What is this?
With two out of three trips on transit served by buses in Miami, the continued dismantling of the bus system is alarming and misguided.
Our 5-part series takes a deep dive into the state of our bus system.
Supported by:
Why are less people riding the bus?
There are less buses to ride.
| Route |
03-17 |
June 2017 |
August 2017 |
March 2018 |
03-18 |
Change |
| 3 |
194,698 |
|
|
Service Cut |
167,288 |
14% |
| 6 |
12,924 |
|
Discontinued |
|
0 |
100% |
| 7 |
108,342 |
|
|
Service Cut |
90,470 |
16% |
| 8 |
158,854 |
Service Cut |
|
Service Cut |
114,610 |
28% |
| 11 |
282,938 |
Service Cut |
|
Service Cut |
227,959 |
19% |
| 16 |
73,525 |
Service Cut |
|
|
54,147 |
26% |
| 24 |
57,741 |
|
|
Service Cut |
56,352 |
2% |
| 27 |
233,477 |
|
|
Service Cut |
200,231 |
14% |
| 31 |
44,220 |
|
|
Service Cut |
36,623 |
17% |
| 35 |
63,345 |
Service Cut |
|
|
55,803 |
12% |
| 38 |
207,776 |
|
|
Service Cut |
195,414 |
6% |
| 48 |
3,788 |
|
Discontinued |
|
0 |
100% |
| 56 |
14,013 |
|
Service Cut |
|
8,877 |
37% |
| 62 |
73,647 |
|
Service Cut |
|
51,640 |
30% |
| 70 |
36,356 |
|
|
Discontinued |
0 |
100% |
| 73 |
64,274 |
Service Cut |
|
|
53,383 |
17% |
| 77 |
245,997 |
|
|
Service Cut |
204,625 |
17% |
| 103 C |
69,813 |
|
Service Cut |
|
11,674 |
83% |
| 107 G |
55,597 |
|
Service Cut |
|
46,742 |
16% |
| 108 H |
45,133 |
|
Service Cut |
|
13,556 |
70% |
| 112 L |
209,523 |
Service Cut |
|
|
210,756 |
1% |
| 115 |
4,801 |
|
Service Cut |
Service Cut |
3,409 |
29% |
| 117 |
4,689 |
|
Discontinued |
|
0 |
100% |
| 119 S* |
248,992 |
Service Cut |
|
|
260,908 |
5% |
| 120* |
156,362 |
Service Cut |
|
|
175,188 |
12% |
| 136 |
7,227 |
|
Service Cut |
|
3,713 |
49% |
| 183 |
103,357 |
|
Service Cut |
Service Cut |
93,725 |
9% |
| 207** |
25,054 |
|
|
Service Cut |
30,443 |
22% |
| 208** |
24,372 |
|
|
Service Cut |
24,903 |
2% |
| 211 |
2,096 |
Service Cut |
|
|
1,284 |
39% |
| 249 |
19,664 |
Service Cut |
|
Discontinued |
0 |
100% |
| 252 |
25,952 |
|
Service Cut |
|
22,756 |
12% |
| 254 |
1,688 |
Service Cut |
|
|
610 |
64% |
| TOTAL |
2,880,235 |
|
|
|
2,417,089 |
16% |
* Increased ridership due to truncation of Route 103 C and 108 H, explained in the next section
** These routes overlap with the Little Havana trolley, yet continue to grow, and faced cuts anyway
Source: Service Adjustment Brochures and Ridership Technical Reports from Miami-Dade Transit
Thanks: Daniela Sanchez Zamora and William Moose
Our County's only response to falling ridership has been continuous and haphazard service cuts during the past year.
Low ridership routes should rightly be discontinued. However, cuts often affect the most popular routes. Ridership dips, and the cycle continues.
-
Service reductions:
38
-
Service increases:
1
-
Bus riders affected:
1 out of 2
↑ March 2017 to March 2018
They took a stab at shortening routes:
Literally killing them.
A data-driven route adjustment can do wonders for a struggling route.
Miami does the opposite - popular routes face nonsensical adjustments, throwing their ridership off a cliff, and priming them to be eliminated.
Gains in overlapping routes offset only 36% of lost ridership (Learn More)
The cuts above caused a drop of ~ 90,000 monthly riders. Overlapping routes (which also faced service cuts) added ~ 33,000 riders during the same period (March 2017 to March 2018)
Nearly all connecting routes saw their own ridership fall.
Sources: Ridership Technical Reports and Service Adjustment Brochures from Miami-Dade Transit
At the end of the day —
How long would you wait?
Time Elapsed
(1 minute = 1 second)
0
Every ~ 10 minutes → 1% of bus routes
0
Every ~ 15 minutes → 25% of bus routes
0
Every ~ 30 minutes → 40% of bus routes
0
Every ~ 45 minutes → 16% of bus routes
0
Every ~ 60 minutes → 18% of bus routes
Average frequency based on 05/18 bus schedules from Miami-Dade Transit
The most common service cut is reduced frequency. Today, only one route (No. 34) has an average frequency of 10 minutes or less, while nearly 75% of routes have riders waiting an average of 30 minutes or more.
Our buses cannot compete when they are designed to be the "mode of last resort". They have to be frequent, with a short wait time rewarded by a faster journey.
Disclaimer: Although the analysis presented by Transit Alliance has been produced from sources believed to be reliable, Transit Alliance makes no warranty or claims as to the accuracy of said data or the resulting analysis. It is often necessary to manually compile and reformat the data for presentation, and determine guidelines and assumptions to appropriately represent trends. We welcome corrections, please e-mail us at help (at) transitalliance.miami