Metrobus (Miami-Dade County)


The Metrobus network provides bus service throughout Miami-Dade County 365 days a year. It consists of about 93 routes and 893 buses, which connect most points in the county and part of southern Broward County as well. Seven of these routes operate around the clock: Routes 3, 11, 27, 38, 77, L and S. Routes 246 Night Owl & Route 500 Midnight Owl operate from 12am to 5am. Most other routes operate from 4:30am to 1:30am. Available via the and exist the MDT Tracker app to track the different bus routes to view the time of arrival at specific stops. All Metrobuses are wheelchair accessible, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and equipped with Bicycle racks.
Bus route 301 extends into Monroe County, reaching Marathon, where a transfer is available to a Key West Transit bus proceeding further into the Keys. With the appropriate bus transfers, one can travel all the way from Key West to Jupiter entirely on public-transit buses. Metrobus has many connections to Metrorail and Metromover, also operated by Miami-Dade Transit, mainly in the city of Miami.
Coming soon to all Metrobuses you'll be ale to pay with any contactless device or contactless credit/debit cards. Recently added to the metrorail on August 21, 2019, Miami-Dade Transit stated buses will get the upgrade soon and will be software provided by Cubic Transportation Systems, which is responsible for the handling of the metrorail upgrade. Riders would be able to use their smartphones/smartwatches to pay and be able to use their credit or debit card that is contactless enabled

History

has reached as high as 293,000 daily, but is generally around a quarter million. It reached a high during the real estate bubble of the 2000s, then declined during the bad economy amid service cuts during the Great Recession, before rising again in the 2010s. From 2015 into 2016, bus ridership fell sharply, down to a low of 195,000 daily in June 2016, amid the lowest gas prices in over a decade, despite a locally strong economy and steady population gain. This during a time when much effort was going into enhancements, such as an air-conditioned bus shelter, mobile ticketing, and new rolling stock, including electric buses. Part of the problem is that buses, unlike other transit alternatives, are not exempt from the increasing traffic present. Nationally, bus ridership fell while rail ridership increased slightly in 2015.

South Dade Transitway

The South Dade Transitway is a bus rapid transit system, or busway, in southern Miami-Dade County. It began operating from the Dadeland South Metrorail station to SW 112th Avenue on February 3, 1997 and was extended to SW 264th Street on April 24, 2005. The final segment of the Busway extension to SW 344th Street in Florida City opened on Sunday, December 16, 2007. It is parallel to US1/ S Dixie Highway, and runs along the abandoned Florida East Coast Railway line. It is an alternative to daily traffic congestion. The roadway was built by the Florida Department of Transportation just for Metrobus routes and emergency vehicles. Express buses on the exclusive lanes shuttle passengers to and from Dadeland South Station in under 40 minutes.
Both full-size and articulated buses operate on the Busway and in adjacent neighborhoods, entering the exclusive lanes at major intersections. Local and limited-stop service is offered between Florida City and Dadeland South Metrorail Station. Park & Ride lots along the busway are located at SW 152d Street, SW 168th Street, SW 112th Avenue, SW 244th Street, and SW 296th Street. At Dadeland South Station, riders transfer to Metrorail. Riders headed downtown can transfer from Metrorail to Metromover, which consists of three shorter downtown loops, at Government Center Station.
The South Miami-Dade Busway features 28 stops, all of which have been converted to light-rail style stations. A multi-use path stretches the length of the Busway.
The busway stations feature large shelters to provide protection from the sun and rain, but several canopies were damaged during Hurricane Irma and removed in 2017. The replacement of canopies fell behind schedule and remains unfinished, as of 2018.
The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy, under its BRT Standard, has given the Busway a preliminary classification as a "Basic BRT" corridor.

South Miami-Dade Busway stations

Former stations

The Busway has been the site of many accidents, as some car drivers driving south on US 1 and looking to turn west do not stop at the red arrows that govern the right turn lane at an intersection that has a Busway crossing adjacent to it. They make a right turn and go right into the path of a bus that is entering the adjacent Busway intersection. Buses currently must slow down to before crossing the intersection, and the police often patrol the intersections looking for red arrow runners. Surprisingly, even the intersections on which the Busway runs as far as two blocks west of US 1 suffer the same problem, with car drivers not seeing or flatly ignoring the red lights at SW 184th and 186th Streets. City planners and residents alike have commented that rather than dismantling the former Florida East Coast Railroad line for the busway, the Metrorail system could have been extended southward over the railway line.

Ridership

Ridership detail by average daily ridership on weekdays by month, with yearly average and highest ridership month in bold. Note the generally lower ridership during the summer months and December, month of the long Christmas and holiday season. Ridership has been falling since 2014 amid widespread rider complaints, an aging fleet, and sharply declining gas prices beginning in late 2014. Starting in 2016, this was also affecting Metrorail ridership. By 2016, 70% of the bus fleet was considered beyond its expected useful life, as the county was in the process of buying 30 electric buses with an option for 20 more. This is well under 10% of a fleet of nearly 1,000 buses. Other upgrades included a new mobile ticketing and contactless payment system, as well as upgrades to bus stops, including covering shelter-less bus stops and air conditioning at select locations. By mid 2016, average daily ridership was over 100,000 below a pre-recession peak in November 2007, and May, June, July, and August 2016 were the lowest ridership months in over a decade. Some of the ridership loss may be accounted for by overlap and growth of the free Miami Trolley and other pseudo-bus systems. Very poor numbers in October 2016 across the entire system were partially blamed on one day of closures for Hurricane Matthew, which passed close to South Florida. Similarly, September 2017, the month of Hurricane Irma, saw even lower ridership. 2016 was the lowest ridership year since online records began in 1998. Summer 2017 saw weekday ridership decline another 10% on top of sustained decline. January 2018's ridership of 162,300 is the lowest since at least the 90s with the exception of the month Hurricane Irma hit. Annual ridership figures are rounded to the nearest 100.
#Month1999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017
1January212,100216,700215,700208,150205,800231,500242,100265,400260,200258,600244,500222,300238,500248,900248,200241,900240,400209,600192,900
2February218,350220,000227,400216,300219,200240,800251,000267,300266,600266,400254,400230,000253,100257,500264,500258,800238,000217,600203,600
3March215,000220,350221,800209,800217,600238,500246,700270,500270,900266,900252,000229,700250,900260,000258,100250,800249,100210,200196,300
4April205,800204,400210,250207,350208,100227,700251,400260,000257,000265,500256,600230,400249,200255,800255,600250,000232,000214,500193,900
5May208,900214,000210,450206,300208,900237,600242,600255,600262,900273,500239,800232,900248,000245,200244,700242,300227,800207,100189,200
6June195,300206,200202,800191,550200,700223,840225,900248,000248,100258,600219,600221,300237,000235,600235,200226,100212,600195,000174,300
7July203,900209,800208,950196,500205,000229,400212,500240,200243,500256,600211,400213,700231,100237,900231,600226,400209,900191,900175,100
8August200,100206,500207,800199,350198,800226,900241,300245,000257,000250,500227,300220,600232,500237,900243,400235,600216,500189,500175,500
9September211,600217,850208,950209,100219,500226,300241,131270,000280,200269,400234,500233,800254,600257,100259,000248,500223,800202,300147,200*
10October210,350208,000210,300212,800226,500242,700241,419270,000267,500257,700224,600243,700252,000257,600261,400246,900226,000187,800177,900
11November221,250221,800209,000210,500225,000244,200267,600262,400302,000243,900226,000239,600256,600258,000252,800240,800220,500203,200177,300
12December206,600209,400205,700198,500216,900229,000255,100258,100257,700240,600215,600216,600240,800246,200242,300234,500211,400195,700172,200
13Year Average205,500259,000233,900227,900245,400249,800249,700241,900225,700202,000181,300