South Florida Transportation Part II

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by kevinkagy

Here's the article. Thoughts?

The essential thing in that story is the revelation of an actual federal deadline with this stuff (which usually is 'needle in a haystack' information that's very hard to find). Once again, good reporting by the Herald.

The bad news is that the deadline is August...eight weeks from now...and clearly neither the county or MDTA will be able to provide what the feds are looking for in order to qualify for any additional Metrorail funding.

I think we may be looking at the endgame with Metrorail expansion, fellas. Another tax hike was an obvious loser at the polls but now that even a fare increase has been tabled (something the feds obviously had as a financial prerequisite) the picture gets pretty bleak. I was holding out some hope that at least the North Extension might be cobbled together with some creative financing but even that no longer seems feasible. Most likely, it'll be the MIC extension and that's it.

That sucks...BIG time...but do you guys at least see why I've been harping on MDTA and these political clowns down there to get their heads out of their asses for so long? It wasn't being "negative" about the situation, it was being realistic.

I want things to HAPPEN down there on the transit front rather than all these reversals and disappointments and it's abundantly clear that Metrorail expansion (at least on a level that would make it viable) is not in the works. There needs to be a tidal wave of fresh ideas...a cleansing of the entire agency along with their political enablers. Miami needs to get thinking NOW about proactive, cost-efficient solutions like light-rail rather than continuing any more of this dead end charade with Metrorail. If they don't, I think you'll see nothing more than a LOT more buses on the streets and even an eventual mothballing of most Metrorail services. The current situation IS that bad and the thinking about solutions has to change dramatically.

[Songoten2554]

i know we have to focus on Light Rail alternatives but it makes it seems that we are losers somehow.

its werid how other cities in europe and such as big and popular as Miami has Metro systems of their own and they are expanding yet Miami is in the down of Mass Transit.

i know Miami is a new city that is almost a 100 years but it had mass transit before it had Streetcars and such why did it just vansihed so quickly and why did this happened?

and also with Los Angeles that used to be the Mecca of Mass Transit it had the famous Red cars where you can travel anywhere with just a nickel (saw some info in it from the movie who framed Rodger Rabbit good movie by the way) but still its sad to see that Los Angeles too suffered the same fate as Miami did and now Los Angeles is coming back big time?

[ftlauddude]

TRI-RAIL POSTS SECOND HIGHEST RIDERSHIP DAY EVER ON JUNE 2

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority announced that yesterday, on June 2, Tri-Rail carried 16,319 passengers, making it the second highest ridership day in Tri-Rail history. That number of riders was exceeded only by the 18,452 passengers carried the day the Miami Heat celebrated their National Basketball Association championship on June 23, 2006.

“Tri-Rail’s unprecedented ridership growth has truly become a national news story,” said SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti.

In recent weeks, Tri-Rail’s 28 percent ridership increase in April 2008 over the same month in 2007 has been reported by the The New York Times and USA Today, as well as on The Today Show, CNN, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and internationally on Noticiero Univision.

A large percentage of the ridership growth is attributable to increased membership in the Employer Discount Program. Last month, 55 new employers and 861 new employees joined the program, so that members can enjoy unlimited rides on Tri-Rail for just $60 a month. For information about how to join the EDP, call 1-800-TRI-RAIL (874-7245).

Source:http://www.tri-rail.com/announcements.htm#list47

[kevinkagy]

Originally Posted by ftlauddude

TRI-RAIL POSTS SECOND HIGHEST RIDERSHIP DAY EVER ON JUNE 2

The South Florida Regional Transportation Authority announced that yesterday, on June 2, Tri-Rail carried 16,319 passengers, making it the second highest ridership day in Tri-Rail history. That number of riders was exceeded only by the 18,452 passengers carried the day the Miami Heat celebrated their National Basketball Association championship on June 23, 2006.

“Tri-Rail’s unprecedented ridership growth has truly become a national news story,” said SFRTA Executive Director Joseph Giulietti.

In recent weeks, Tri-Rail’s 28 percent ridership increase in April 2008 over the same month in 2007 has been reported by the The New York Times and USA Today, as well as on The Today Show, CNN, ABC World News with Charles Gibson, NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams and internationally on Noticiero Univision.

A large percentage of the ridership growth is attributable to increased membership in the Employer Discount Program. Last month, 55 new employers and 861 new employees joined the program, so that members can enjoy unlimited rides on Tri-Rail for just $60 a month. For information about how to join the EDP, call 1-800-TRI-RAIL (874-7245).

Source:http://www.tri-rail.com/announcements.htm#list47

It seems like every week Tri-Rail breaks ridership records, great news!

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by kevinkagy

It seems like every week Tri-Rail breaks ridership records, great news!

I know! I just want them to pass the 18,000-passenger barrier they have and only this time it won't be for free like that day MIA Heat won the championship! That increase in ridership will send a message to our "reps' in Tallahassee....I want to take it to go to work but with these rainy days i don't thik it will be a good idea...

[kevinkagy]

Tri-Rail was spared budget cuts and will continue running its trains every 15-20 minutes during rush hour! Great news for Tri-Rail that has increased ridership over 43% from last year from 10,800 a day to 15,500 a day, with that number breaking records every week. Imagine what ridership will be in a year from now, 20,000 a day? Now, they're considering raising its cheap fares.

From the Palm Beach Post:

Tri-Rail urged to hike fares
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localne...9/0619mpo.html

Also, news on Miami-Dade Transit from Miami Today:

Commissioners defer transit fixes until they have more info
http://www.miamitodaynews.com/news/080619/story1.shtml

[HARTride 2012]

It seems like all the transit agencies in Florida will have to up fares. Regardless of the fact that the agencies hate raising fares, it is inevitable this year due in part to the property tax rollback and loss of other revenue sources.

And for the busses, we can't forget the rising cost of gas.

[Andyxox]

I wouldn't mind paying more for a tri-rail ticket if they had some late night trains.

There's many times I would love taking the train to/from downtown WPB but I am limited by the relatively early hours it stops running at. They wouldn't have to run so often, maybe one every 2 hours or so, but just have something to bridge the 9pm-4am (6am on weekends) gap. Maybe have trains at 10:30p, 12:30a, and 2:30a (and 4:00a on weekends). Just a thought.

[spellbound]

The thing I'd like to see with Tri-Rail would be the eventual addition of express trains that bypass all but the major stations during heavier usage times. Of course, this would involve a pretty major expenditure since it would require extensive double-tracking but it would definitely make the system more attractive to a broader pool of people. Maybe someday.

Another would be extending the system to Jupiter...which may well be seeing the biggest population growth in the region in an era where it is largely slowing in the rest of the metro area. I think there's a significant amount of potential riders there who currently commute to WPB for work and use all three airports in the region on a regular basis. It's an untapped market right now.

[kevinkagy]

Originally Posted by spellbound

The thing I'd like to see with Tri-Rail would be the eventual addition of express trains that bypass all but the major stations during heavier usage times. Of course, this would involve a pretty major expenditure since it would require extensive double-tracking but it would definitely make the system more attractive to a broader pool of people. Maybe someday.

Another would be extending the system to Jupiter...which may well be seeing the biggest population growth in the region in an era where it is largely slowing in the rest of the metro area. I think there's a significant amount of potential riders there who currently commute to WPB for work and use all three airports in the region on a regular basis. It's an untapped market right now.

Tri-Rail has many "plans". They have the eastern corridor line to go on the FEC line through the area's main areas. Then they have a southern extension from MIA to Kendall as well as a northern extension from Mangonia Park to Jupiter and possibly into Martin County. Then, it'd be Quad-Rail. Of course, we know how transit is around here...

[Hia-leah JDM]

Why not extend it all the way to Homestead too, its growing faster than anyother area too. And would make it easier for alot of people down their.

[ftlauddude]

HOT lanes taking shape along I-95

BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
streetwise@MiamiHerald.com


Somebody forgot to tell the folks in the South Florida transportation business that these are supposed to be the slow, lazy days of summer.

Crews are furiously working to finish the first phase of a high-profile experiment that will transform the old, underused HOV lanes on Interstate 95 into the first variably priced High Occupancy Toll (HOT) facility in Florida.

Mammoth new signs, warning drivers of an upcoming tolling area, are up. Cameras and new electronic SunPass readers will be installed in the next couple of weeks.

[Speaking of SunPass -- the new $5 mini-tag transponders will go on sale Tuesday. A media event with Florida's Turnpike Executive Director Jim Ely is tentatively set for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Pompano Beach.]

By the second week of July, crews will be installing orange candlestick lane delineators that will create the barrier between the two ''express'' lanes and the four ''free'' general purpose ones.

A kickoff date is still to be determined. But Debora Rivera, who is managing the Miami-Dade portion of the project for the Florida Department of Transportation, says they are still aiming for late July to mid-August.

Here's how it will work: SunPass customers will have an option -- four lanes of ''free'' traffic or two ''express'' toll lanes with prices that vary depending on traffic.

The state will guarantee a 50 mph trip in the special lanes. If traffic is light, expect a 25-cent toll between downtown and the Golden Glades.

FDOT engineers are guessing it will probably rise as high as $2.50 during the peak of the p.m. weekday rush hours -- but it could go much higher if traffic isn't moving.

Owners of registered hybrids, carpools with three or more passengers, van pools, plus motorcycles, buses and emergency vehicles will be allowed to use the lanes for free.

Cameras will snap the license plates of vehicles that enter the tolling area without a SunPass transponder. Violations will be mailed to the registered owner.

Besides covering the construction costs, part of the toll revenue will be used to pay for additional Florida Highway Patrol and Road Ranger coverage on the corridor.

Phase 2 of the 95 Express program, which will create two express lanes on the southbound side between the Golden Glades and downtown Miami, is set to open in late 2009.

It will create a lot more headaches for commuters.

Crews are going to have to lift and elevate two bridges -- from westbound I-195 to southbound I-95, and from northbound I-95 to westbound State Road 112 (the Airport Expressway) -- and replace some support piers to create extra space on I-95.

UGLY PERIOD

Expect an ugly four-to-six-week period next spring of road closures and detours.

The work was originally scheduled for February and March, but Miami Beach leaders, in their typically measured, calm manner, threatened to tar and feather FDOT employees and contractors.

The folks on the beach had a valid point -- this time. Why create more bottlenecks at the height of the snowbird and tourist-fleecing season?

THIRD PHASE

The third phase of the project, which will create the express lanes in both directions from the Golden Glades up to I-595 in Broward, was set for 2010.

But that is now up in the air, thanks to politics.

Gov. Charlie Crist vetoed the Legislature's omnibus transportation bill earlier this month because it contained a tiny provision aimed at helping a constituent of House Speaker Rubio's who wants a shot at a lucrative turnpike service area contract.

Unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of us who actually use I-95 every day, the bill also gave the FDOT permission to sell bonds to pay for the Broward portion of 95 Express.

John Olson, who is managing the Broward segment of the project for FDOT, said the state is looking at several options.

''We're still trying to figure out what we're going to do,'' Olson said. ``The project isn't dead. We just need to look at all the different ways we might be able to create a funding source for it.''

RAMP METERS

The other bit of ''Life as You Know It Is About to Change'' news involves the ramp meters at the end of the I-95 entrance ramps.

Most of them have been sitting, with plastic bag coverings, since 2004 as FDOT dithered about rolling them out to a skeptical public.

FDOT will be putting a handful of these traffic signals into effect, only on the northbound ramps to I-95 from Northwest 62nd Street up to Northwest Second Avenue at the Golden Glades.

The signals are supposed to regulate the flow of traffic entering the expressway, making it safer to merge and reducing the number of accidents. Similar programs have proven effective on high-volume, congested expressways in places as varied as Chicago, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Seattle and Minneapolis.

Still, most South Floridians -- who've grown used to a community where red lights are treated as optional annoyances -- don't believe they will ever work.

But driver beware. The highway patrol will be watching. Run a red light, and pay the price. Traffic cameras will NOT be used to enforce the ramp meters for now.

Do you have a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410 or 954-764-7026, ext. 3410.

[brickell]

The man who fought the CSX diesel line now wants a guided busway on 137th Ave. I fail to see how this will affect even a small portion of those of us in Kendall.

Here's a good one from the comments section:
"Do you know what does everything a high-tech bus does and does it cheaper and better? An ordinary bus. And we have a bunch of those"

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miam...ry/586514.html

Originally Posted by The Herald

Guided busway proposed for Kendall
BY YUDY PINEIRO
After claiming victory last October when Miami-Dade elected officials stalled a controversial strategy that would have almost immediately brought diesel light-rail trains to Kendall, activist Eric Prince felt obligated to float an alternative transit option.

This is what he came up with: a guided busway, essentially a manned high-tech bus steered along a route -- usually on a dedicated track paralleling existing roads -- that enables it to make stops and turn onto traffic lanes as needed.

Prince, a fisheries scientist who led the charge against a controversial proposal to run a light-rail commuter train along the CSX railway from Metrozoo to Kendall Drive, presented his idea Wednesday at a Citizens Independent Transportation Trust meeting.

He showed a video about an existing guided busway in Adelaide, South Australia and clicked through a Powerpoint noting the benefits of such a system and comparing it to other transit options, focusing on the most controversial proposal -- diesel trains.

''High-tech buses can do virtually everything fixed trains do and can do it better and cheaper,'' Prince told the transit advisory board.

Talk has been around for years about how to broaden transit options for hundreds of thousands of West Kendall commuters who feel desperately trapped by traffic congestion along main east-west corridors such as Kendall Drive.

But discussion reached a critical point last year, when Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization, a transportation planning arm for the county, released a final draft of a two-year study considering transit strategies to ease Kendall roads.

Besides the contentious commuter train proposal, study recommendations included running dedicated bus lanes along Southwest 137th Avenue and Kendall Drive, and extending the Metrorail along Florida's Turnpike. Officials and homeowners most criticized the CSX train option for its low projected ridership, high cost and noise.

The noise settled somewhat after an MPO governing board adopted the controversial two-year transit strategy last October, but delayed implementing any options to allow further study.

Now Prince is suggesting the county consider a guided busway as part of those future studies.

He suggests running it along Southwest 137th Avenue's median.

The benefits of a guided busway, he said:

• Ridership can be adjusted as needed and starting costs would be half of a fixed rail system and maintenance a third of it.

• The high-tech buses make 90-degree turns, stop at intersections, and unlike express buses, wouldn't rob roads of left-turning lanes, exacerbating current traffic problems. A guided bus would run along the median until it narrows, where it can turn onto the street.

''This bus can get off the busway, turn left, or right. You know trains can't do that,'' Prince said.

• And it's quiet. No horns.

Most trust members sounded impressed. One member even suggested considering the guided busway as a transit option for more than just the Kendall area.

''If we could do this from north to south, that would be wonderful,'' Linda Zilber said.

[Songoten2554]

i don't like the guided busway idea i like the Diesel Light Rail i wonder why these people look at buses like its the future why avoid Rail honeslty its alot better then a bus for that corridor a Railway is way better and takes less space.

[kevinkagy]

Where does it go? It doesn't go anywhere significant but through residential areas. It seems pretty pointless. Now a light rail from FIU to Downtown along SW 8th St, sounds better.

[spellbound]

Unfortunately, without any light-rail initiatives we may see more and more of these busway proposals in the future. I'd really hope for a change of thinking at MDTA but there's no evidence of it at this point.

[brickellresidence]

oh man i need a light rail that goes to FiU to sunset mall and downtown. beacuse im going to school by the bus now but i prefer the light rail.and my mom said that if there's a light rail by Fiu she would let me go downtown anytime even im 13 year old!!!!

[kevinkagy]

Originally Posted by spellbound

Unfortunately, without any light-rail initiatives we may see more and more of these busway proposals in the future. I'd really hope for a change of thinking at MDTA but there's no evidence of it at this point.

Unfortunately, MDT lives in the 60's and is quite possibly the most inefficient transit system this side of the universe.

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by kevinkagy

Unfortunately, MDT lives in the 60's and is quite possibly the most inefficient transit system this side of the universe.

Transit agencies across the country are often badly mismanaged but agreed that few do it quite so routinely as MDTA. The scary thing is that they continue to push for Metrorail expansions that are now extremely unlikely to ever get federal funding without any semblance of a "Plan B" to offer as an alternative. A responsible agency would have an alternative light-rail vision to offer...one that would likely be viewed much more favorably by the feds...but they seem to have none. This is why I fear we may see nothing more than these clumsy "busway" inittiatives in the future. They simply aren't planning intelligently or realistically.

[brickell]

The plan for Kendall adopted by MPO was the Diesel light rail that would have taken the CSX tracks up to Kendall and then east to Dadeland. It was the Kendall Community groups and HOAs led by this fishy guy that put the quash on it.

This is HIS alternative, not one proposed by the county. The fact that it got good reviews (according to the article at least) disturbs me however.