The city of Miami claims it wants to be an international city. That probably explains the reason for all of the building downtown and remodeling on the beach. It may even explain all of the festivals. But in order to be a truly international city you need the best public transporation possible, and what we have now is embarrassing.
The Tri-Rail is nice, but developed more for commuters. It travels north-south and pretty much takes people to work. The Metro, on the other hand, runs east-west and pretty much runs from the airport and points in between and downtown. The buses just plain take forever, and standing around in the heat waiting for them is no fun. I love the way the city produces bus stop benches made of metal. Try sitting on those in this heat. And the terminals are just down right scary anyway. Tourists have come to rely on Uber for crying out loud. What does that say about our public transportation?
After visits to other cities and witnessing their public transportation I have come to the conclusion that we need something better in Miami, a lot better. Not only would it help with moving tourists around, but it would help alleviate traffic in a big way. First, we need something that runs from the airports to the beach, period. Then we need something that runs from the city to the beach. And finally, something that runs and stops to all points in between, like the Metro on steroids. It is above ground, so it won't take up any space. If we can build all of these condos so quickly and easily there is no reason why we can't do this.
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