The Case for Better Bus System Design in Miami-Dade

"Transit Alliance Miami is busy making the county’s route network more efficient so that the bus won’t be considered the mode of last resort," according to an article by Linda Robertson.

"The Alliance, a nonprofit organization advocating for improved mobility and public transit, finished the first phase of its Better Bus Project on Friday and found that the critical choice facing transit planners and bus passengers boils down to frequency versus coverage. Should the network provide waiting times of 15 minutes or less or serve every corner of the sprawling county?"

According to Robertson's summary of the report, transit service is far from frequent or useful to most of the county's residents: "only five county routes have a bus arriving every 15 minutes or less during midday; most routes involve a minimum 30-minute wait. Although 60 percent of residents are near transit service, only 6 percent are near frequent transit service."

Jarrett Walker + Associates prepared the "Better Bus Project Choices Report" [pdf] for the Transit Alliance Miami and Miami-Dade’s Department of Transportation and Public Work. Walker followed the news article by Robertson with a blog post to describe some of the unique challenges facing the Miami-Dade bus transit system and any potential system redesign project.

Robertson concludes with a description of next steps for a possible system redesign for Miami-Dade County: "In the next phase of the Better Bus Project, the Transit Alliance will conduct another survey, hold more community workshops and present two network concepts in September."