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Transit Tangents
The Podcast where we discuss all things transit. Join us as we dive into transit systems across the US, bring you interviews with experts and advocates, and engage in some fun and exciting challenges along the way.
Transit Tangents
A Miami Built For People: Transit Alliance Miami
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Miami traffic isn’t just annoying; it’s expensive, unsafe, and deeply political. We’re joined by Cathy Dos Santos from Transit Alliance Miami, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit advocating for a Miami built for people, not cars. We talk about what it really costs to own a car in Miami, why that burden lands hardest on service workers and families, and how better public transportation can unlock both freedom of mobility and economic mobility.
Cathy breaks down the Streets for People campaign, a push for 20 practical mobility improvement projects that can connect neighborhoods faster than waiting for a mega-project. We get specific about what “low-hanging fruit” looks like: missing sidewalks, safer crossings, bus stop shelters, and bike infrastructure that helps people reach buses and Metrorail without risking their lives. One story hits hard: a mid-block crosswalk near schools in Hialeah that disappeared after a repave, leaving parents and students to navigate dangerous blocks every day.
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Miami’s Transit Advocacy Explained
SPEAKER_02We are here in Miami as part of our Florida trip and very excited to be joined by Kathy Dos Santos from the Transit Alliance Miami. Tam for short. We're very excited to be with you here today. Thanks so much for taking the time.
SPEAKER_05Absolutely. It's super excited to have you all here.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. So to kick us off, can you just explain what TAM's role is here in Miami and what you do here?
SPEAKER_05Yes. So Transit Alliance Miami, we're a 501c3 nonprofit advocating for a Miami built for people, not cars. And we certainly have a lot of work to do. We focus on doing community engagement, data and research, and policy and planning and planning advocacy to further along safer streets for all users. And really the way that we the reason why we do all this is we know we need to free Miami from traffic, and we believe that the path to do so is to empower the people of Miami to influence transit decisions. We've been doing this work for about 10 years. Because at the end of the day, we're here to like help Miami build the civic muscle. Because every single transportation decision honestly is political. And there are people who are in the room making those decisions. And there's there's a lot of reasons as to why things look the way they look and that we're missing certain things that we're missing.
SPEAKER_01I like that you say transit's very political because we have this discussion a lot. Transit touches every aspect of city life, more than I think what people realize. Yep. When we started on this show, we didn't realize we'd be talking so much about housing and employment and uh inequality and everything else that just all gets wrapped into and touches transit.
SPEAKER_05And I think uh one that is really, really I mean, and and it touches all of those, but I think to the similar point, like affordability. I mean, in Miami, like cost of living is insane. Um and the the Miami Herald, which is like our our local, one of our big local publications, uh covered last year that uh on average it is more costly in Miami to own a car than in other metro cities uh or metro areas, and it's almost 50, $15,000 annually, like all costs combined. And so we have so many people that live here that are working one, two, three part-time jobs that work in the service industry, that they're earning $35,000 a year. So they're either taking transit because they have uh no other alternative, and um we're working here to ensure that it's the best alternative for them. Um, or they're making really tough financial decisions, uh, and all that without you know also sitting in traffic for so many hours of the day.
SPEAKER_02Well, and being able to like free up uh, you know, uh enabling a household to go like car light or something like that. It's like, hey, okay, right now we have to have two cars because the transit in our area is is too hard to make it to work or whatever it may be, or they're the you know, biking in this part of town may be uh expensive. Like I have personal experience when I moved in with my partner, we went from each of us having a car living in Austin to moving to a part of town where we were on a consistent bike uh bus line, there were decent bike lanes in the area, we got rid of a car, and we saved something like seven grand a year, which was huge for us. It's like that freed up so much ability for us to be able to like relax a little bit and also be able to go do more things that we wanted to do with the money versus having it all go towards a car payment.
SPEAKER_05And you know, everything can be a little bit of a trade-off. There's certainly we have a bit of a an issue here where we do have a lot of housing uh and and decent amount of density coming up near transit stations. Um the issue is then the housing tends to be a little bit uh more luxury priced, uh not as much of uh affordable oftentimes. At the same time, you know, I think a lot of people are starting to look at the full math and they're like, okay, well, this is what my rent payment is. Like, what if I actually also plan out what my car payments for the for the year with gas and everything, especially with the way the gas is looking right now. Right. And I think a lot of young people are starting to make that choice. It's also, you know, we would like for it to be less of a hard choice or like for it to have less uh trade-offs, perhaps, because right now the trade-off is uh a lot of it is time.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_05On average, every Miami uh trip happening, like if you're taking a car versus on transit, the transit will take you almost twice as long. Yeah. Um, and that's you know, that's another tax on people
Streets For People And Safety Fixes
SPEAKER_05in a sense.
SPEAKER_02I want to ask you about uh a campaign that I know you're all working on right now, which is the Streets for People campaign. Um that is something that you all are are working on at the moment. Can you talk about what your goals are there and what the campaign is for first?
SPEAKER_05Yes. The goal is to move forward 20 uh mobility improvement projects around to connect Miami's communities. What are 20 mobility improvement projects? Well, honestly, it can look like uh anything, but we really are focusing on what is the uh low-hanging fruit that we can move forward uh as soon as possible because people in Miami really feel stuck. We individually get this all the time. We're just like, oh my god, how do you bike places? How do you and the reality is that oftentimes we're taking our lives in into our own hands at the same time? We have an uptick of people uh using e-bikes or e-scooters to go around because the traffic is getting so bad. Uh, we have huge swaths of of communities that like want more walkability in the neighborhoods. I think a lot of uh about elderly folks that are are you know they want that opportunity to be outside and feel safe in the environment. I think of the growing families that like want to be able to like walk around with a stroller, and you know, a carb cut is not there to like help them out with that. So it can get a little technical in terms of like what those those improv improvements could be. But we really are crowdsourcing from our community. We're asking them, tell us, send us a video or send us an email uh at streets at transitalliance.miami. And tell us about the the improvement in your neighborhood that would make it easier to access the places you want to go, uh whether it's getting to the bus stop or to the train station or uh, you know, that like little bit that that missing sidewalk that would get you to a park. One specific example there's um parents from uh Jose Martí High School in Hyalia. Um their kids' high school is literally in front of another school, which is an elementary school, and parents have kids in both schools. Um, so I pick up and drop off, you know, they're sort of like bouncing around. And if you look at the map in Hayalia, you like you tend to have really, really long blocks. And this is one of those. So you have like a public supermarket on the top, uh around the middle of the the entire street block, you have the two schools, and then you still have a big chunk before you get to like the next crosswalk, and there's only crosswalks on either side. There used to be a mid-block crosswalk in on this street, it got repaved in like 2008, 2009, something like that, and boom, it disappeared. Meanwhile, every day, parents and kids are jaywalking constantly, and it's honestly a matter of time before somebody gets hit and try and hopefully knock on wood, not the case, but somebody dies. Right. And you know, the parents have received all sorts of like walk arounds from like, oh, it's a can it's a city that manages the road or it's the county that manages the road, you know, like oh, they have to approve it. But they have been told uh all the way to we should educate the parent and the children to use the crosswalks. Like, you try telling a high schooler who hasn't developed their full frontal lobe, yeah, like, hey, you gotta walk 10 more minutes to like so that the cars can get through the intersection faster. It's insanity. Also, I'm sorry, it's rude.
SPEAKER_01It's the same concept as like a desire path, like when you see in a park and you build a sidewalk where people walk. You should do the same thing on a street if you see there's a lot of jaywalking in one place, right?
SPEAKER_02At a pedestrian, especially when like the in this case there are schools there and the consequence is literally potentially a young person dying needlessly. Like, yeah.
SPEAKER_05And it's if you even think about like the the patterns of the traffic, like why are the cars there to begin with? They're there to pick up and drop off kids. They're there because it's it's that time of the day. So, how about we prioritize the people that we're all trying to move in the first place, as opposed to just like the Tuton vehicle, SUV, whatever. Absolutely. Um and the reality is that that is happening all over. These parents are amazing and tenacious and and they want to get this done, and that like that's what we're here to help them do and sort of like try to navigate uh all this, and also you know, also recognize that we have 34 municipalities in Miami Dade. Uh, it is some ginormous county, so then you know, the county is dealing with requests from 34 municipalities and from the unincorporated uh Miami Dade, which if it were incorporated into a city would be the biggest city in Miami. So, you know, still like a really big piece of land. Uh, you're getting a little civics lesson. Yeah, yeah. And um sort of also realizing like we have worked closely because of the Butterbells Network, because of other projects with people from the county. We have worked on uh all types of projects around when municipalities want to do safety improvements with the municipality. So we think of ourselves as connectors, right? And that's a lot of like what is missing, or like even a translator, uh, where you know that trying to bridge the gap between the people and those agencies.
SPEAKER_02I'm curious uh how has some of the different municipalities and groups involved here re uh responded to this campaign?
SPEAKER_05Some folks have like uh have reached out to us and said, like, we think this is a great initiative, like we look forward to to working with you. I think most of them probably haven't quite heard about it yet. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah, uh, they will soon.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_05But uh from the public, it has been a great uh sort of input. Uh lots of comments on on uh the the video itself. Of course, everybody's always like, we need a train going to X, Y, and C and I'm like, Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02We want that too, yeah. Yeah, we gotta get there.
SPEAKER_05Uh but honestly, that's that's what this is about. It's the baby steps to get to that. And that's where like the idea of the politicization of transit is is intricate. We actually also have an event this very week on Saturday where the event is called uh depoliticizing transit. And funnily enough, I did get a reply that I want to like sort of shout out because they were correct. Um, and it's like transit is political, and you said it, like, and that is correct, completely correct. Transit is political, so it's not inherently that you want to depoliticize it. And and it's that is correct. I think, however, there is a stigma to what is political. Uh, there certainly is a bipartisanship uh that obviously plays into it, and and you know, it's all the way from the federal level to our local government. Uh yet at the end of the day, people want to move. And if they had better options that are more efficient than having to pay $15,000 per car and uh being still stuck in traffic and being part of what causes traffic, because a lot of some some folks forget that, yeah. Um then people would probably make better choices. But it's a long pipeline, right? From like this idea to actually getting it funded to actually building it. At the end of the day, it it's a long chain of decision making, and we have to be ready to like sort of take action at every level. And we're a tiny nonprofit, we're three people, and I hear I get told this all the time, uh, that like wow, you're tackling a really big problem. And like people think that we're we're even bigger than we are. Um, and I mean that's that's a great feeling. And as a compliment, yeah. They're like, you know, they all know what you're doing. I think I take it as a compliment. Um, but at the same time, it's like where can we be most impactful and and and effect and effective, also given the political, economic climate and and all the things. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think there's a lot of similarities from where we started this in in Texas to in Florida, especially on the state level. But you also bring up a good point. You don't want to necessarily depoliticize it, but we've had we've had interviews and conversations with politicians, especially uh in the Texas State House, who have said that transit really is a great vehicle for bipartisanship uh and bringing people together because it can hit the needs of both sides. You want uh to provide access for lower income communities and more connectivity in your cities. On a more conservative side, I think pushing the narrative of freedom of mobility is such a powerful narrative that they should they should and can lean into economic development, economic connectivity.
SPEAKER_02There's all of this stuff that should be working on both sides, and trying to get the messaging to the point where it's like it can be appealing to everyone. It doesn't like uh, you know, it is political, but it doesn't have to be only on like one, you know, everyone can take their wins with transit.
SPEAKER_05There is a divide, you know. The uh Tallahasse every day is making decisions that affect our ability to provide good transit in Miami Dade. And to be quite honest, I don't like it's also, you know, people that even don't represent Miami Dade making these decisions for us. I don't think most of these politicians have ever been, god forbid, a bus, but like not even a train. And uh it's it's their com they have to hear from their community members all over. So that's where we're also thinking about, you know, how can we work with uh there's a couple uh up-and-coming organizations uh that do similar work or at least have a similar focus across Florida.
SPEAKER_02We we met some folks in Orlando uh from Sun Sunrise Movement in Orlando. Uh uh yes, yeah. They they were like, oh, they were excited to hear we were meeting with you as well.
SPEAKER_05So yeah, and there's folks in St. Pete and in Tampa, uh, there's uh folks in in Broward, uh, Better Streets Broward. So, you know, it's uh it's definitely more concentrated in the in the like in the bigger Florida metro areas. Uh but it it has to be a statewide movement in the same way that it has to be a national movement, right? Um at the end of the day, we're just trying to like the way I say it is like I'm trying to uh save people's lives because the deaths on the road truly are absolutely atrocious and we are way too comfortable with with the numbers. Um and I'm trying to like provide that not only freedom of mobility, but of economic mobility also, because it is such a big chunk of your budget and it really limits. I mean, people are like, I think it's it's honestly getting so bad. It is reaching a point where people are like, okay, well, how far am I willing to like go for cheaper housing if I then may have to like spend more on my car payment and or on uh my my vehicle uh and and in traffic and all these things?
SPEAKER_02I think that's
Better Bus Network And What Riders Want
SPEAKER_02a good spot to transition a little bit into the better bus network that is here in Miami. Um I know that you all did some advocacy work like leading into that. Uh I know we talked previously before this, it sounds like some of the pieces of it were able to live up to what what you were hoping, but but parts of it were not. I guess can you talk about some of the implementation of that, how it's been going? I know that a lot of this relates to for folks who are regular viewers of our show, the kind of conversation between like coverage versus frequency and trying to balance that with the limited resources that all of these agencies sort of are dealing with right now.
SPEAKER_05Limited resources definitely it it could, I mean, it's sort of the underlying factor, right? So we actually have uh behind us like parts of the original map. Um our role with uh the Better Bus Network is that this conversation really started with community members back in um 2016-2017, um, where our transit system had been um just consistently disinvested in uh cuts up on cuts, and then you know, the cut happened, ridership decrees, so then it faced further cuts and whatnot. And we sort of put a uh limited halt to cuts in 2016 uh with our Stuff the Cuts campaign. And so we're gonna like keep so uh more of the the transit funding that would have been previously like taken away. Uh but it really started some hard conversations, honestly, like with some folks uh that work for the department, but mostly with community members around, like realistically, what can we do? Because it just continues to spiral and it needs to prove that it can do better, apparently, so that our elected officials are willing to invest in it, right? So we sort of asked this question of like if is it's increasing ridership, like the goal then, and we landed at the point that it was. We need to grow, we need to show growth in order to like be able to draw that. Get that extra funding, yeah. Yeah, exactly. A lot of like the service level issues that we still see today were present then. Um, but they were coupled also with a coverage model. So, you know, you have buses being pulled from the routes that come once every hour, maybe, uh, in that coverage model, getting pulled for the areas that were more frequent. Or you have riders, uh lot a lot more riders being left behind in the areas uh where there's more density and more more use and and demand for transit in order to provide um a service that uh for all that it's great at reaching people or could be great at reaching people, is only moving a handful of people out of it.
SPEAKER_02Right, maybe once an hour, which is unreliable for those people.
SPEAKER_05And then and then so you know that has an effect on the ridership. So then it's only like maybe two to three, four people on a bus. So there's always trade-offs with transportation. I think that that's something that you all are deeply uh aware of. And we said, well, what if we're very like clear on these trade-offs to the public and we just ask them? And we ask them over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. Not that we're just gonna keep having touch points, but like that we ask a whole lot of Miami. Right.
SPEAKER_02What is it that's different neighborhoods, all the yeah?
SPEAKER_05What is it that you want from your transit system? So we started doing this process, um, you know, and in again in this sort of like in between of like asking for permission or more so asking for forgiveness and permission. But we had uh had some conversations with folks from Jarrett Walker and Associates, um, and we were definitely inspired by a lot of the work that they had been doing around the country. And uh again, from like the community conversations. So we just started to ask the question, and we were getting some answers. It's like, okay, well, what do you want from your transit system? Uh, what would make you more likely to take transit? We got to a point where, like, okay, well, we need actual buy-in from not only the department, but from the mayor's office at the time, uh, who was Mayor Jimenez, who was now a uh congressman uh for Florida. And we did end up getting his buy-in. We also got the buy-in from uh uh the private sector, where it was actually a joint venture that the mayor's office put in some funding, the the private sector put in some funding uh because there was this recognition that, you know, if we were able to provide better service and move more people in Miami Dade, again, the goal is increasing ridership, uh, that would have a positive effect in terms of access to jobs and access to to economic mobility for for our population. So what we did, we asked, uh, we essentially gave uh the simplest breakdown of what coverage versus uh high frequency models could be. And we asked folks, hey, like these are like these are the trade-offs, like uh for a coverage model, you have to usually wait more for your bus, uh, but you have to walk less. For the high ridership, you may have to walk more, and uh, but but your wait time will be shorter. And we asked a series of questions, we asked people to rank priorities, like there was like also multiple levels to this. Uh, and overall, there was like three salient points. People, people's number one's priorities. And and we did this before we did the better bus network, and then we went back and checked after we did the better bus network, and the priorities remained the same across age groups, across um sit codes, race, ethnicity. People want to get to where they're going fast. No brainer.
SPEAKER_02Yep.
SPEAKER_05People want to wait less for their bus. Yes, people also would like for that bus access to be closer, but that was we're like further down in terms of the priorities. Right. And I think it was particularly interesting when it came to like also looking at the age range. Uh, where even then, I mean, the walk can be tough, but waiting in the sun, yeah, in the heat, can also be deadly.
SPEAKER_02Yes, yeah.
SPEAKER_05So the Butter Bus Network was uh definitely a push towards a high frequency model for Miami Dade. It went into implementation, it got adopted unanimously in 2020. Great timing, great timing for the uh and and it did what it did to all of our transit systems, where not only the ridership implemented, but like, you know, they lost a lot of bus operators. Come 2023, they finally had were like close to the operator numbers that they felt they needed to launch. Uh, so we then went back and did this the Better Bus Network community engagement that like helped design the network was the biggest um outreach effort to Miami Data around transportation ever done. For this, we were actually like fully working with the county, uh, so that was a little bit uh different. But we activated, oh my goodness, I trained like 400 volunteers from the county to have them uh at a at a bunch of uh all the stations that we could physically cover and like actually reach people to let them know about the change.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, at the transit stations, which is so important that like these people right where they're at.
SPEAKER_05The ridership had a bounce, there was been a lot of service issues that uh, you know, uh we believe I was also brought it down. I will also say that, you know, with complaints, because people are gonna complain.
SPEAKER_02Especially with any change, too.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, like it's and change is always so hard. You can like even if it's if it if in it's an improvement, I guess you're still working within a closed uh um circuit. So like you're gonna have to be moving parts from one side to the other. Um, so there's always, you know, you can we knew we were providing a net benefit of that a quarter million um more my like trips uh could be done uh with uh service that was frequent. Um but there are always there are trade offs, and they were there are Gaps. So there's always a little bit of like a concern as to how those gaps get addressed. And again, this is also why we we are now pushing for streets for people. I think we would have less of a tough time addressing those gaps if the pedestrian and cycling infrastructure were there to protect people.
SPEAKER_02It makes it easier to get to the bus stop that might be a little bit further away.
SPEAKER_05Hell if we just planted some trees. Right. Because it's so hot outside.
SPEAKER_02For folks who you mentioned Jarrett Walker a couple times, I've mentioned him on the show a couple times recently. If you have not, if you're watching the show and you have not read the book Human Transit, uh highly recommended. Definitely go read it, and there will be very in-depth discussions about all of the stuff that we just covered right here. So uh wanted to say that. But um yesterday we just recorded our Miami using only public transit video. We went all over the city. Honestly, I was I was uh I had didn't have super high expectations, and I I the the Metro Rail was great. Uh we had mostly positive experiences with buses. Um again, that's only in one day, so it's it's hard to see. We did see a couple areas where there could be room for improvement for sure.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely, but for for the most part, all connections we made were great, the the ridership was high, um having somebody at each of the stations who was also there, you know, kind of monitoring things, but also to help, like we saw. Yeah. Security helping people, nasty, asking questions, and yeah. That was also really nice to see.
BRT Signal Priority And State Roads
SPEAKER_02One area that I was very excited, and I still am excited about it, but the the the new BRT system down at the south end of the line essentially acts as a metro rail extension uh but but with buses in this dedicated right-of-way with amazing infrastructure along the whole thing, air conditioning at stations and indoor spaces, and I know we had talked previously that there is only signal priority in like one direction in the morning time, but holy cow, did we get stopped at like every single light going both directions, and not just for like a minute. It was, I mean, some of them I was recording and I was like five minutes sitting there. I'm curious if if we just had a rough experience with it in terms of that, or is is that something that has been kind of an issue with it so far?
SPEAKER_05What I will say is that generally it is much easier to note and hear about the bad trips, right? Yeah, yes. Because what what do you want from your transit?
SPEAKER_02And I hope that that was what it was in our end.
SPEAKER_05What you really want from your public transit is to not notice anything for it to just happen. And you're just like, okay, that one, how it's supposed to go. And and that is like the best you can hope for. The the beer tea, and like we were sort of uh talking about this before, but we're we're kind of texting it, testing it out for the rest of the country.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Uh, and we have particularly like we have some intricacies there because it is abutting a really, really major corridor, which is uh US1. It's the strode to ever the strode strode to ever strode. Yes, yes, it's ginormous, also horrible to cross. Horrible. Um, and it's a road that is managed by our Florida Department of Transportation. Uh, who does not run our transit system? Right. And there has to be, you know, some uh collaboration there around the like the the signal prioritization. There's also a whole bunch of municipalities along those way, along that way. And guess what? Uh as much as I would like our our take is that the signal prioritization should be there all day, every day. Yeah. Because the system is not gonna grow enough until we make it competitive. Right. Because that's what it has to be. Obviously, the technology needs to like get better, but everybody, I think a lot of the like knee-jerk reactionists like, oh, it's not working, take it off.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, no, and it does seem fixable. That's the thing, is like the hard stuff. That was the only thing that was like it was driving me nuts yesterday. I was like, they did all the hard stuff, and it looks it looks great. Like you can get going back. I just couldn't get over, you know, to your point about the signal prioritization. It's like it's great that they're doing it during during rush hour, but if you can do it during rush hour, it's way easier to do it not during rush hour. So why not do it throughout through throughout the day? Because the reality is not everyone is commuting from nine to five anymore. It's not 28 years old. Especially in Miami. Like, yeah. Especially in Miami. I mean our traffic, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Our afternoon traffic is like the worst, uh, at least compared to the morning. And it starts at 2 p.m. Yeah, yeah. And it runs until 7.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_05And and that's the traffic pattern now. That's people uh also again, like gig economy, people work uh many part-time jobs, uh, people work service jobs, we're a service industry. So uh actually that that was part of like what uh the some of the the the critical uh outcomes of the better bus network. We now have a better all-day frequency that we did before. That I do think was like an absolute like uh win that the the the county has continued to like uh move forward on because it was a change that we needed to happen. Again, people are now moving nine to five uh necessarily. And to your point, it should be 24-7. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Uh it should be singer presentation in both directions all day.
SPEAKER_02I I am very excited for Miami to have this for the future and like hopefully the kinks get worked out. Exactly. Um and I I do think it it has potential to be the the best BRT in the country.
SPEAKER_01Um I think it's a great model for other cities to try to replicate, except they also need to make sure they stick the signal priority.
SPEAKER_02And I think that I think a lesson is like make you know making sure that like as we do BRT in the future, like signal priority should be one of the things to like get the people to commit to earlier.
SPEAKER_05And that's that's that's always the fight because you know, um it can be in the plan, but then it's I think it's gonna be very hard for for to be and to be kind. Yeah, I think it can be very hard to for elected officials to because at the end of the day, most people are still driving that, right? So now you're having all the drivers upset about this thing. Yes, yeah, yeah. And you know, like people don't inherently understand transportation in this part of the country and in the entire country.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05You know, like people have a tough time uh seeing a bus. They don't even know if it's packed. Truly, can you see it? Yeah, yeah. Can you see it in the middle of the day if it's it if it is packed or not? Like at the end of the day, nobody hates more in transit than people have never ridden it.
SPEAKER_04Yes, yep.
SPEAKER_05But it's really hard for them to comprehend again that this one vehicle that may be stopping you, maybe adding 10 minutes to your commute, is taking 10 other cars off the road.
SPEAKER_03Right, yep.
SPEAKER_05Um, and maybe I should be more positive. It's not adding 10 minutes to your commute. Right, it's it's it's maybe adding 30 seconds to your commute.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. And um, I mean at the end of the day.
SPEAKER_02And it's probably saving more because of those cars not being there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. And like that's a trade-off that you're never really gonna fully be able to see unless you have, you know, some Jared Walker and associate doing it. It's all assessment really.
SPEAKER_02Well, we did the study, and yeah, yeah, yeah. And all the replica data and all this stuff, but um I'm curious if folks want to get involved with Transit Alliance Miami.
How To Join The Movement
SPEAKER_02Uh, how can they do so? How can they support your work here?
SPEAKER_05Oh my god, love to hear that. So the easiest way is 100% to join our newsletter, which you will find at transitalliance.miami. Um, it's always.miami. Uh-huh. And you will have a little pop-up and it will tell you to join the newsletter. Uh, if you're ready to take the next step for the low value of $2.25, you can join our Patreon. Uh, it is also the same cost as a transit ticket, uh, at least for now in Miami Dade. Um, and that's a that's a huge way to support. We are uh very like uh loved by our community and and and and it's a grassroots effort uh here. So every single like uh dollar supports, but I think most importantly also come out and send us your submission for uh uh streets for people. Tell us what could be better in in your community. Uh what is that missing crosswalk? What is that uh bus stop that doesn't have a shelter that needs one? And I don't have the power to wave a magic wand, but I think together we can make that magic happen. Totally.
SPEAKER_02That $2.25 a month is like like half a cup of cup of coffee at your your coffee shop. So if you can support them, go ahead and do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Less than half. Yeah. So so that's all that to say is that's not very much.
SPEAKER_05So if you can't colala price now.
SPEAKER_01For those folks who are listening, can you sort of describe your relationship to transit before you got involved with the Transit Alliance and what brought you to this position that you're in to be fighting for these things for everybody else in Miami?
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_05I think I had a very roundabout like way of getting into it. Um I'm originally from Venezuela, but I've been in in Miami, and Miami was like my introduction to the United States and since 2010. And when I first moved here, I like the entire time I went to high school, I lived in the suburbs. Uh I was completely subject to my parents, my mom specifically having to drive me everywhere. Uh, I've always like liked cycling, but she was like, no, you're gonna die on the road. You like she wouldn't let me go to the like uh the library. That was like literally a five-minute bike ride down the street. Um and honestly, like I felt very trapped. And I think it made me resent Miami a lot. And I love the people that I had met here. I loved the friends that I was making, I loved my school. I loved uh, again, I loved the people, but I was like, I felt very trapped. Went off to college at the University of Florida, which is also not, you know, like the a metropolis, but it had a reliable uh bus system and it was also very catered to the students. So that was like my first introduction to taking the bus in the United States. I had taken public transportation traveling. My family's also originally from from Europe, so like I had experienced some of that over there. Uh in Minnesota, I had taken the bus. I don't know that I would recommend it. I was also not from Caracas, so like Caracas had a better transit system back in the day, but uh can say for now. But once I came back to Miami, and I graduated in 2020. And not the best time to graduate, to be looking for jobs, to be looking for like the next step in life. But I came back to Miami and uh in part because I was so dead set on leaving, I refused to get a car because I was like, I don't want to saddle myself with this big expense, not knowing when I'm gonna be going next. Uh so I started taking transit. I I would borrow my parents' car sometimes. I got a job that I had to go to downtown for. And it was me sitting in traffic on the Dolphin Express Expressway on the A36, uh, and seeing the A36 express bus that goes on the shoulder pass me by. I knew it existed and I wanted it, like I wanted to take it, but like during COVID, it had shut down for a little bit, so I couldn't. And I was like, oh, I guess it's back. I'll start taking that. And it was just like the biggest like domino effect that you could ever like picture. Because like 2020 was six years ago, and I don't own a car. Uh I bike ride transit. I am notorious for putting my bike on transit every day. Um, and I I know every single time that elevators out because I I feel it. Um but to me it was transit allowed me to see an a different alternative. And no, it wasn't always great. Uh, I got into this work because I was a disgruntled transit user. Um, but I think it also it gave me hope. It allowed me to see a lot more of Miami that I don't think I would have seen before from behind a steering wheel. Um it's honestly such even like as a mental exercise, like you tell me, like, oh, we we were coming from here and then we got off here and was like, 'cause that was a 36. Yeah. Like now it's almost like fun. And what I do want to like say is I'm into transit for like what it can do for people. Because I know a lot of people in in our space, like trains are really cool. Buses are really cool. All that stuff is really cool. Like the intricacies, the logistics, and like sometimes I even get like drawn in for that. Uh, at the end of the day, I somehow have made my life talking to people. Uh, now it's specifically talking about how to improve our our mobility as a community uh to people, to different, like sometimes it's elected officials, sometimes it's uh the the person on the bus stop. And uh I really think that obviously transit is a vehicle, but it's it's so much more than that. It really is opportunity, it's uh it's growth as a region, it's it's I am absolutely convinced is the future. And I think it's just a question of how quickly we want to step into that.
SPEAKER_01So that's excellent.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Uh thank you, Kathy, so much for taking the time. We really appreciate it talking with you today. Um, for those of you watching, if you have not subscribed already, please consider doing so. It helps get the show out to new people. Leave a comment. If you have questions for Kathy, we'll be sure to send some along. I'm sure she'd be willing to answer some of them for you all. Uh, if you want to support Kathy's uh Patreon as well for the organization here, we'll make sure that's linked in the description too. So uh with all that being said, thank you all so much for watching and enjoy the rest of your Transit Tangents Tuesday.