Getting around South Florida without a car is a near impossibility. Not having an automobile out here is basically being relegated to second class citizenship. Miami’s public transit infrastructure is shit and it feels like it was purpose made for a horrible user experience.
Take for instance the fact that most of our bus and trolley stops dont have shelters or roofs of any kind to provide shade from the unforgiving Miami sun or respite from its torrential deluges. Or the fact that there is only one dedicated bus lane in the entire county. And even that isnt something to be proud of since it was supposed to have been converted into rail service decades ago until that plan got scuttled.
And it isnt even like the Miami driving experience is a dream. People in Miami drive like maniacs and we have some of the most dangerous roads in the country for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists alike. We are also infamous for our incidents of road rage which go viral regularly. But most of us are still forced to drive and silo ourselves from one another on the daily because of it.
The limited options for movement in Miami means that poor and working people, already pushed to the margins of society, are further marginalized. The dearth of public transit options is an growing threat to the metro’s long-term viability. As our increasingly expensive city forces out people who provide essential services we forgot were so essential after the COVID pandemic was put in the rear-view. By forcing them to pay the automobile tax required to live here, they seek greener pastures away from here.
It’s also a form of discrimination against so many of our most vulnerable neighbors who are the ones forced to bear the brunt of our short sighted transit plans. We let our elders, who cant drive due to age; or our children who use public transit to get to and from school; or our disabled neighbors who need transit as a vital connection to access the world, be the ones who have to sit in the sweltering heat or in torrential downpours simply to get around.
For young adults our failure to have a comprehensive transit plan also isolates them from jobs and opportunities outside of their immediate area. And if the options in a given zip code aren’t great, neither are the prospects for making a way out.
For many South Floridians the car is a symbol of freedom. A key to unlock the vast roads and explore the country. This idea was incepted into the American psyche by years of open road propaganda funded by the auto industry. As a result, we dont typically recognize that cars can make us less free in many ways. Because if having a car is a prerequisite for freedom of movement, then not having a car is by definition a limitation of freedom.
Many New Miamians from abroad lean into this hyper-American stereotype to assimilate, so they buy cars. Many times cars that are out of their price range. It’s why there’s a well worn trope about broke Miamians driving brand new beemers but living at home with their parents or in tiny efficiencies. Unfortunately, they’ve bought in to believing that the new car is freeing them to explore the world when it may actually be restricting their ability to save money and time.
To be fair, with a little prodding many of these same people will typically agree that their cars can also be balls and chains on their budgets and free time. But the truth is that aren’t better options for moving around so they are stuck.
Miamians have been complaining about hour long commutes for the last thirty years.
In 2002, Miami-Dade county voters passed a half-cent sales tax increase to add nearly 90 miles of transit lines and double the bus fleet (after a similar one cent tax proposal was defeated in 1999). Long-time Miami residents know all too well that the county took most of the billions in raised revenue and used it to build roads for cars under the argument that wider and more roads mean more freedom in the good ol’ USA.
Despite this ugly history there have been some recent signs for hope on the horizon. Tri-rail, the tri-county area’s commuter rail line, is seeing some of the highest ridership in its history. It also finally completed the long awaited arrival to downtown Miami without the need for a transfer at one of its other stations. The Busway is getting rail like stops and preferential right of way. There are also transit communities rising at Metro Rail stops throughout the county increasing demand for transit and shifting people’s thinking away from believing that a car is required to live a complete life in Miami. Just last year, Dade county voters overwhelmingly voted in favor of expanding transit.
It wouldn’t be Florida though if these shoots of hope springing up weren’t also being trampled by Ron DeSantis’ white boots. Even though Tri-Rail is the only viable option for accessible intra-county travel without a car, it may meet a 2027 demise. That’s because the feds and the state have cut budgets under the Big Dumbass Bill, thus endangering Tri-Rail’s funding.
As with so many other ironies in our tropical backwater, Republicans’ claims of being the party of “freedom” ring hollow. Killing Tri-Rail would be another example of conservative priorities squelching people’s access to fundamental freedoms. Their “Free State of Florida” bullshit actually resulted in people’s freedom to privacy, association, and religion being taken. Now they are coming for people’s freedom of movement.
Expanding public transit is generally considered to be a progressive pipe dream. But Florida is interesting in that many progressive ideas have passed with heavy majorities when put to a popular vote. In the last few election cycles its meant Floridians voted for minimum wage increases, civil rights restoration for for former felons and medical marijuana legalization. Instead of respecting the will of the people, the Republicans the same electorate put in power do everything limit those expansions of rights. So they dont ever become reality.
What this means practically is that most Floridians and Miamians understand what is in their benefit, even if they cant think critically enough to realize they also elect the people who do everything to stop the progress they have decided they deserve. Florida Democrats, of course, are too busy shooting off their own dicks to educate the people on this dichotomy. The media is also too concerned with horse-race coverage to ever get deep into the weeds with well researched bodies of work to get this news out to the people.
So if we want better public transit to make a better more fair and less expensive city to live in, we need to do the educating ourselves. The desire is evident and the need even more so. We just need to get out of our cars and into city and county hall to demand what we deserve.