| Miami Beach |
Nov.
26, 2008 |
Buses Gone Local
New North Beach Local Routes Slated to Mirror Popularity of
SoBe’s
By Lee
Molloy
At a
meeting of The Neighborhoods and Community Affairs Committee
Monday, Nov. 24 Miami Beach Commissioner and committee chair Ed
Tobin discussed implementing a North Beach Local (NBL) bus route
proposed by The Coastal Communities Transit Study (CCTS.)
The
preferred bus routes would be “one for North Beach above 63rd
Street, another one for the Middle Beach area,” said Fred
Beckmann, the director of the Public Works Department. However,
Miami-Dade Transit (MDT) wants to “combine Middle and North
Beach as one circulator [local.]”
Beckmann
also told the committee that the goal of the NBL would be to
have 10 to 12-minute waiting times, which are known in the
transit industry as “headways.” However, MDT’s proposal would
create a “longer headway by doing the combination,” Tobin said.
MDT plans
to eliminate route K, which runs from South Beach to Hallandale
Beach Boulevard, and route R, which takes passengers from
South
Beach
to Mount Sinai Hospital. By doing this “they believe they will
be able to get enough funding for circulators,” Beckmann said.
“I don’t
understand how you could be improving headways by having less
routes,” said Commissioner Jerry Libbin. To MDT “economically,
it makes more sense to combine,” replied Beckmann.
“This is a
very important plan for North Beach,” said local activist Daniel
Veitia. “Trying to combine it with mid-beach is going to be a
problem …We really need it concentrated in North Beach to be
successful as a circulator.”
Gabrielle
Redfern, who is running for Miami Beach Commission, has put a
premium on traffic issues. “This is one of the most important
pieces of consulting that this city has done since I’ve been
here,” she said, referring to the CCTS. “Unless we do
circulators that work, transit will continue not to work”
Due to the
timeframe required to schedule drivers, Beckman made it clear
that, “by January we have to have a plan … In June
implementation.”
Concerned
about the potential reaction of some elderly residents, Mayor
Matti Bower revealed that she and Commissioner Jonah Wolfson had
previously been “almost killed” by seniors who were not happy
with the idea of losing bus routes. “I want to know — where are
people going?” Bower said. “We need to listen to the community
and [find out] where the rider-ship is.”
One
possibility, a February deadline, allows for more resident
feedback, however, residents at the meeting were leery of
dragging out the process.
“I think
it’s great to get input from the community for the final route,
but I think you have enough data,” Vietia said.
The
committee decided that ideally they would like to have separate
local routes for Mid-Beach and
North
Beach,
but that North Beach would be the priority.
“We have a
sentiment here that a local North Beach is what we want to see
happen ASAP,” Tobin said.
The
committee settled on a plan to reach out to local residents, and
for Beckmann to bring the results back to the commission.
“We
want to see it by February in front of the commission,” Wolfson
said.
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