The short return to MIA

This post is over a month late and I’m only writing it to procrastinate on all the reading I should be doing but here it goes anyway.

 

I spent the holidays in Miami! To be more specific I spent two weeks in wonderful sunny Miami, escaping the cold winds and the awful crowds that gather in Madrid’s city center.

Upon my arrival one of the things I wanted to do most was ride the bus, I know, I know, why would I torture myself in this way? Well I was thinking that some things might have changed and that time heals all wounds therefore maybe my time away would make me see MDT with fresh eyes. Well, it didn’t.

The first bus I rode was good ol’ number 51 because I needed to go Downtown. I went to the bus stop and it had not changed one bit.

the same bus stop and the same disregard for the comfort of the riders waiting.

This reminds me that there was a study in Minnesota about how the built environment around bus stops affects the waiting time perceived by riders; meaning that their study found that more polluted and trafficked environments increased the perceived waiting time of riders vs. their actual observed waiting time (look! just read the article HERE). Flagler is not the ideal street to wait for the bus because there are many cars passing by, honking, pollution; when it rains the cars splash you and on top of all that the bus stop I usually use is next to a gas station that smells 100% like clean energy. But I digress…

I waited about five minutes for the bus, the luck was on my side, and the moment the doors open to the bus I was greeted by the same faces that have been riding the bus for so many years. Specifically, there is a man that rides the number 11 and the number 51 bus everyday at all hours of the day. He is harmless and actually helpful most times. The man spends his time yelling out the next stop, indicating riders how to check-in correctly and yelling at the bus driver to open the back door (all this in English and Spanish, of course because bilingual town). Look, I love the man but the fact that he is doing the job that could be done by a voice over announcement and that he is not getting paid is simply insulting.

Freshly arrived from the buses of Madrid, a place where almost everyone rides public transportation, it was difficult not to notice how much I was standing out just because I didn’t look like I was having the life drained out of me by an exhausting underpaid job and MDT. I will admit that when I lived in Miami I chose to ride public transportation because I think it should be a viable alternative to cars but it was also clear to me that many people on buses don’t do it out of just choice but out of necessity.

And it is that point of public transportation as a necessity that I want to highlight. There is a hashtag (#SolveMIAtransit) going around social media started by The New Tropic and while it is useful for this discussion to become viral and to get people buzzing about the topic is it also as important or even more important to involve those already using MDT. The majority of these people are probably not connected through social media and many don’t even speak English. Sure it is much easier to just ask in social media and call it a day or only interview “movers and shakers” of the city but they won’t give you a full account of the realities of public transportation, neither will the viejitas on the bus but that does not mean they shouldn’t be included.

Moving forward the discussion around Miami transit should be more inclusive and encourage disenfranchised groups to participate in the process because they also have a stake in the future of Miami.

 

All that said I am now back in the quaint little town of Utrecht and I’ve been reunited with my bicycle and all the shitty weather the Netherlands has to offer.

Transportation in South Florida

The Sunshine Economy show from WLRN made a great episode about the Transportation in South Florida. LINK

Many of the same topics continue to be a struggle for the transportation system in South Florida, a region that is heavily defined by its geography and its historical development.

Mayor Carlos Gimenez wants to focus on mobility. Although public transportation was at the forefront of much of the conversation, Mayor Gimenez wanted everyone to remember that even if Miami has the best public transportation system, ever, that most people will still drive and therefore we need to improve the road and the mobility of cars as well.

The problem with his analysis of the issue is that drivers won’t change their mode of transport if you don’t improve the system significantly and discourage the use of cars. The proposal for optimization of traffic lights on the ten most traveled corridors is fine but it will in no way reduce the amount of cars driving. It seems obvious that what the county should be doing is encouraging people to switch by making the public transportation, fast, reliable, and attractive.

From the perspective of a rider, I am very happy to hear that they are implementing a bus tracking system and that the Miami Transportation App now has a plan your route option (although I think it always had it -_-). However this does not take away from the fact that the buses are still late, that most bus stops don’t have shelter, that there are roaches everywhere, and that the system is not viable as a commuting option for many people because if you miss one bus the next might take anywhere between 5-60+ minutes to arrive. I want to encourage those in leadership to think about how users experience public transportation and how that experience can be improved.

If you have happier users there is a thing called word-of-mouth that might just catapult those ridership numbers. Mobility is more than getting to your destination faster and more efficiently, it is also about ease, experiences, safety, memories, and ultimately people.

Polycentric Transportation Systems

Lately I’ve been reading about alternative forms of transportation. I think it wouldn’t be wrong to say that in the US the main form of mobility is the single-occupancy vehicle. In fact, getting your driver’s licence at 16 has become a sort of rights of passage and most people I know own a car, some because they want to but others because they have to.

This is where I confess that I strongly dislike a system of transportation based around the car and that I am also an incredibly stubborn person. For these reasons, and also because I am lazy, I never got my license and I also never owned a car. Now that I live in the Netherlands I’m in a city where the car is not really necessary, although it would be nice when moving from one house to another. I just dragged my giant suitcase through cobblestones again and it was, yet again,  not fun.

Monocentric transportation systems, usually those centered around the car leave people without the financial capacity to own a car stranded and without many options for mobility. This is the case with Miami, right? The car is king and given preference in plans for transportation; highways cut through major historical neighborhoods (see Overtown) often times isolating citizens; the public transport is ill-distributed (some areas are only serviced by one bus route and the wait times can be outrageous, while others are not even served at all); alternative modes of transportation, such as bicycles, are not being developed to their full extend, and bicycle lanes… sorry what bicycle lanes? Miami has a long way to go before it can achieve a polycentric system of transportation that incorporates all forms of mobility in a cohesive way, because unless you live in Downtown, Brickell, or the Beach and plan to stay there, you really need a car.

NOW that I ranted about Miami I noticed some oddities in Utrecht when it comes to incorporating different forms of mobility into a cohesive plan. Compared to Miami, there is really no comparison, this city is littered with bike lanes, that take you anywhere, and most times access by walking, cycling, or public transit is faster than by car. The hiccups I’ve notice arise when you want to switch from one mode to another. While walking-to-cycling is easy to do, just get on your bike and you can park almost anywhere, cycling-to-train and cycling-to-bus presents a bigger challenge.

To incorporate biking and trains you have a couple of options: you can bike to the train station, park your bike and get on the train, but what if your commute after the train is not within walking distance?

1. Then you can take the bus (which might not leave you as close to your destination as you would like).
2. You can get a membership to OV-fiets, a shared bike ride service in which you pay an annual fee (€ 10) and then rent per day from designated stations around the city (€ 3.15 per day). The bike includes a lock and you can take it anywhere as long as you return it within 72 hours.
3. You can pay to bring your bike on the train but then you need to “buy a Bicycle Day Ticket (Dagkaart Fiets), which costs € 6.00, you can only take your bicycle with you on the train outside peak hours, which are 06.30 to 09.00 and 16.30 to 18.00 on weekdays” (NS).
4. The last option is to buy one of those collapsible commuter bikes, for those you don’t need to pay the Bicycle Day Ticket but they are also not very cheap.

For me not of these options sound ideal, they are all kind of inconvenient and reduce accessibility for some people, especially considering how expensive the train is already, having to pay extra for a bike or renting one at destination just sucks.

With buses I feel like they have the same issue, if you choose to ride the bus to a destination then you must also ride the bus back to your base because the bike-to-bus connection is not really there. You can park your bike by many bus stations but you can’t take your bike on the bus, or at least I’ve never seen one. This is where I wish the buses here had those grills in the front where you can place your bike, like the ones in Miami. Although I am sure that would make them late and it would be very upsetting for the driver and the passengers to not be on time. BE ON TIME!

Did this rant make sense? I hope it did… basically no country has their transport system figured out and just two days ago there were train delays in some parts of the country and essentially the whole network collapsed and everyone was crying about it on Facebook, but in Dutch so I didn’t really understand.

Art Basel Time

December in Miami means Art Basel. They go together like a shake being used as dip for french fries (it’s a strange combination but a lot of people swear by it, not me). The city becomes filled with artsy tourist, celebrities, assistants, and Brooklyn hipsters (I know cause I watched Bravo’s Gallery Girls). A lot of galleries in Wynwood will update inventory and once again bring out the free booze to entice the audiences. There are also more parties than people during this time and only cyborgs with teletransportation can make it to all the events.

If you are a regular human being, like me, the best thing would be to leave your car behind and use public transit. That way you will be able to avoid the bumper car game that is Miami traffic.

Trolley Trolls:
Fortunately for us all the City of Miami Beach and the Downtown Development Authority have teamed up to create a trolley route so you can make it to your destination without the car stress.

The trolley will operate Wednesday through Saturday from 11:00 AM to 10:00 PM and until 8:00 PM on Sunday. Expect a trolley every hour on the hour, bam! “The designated trolley stops will be located at Midtown Boulevard/29th Street in Miami and at Washington Avenue in front of the Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason in Miami Beach.” (CBS Local)

For the $$$$:
Just kidding but if you have $2.25 to spare for every ride please consider using public transit. There are some great routes that connect Miami Beach with the humble Miami mainland. Let me break them down for you:
Route C: from Downtown bus terminal and Adrienne Arsht Center to 44th and Collins, via Washington then Collins once you pass Lincoln Road. It stops running at 10:00 PM though, boo!
Route M: Get on at the Adrienne Arsht Center and if you fall asleep you might end up at the Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Nice panoramic view of the hell we call Alton Road until Lincoln Road then it rides through Collins. Be careful cause it stops running at around 9:00 PM!
Route S: My favorite route cause it runs 24 hrs! You might have to wait an hour for the bus between 1 and 4 AM but at least your drunk ass will get out of Miami Beach. It goes from the Downtown bus terminal to Aventura Mall, ~*make your own adventure*~, via Alton Road and then Indian Creek Drive.
Route 120: if you are in a hurry then an express bus is what you need. Look! Here comes the 120 not stopping anywhere. It stops running by 10:00 PM so you better be on guard.
Route 2: Honorable mention to route 2 if you want to make it to Wynwood by bus this is the best way to go from Downtown Miami.

For local Miami Beach buses check the Miami Dade Transit website cause I am not familiar with anything on that island, this is a blog not a serious journal man!.

People Running for the Bus in Slow Motion

I too run for the bus, but in regular motion… I feel your pain.

This reminds of the last time I did some major running… I was leaving work and just wanted to go home when I saw the bus arriving at the station so I started to run. I caught up with the bus when it was at the red light, but not yet out of the station, and then the bus driver wouldn’t open the door for me and the other lady who were begging her to let us in. I was so determined to get on that bus that I followed it and eventually caught up with it four blocks away from the original incident. I get on the bus, swipe my card and the bus driver, who was outside having a break, comes in a tells me I need to swipe again because she wasn’t there. The card of course comes up void now and she claims that maybe I just didn’t have any funds, at which point of course I lose my cool and morph into a mean monster so I said “maybe if you weren’t outside talking to your friend you would know that I already swiped it.” She of course wasn’t having my sass so she snaps back and we have a shouting session in the bus which concludes with me saying “I’VE BEEN RIDING THE BUSES TEN YEARS AND YOU KNOW WELL ENOUGH THAT IF I MISS THIS BUS I HAVE TO WAIT AGES FOR THE NEXT!!”

the end, cool story bro.