We followed Miami Beach City Commissioner Kristen Rosen-Gonzalez on #PublicTransitDay from her home on Alton Road to Gov. Rick Scott’s press briefing at The Betsy Hotel.
A few standout moments: our bus broke down, Commissioner Gonzalez had to make an outfit change, and there was a lot of running and sweating. And it’s safe to say she learned a thing or two about that public transit grind.
You all also had a lot to share with us after seeing the video. Here’s what we learned by tuning in. What else should we know?
First off, the buses break down. A lot.
We used to have a pretty ballin’ transportation system way back when. These days, there are some things being done to improve the countywide bus system like introducing Bus Rapid Transit and adding a fleet of 43 new busses. But if you’re anti-bus altogether, trolleys are an alternate option as Commissioner Rosen Gonzalez discovered.
There were a few challenges for elected officials to ride mass transit more.
It might even give them a few ideas, like Ralph Rosado found when he did the 30 day public transit challenge.
And more than a few revelations about who ACTUALLY uses transit.
You stressed that the only way to gather real insight about the public transit system is by experiencing it.
It’s what L.A.’s transportation director, Seleta Reynolds found out, too.
Also some terrifying thought experiments.
How about some shade? At least the busses, trains, and trolleys have A/C.
Overall, seems like you all want to see people doing more than just TALKING about reforming our mass transit system and actually doing something about it.
And some leaders are. The SMART plan means Miami’s about to get six new lines of rail. In terms of traffic, MDT and Waze partnered up to make our signals a bit smarter. Maybe soon we’ll finally get more of those bike lanes we’ve been longing for!
And you love happy endings (she made it to the meeting in time)
