by 5 minutes instead of waiting 5 minutes. Metrorail is not much better because of it’s 10-15 minute schedule. (Hopefully this gets better when (if?) they go back to 3 minute peak headway with airport link.)
The Metromover has an overall average of about 10 mph.
I don’t know about the product, but the guy using the monkey shuttle in the video is H-O-T hot.