As congestion chokes Miami-Dade, transit on ballot as officials ponder Metromover to FIU

MIAMI – Advocates say Miami-Dade voters have a choice on the Aug. 20 ballot.

“More highways, more congestion, or a new option?” Mark Merwitzer, with Transit Alliance Miami, said.

A measure on the primary ballot includes a non-binding question about expanding rapid transit in the county, specifically the existing Metromover and Metrorail systems.

It comes as choking congestion prompts county commissioners to look at elevated rail along the county’s East-West Corridor: a Metromover expansion along Flagler Street to Florida International University.

“The number one complaint about quality of life in Miami-Dade County is the traffic,” Merwitzer said. “Traffic is a nightmare and public transit is the solution to that.”

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins summed it up thusly: “People are trapped in traffic.”

“We, as most of us know, do not have a good solution to the congestion out in the western edge of our county,” she said. “Our busiest bus routes happen to be on Flagler Street, alot of people are riding it, but if you start in downtown (Miami) and take it to 107th Avenue to FIU you are (spending) an hour and half on that bus.”

Higgins said her colleagues have unanimously supported a partnership with the Florida Department of Transportation, which maintains Flagler, to build the elevated people mover system out to FIU.

“FIU is a giant place, not just a place where people go to study, but where people go to work,” she said. “During the day in the middle of the school year there could be 100,00 people on that campus, so reducing congestion along that corridor makes it better for students, makes it better for workers and it better connects the folks that live out west with jobs that happen to be in downtown or closer to perhaps the Gables.”

Higgins also pointed out that there are “a ton of other things along Flagler, not too far from Marlins Park, not too far from the new headquarters building for Miami-Dade County.”

She said once the “spine” of the project is in place, the county is thinking of ways to add short connections to the system, perhaps by trolley or bus, to stops nearby, like downtown Doral.

FDOT, Higgins said, is expected to come back “in a few months with that they think this could look like and what it would cost.”

“We have a lot of space in the median to go down the center with elevated stations,” she said. “Metromover makes sense over Metrorail because (the trains) are a little thinner and they have rubber tires, so they are quieter and the structure does not require as must concrete as big, heavy loud trains require, so that is what FDOT is looking into .”

County Commission Chair Oliver Gilbert III was recently on Local 10′s “This Week in South Florida” to talk about the transit ballot measure.

“Ultimately if we are going to develop along corridors, high rises, density to bring down housing costs, ultimately if we are gong to move people from the far reaches of this county ultimately it is going to be by rail,” Gilbert said. “We are the largest urbanized area in the state of Florida, the capital of this part of the hemisphere, but to truly be a world class community, we have to invest in rapid mass transit.”

Higgins told Local 10 News, “We need people to vote yes to signal to the commission that the people of Miami-Dade County are loudly and proudly for transportation solutions to give us the political power we need to move forward.”

“We have four great corridors we are in the middle of planning for and we need to make sure they go quickly we need to tell our federal partners that you are behind us because we are applying for federal money for these projects as well,” she said.

Merwitzer defined his organization’s support for expanded transit as being about providing a choice that many South Florida residents realistically don’t have.

“It is not about forcing people out of their vehicles to go to different places,” he said. “It is about giving people the option to go somewhere on their own time and on their own terms.”

Car costs, he noted, are chaining people down financially.

“Auto loan rates are the highest right now as (they have) ever been, our insurance rates are almost as high as ever, plus the cost of owning a vehicle and housing is about 60% of median income for Miami-Dade County, 60% of their household budget, which is why households fall into debt because leaves little left for food, medical expenses,” Merwitzer said.

Higgins said she’s optimistic about the future of transportation alternatives in the county.

“The South Corridor (bus rapid transit) opens next April, the Northeast Corridor (commuter rail) will be under construction the end of next year,” she said. “We will have the North Corridor (Metrorail) and Baylink (Metromover) in process to finish the engineering and in the meantime we have Flagler off and running with the state. It is an exciting time. I think our commission is committed to not just talking about transit but doing something about it.”

Miami Beach officials have pushed back on Metromover expansion to traffic-clogged South Beach, however, the county does not need their approval for the project.

The city is testing a new ferry service that connects downtown Miami with Sunset Park on the northern end of South Beach.