Miami-Dade County is getting smart about managing mobility and it all starts with a plan. The Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit Plan – also known as the SMART plan – has been set in motion and will transform transportation in the county.
The SMART Plan was officially adopted and endorsed in 2016 by the Miami-Dade MPO Governing Board. It brings together the county’s Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW), Transportation Planning Organization (TPO, formerly MPO), Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), and the Citizen’s Independent Transportation Trust (CITT).
In short, the strategy involves expanding public transportation services into six rapid transit corridors supported by a bus express rapid transit network.
The six approved corridors that are in the works:
• Beach Corridor – Connecting midtown Miami to Miami Beach Convention Center along the MacArthur Causeway.
• East-West Corridor – Connecting Miami intermodal Center (Miami International Airport) to Florida International University.
• Kendall Corridor – Connecting Dadeland area Metrorail stations with S.W. 167 Avenue along Kendall Drive.
• North Corridor – Connecting Martin L. King Jr. Metrorail station with N.W. 215 Street along N.W. 27 Avenue.
• Northeast Corridor – Connecting downtown Miami with City of Aventura along the Florida East Coast railroad.
• South Dade Transitway – Connecting Dadeland South Metrorail station with Florida City along U.S. 1.
The rapid transit corridors can either be elevated rail, like the existing Metrorail system, or light rail, which consists of a train operating at street level. Different alternatives will be evaluated for each corridor including using existing Metrorail and emerging technologies.
Bus express rapid transit – BERT for short – means allowing buses to have the right-of-way on streets, sometimes with their own dedicated bus lanes. Along State Road 836, the Miami-Dade Expressway Authority (MDX) is in the process of widening and reinforcing the median lanes to accommodate an express bus route. Buses on these future routes will use regular lanes until traffic becomes too congested; they will then be permitted to drive on the widened median shoulder or express lanes at a speed of 35 MPH.
In January, Miami-Dade, along with MDX and FDOT, broke ground on the new Dolphin Station Park & Ride log along N.W. 12 Street. The station is the first transit hub that will service the proposed East-West Corridor.
Scheduled to be completed by the end of 2017, the station will also have over 850 parking spaces and eventually service three bus rapid transit routes, including the new 836 Express with an estimated 30 minute commute time to downtown Miami during peak hours – nearly half the current time for rush hour commuters.
Two other Park & Ride lots are planned in the near future including the Panther Station (at FIU’s Modesto Maidique campus), and the Tamiami Station (on the corner of S.W. 8 Street and 147 Avenue).
“When it comes to mobility in Miami-Dade County,” said Alice N. Bravo, P.E., director of DTPW, “we are listening to our residents and working to improve conditions and move Miami forward.”
Learn more at www.miamidadempo.org, or
www.miamidade.gov/transit.