ANALYSIS:
In advance of the TPO adoption of the TPO SMART Demonstration Project grants and pursuant to direction from the City Commission, the City's Transportation Department staff has 1) evaluated market-demand and made recommendations for the potential route on Miami Beach, including terminus locations and 2) prepared a draft Business Plan outline for the Beach Express North BERT Demonstration service and
Business Plan
The goal of the Beach Express North BERT Demonstration Service is to provide a one seat ride from the Golden Glades Multimodal Center to Miami Beach, connecting to the Earlington Heights Metrorail Station, Mount Sinai Medical Center, and a terminus location (to be determined) in Miami Beach. The service is targeted to serve people working on Miami Beach, particularly those living in north and northwest Miami-Dade County.
Note: The proposed Beach Express North BERT route on Miami Beach stops at Mount Sinai Medical Center, then continues south along Alton Road to a terminus at the Miami Beach Convention Center. The City's Transportation Department will work with Miami-Dade County to modify the route in order to more effectively serve major employment and activity centers along Collins Avenue and Indian Creek Drive between 50th Street and 17th Street.
Components of the Business Plan will include the following:
I. Objectives
- Implement the BERT service envisioned in Miami-Dade County’s SMART Plan;
- Connect to major Miami Beach major employment centers with their workforce through convenient, reliable, and comfortable transit service, including the many employees of Miami Beach residing in Miami-Dade County north of I-395 and east of I-95; and
- Connect to local Miami Beach Trolley service and regional Metrorail and Tri-Rail service.
II. Timeline
Pre-Implementation
- Conduct community and stakeholder outreach to obtain input.
- Execute Interlocal Agreement with Miami-Dade County, including a Business Plan.
- Promote the service.
Year One
- Initiate demonstration service.
- Monitor effectiveness of service (see metrics below).
- Monitor effectiveness of connections to Miami Beach Trolley routes.
- Market services, as a system, effectively to a number of targeted market segments.
- Charge fares consistent with Miami-Dade Transit standard fares, not premium fares, for the life of the demonstration project.
- Update connections to Miami Beach Trolley routes, if required.
Year Two
- Determine if the demonstration route should be continued.
- Continue to update connections to Miami Beach Trolley routes, if required.
- Continue to market services, as a system, effectively to a number of targeted market segments.
Year Three
- Determine if the demonstration route is to be continued on a permanent basis.
- Continue to update connections to Miami Beach Trolley routes, if required.
- Secure public (federal, state, county) and/or private partner funding in order to continue the Beach Express North BERT service on a permanent basis, if desired.
III. Keys to Success
- Comfortable, reliable vehicles with unique branding and technology amenities.
- Easily accessible information about the service route and schedule changes/problems.
- Drivers trained to provide courteous customer service.
- Convenient and comfortable stop locations.
- An experienced service provider.
- Exclusive lanes of travel to avoid traffic congestion.
IV. Market Feasibility Analysis (see information below)
V. Proposed Route and Stops (In Development)
VI. Sources and Uses of Funds
- Operating:
- Annual Operating Cost: $3,440,000
- Three-Year Demonstration Program Cost: $10,320,000
- Capital: $9.5 million capital for buses for Beach Express North BERT service.
- Sources:
- City of Miami Beach : 50% of Annual Operating Cost
- TPO Grant: 50% of Annual Operating Cost
- Miami-Dade County : $9.5 million equivalent capital contribution of buses
VII. Marketing Strategy (In Development)
VIII. Implementation Strategy (In Development)
IX. Performance Metrics
- Mode shift (i.e. number of new transit riders)
- Total ridership on route
- On-time performance
- Mystery rider evaluations of customer service, comfort, convenience, cleanliness, etc.
Miami Beach Terminus Locations
Staff has also evaluated potential terminus locations within the City. The number of employees in target areas of Miami Beach was evaluated with the goal of serving areas of the City with high concentrations of employees. The potential market of choice riders surrounding the Golden Glades Multimodal facility and the Earlington Heights Metrorail Station was also evaluated with the goal of attracting riders who live in those areas and work in Miami Beach but may not have convenient transit connections at the present time.
| Criteria |
Miami Beach |
Mt. Sinai |
Collins Ave.
30th to 50th |
Collins Ave. 17th to 30th |
South Beach |
Entertainment District |
RDA |
Convention Center |
| High Number of Employees |
52,734 |
3,321 |
6,064 |
8,496 |
33,464 |
6,444 |
4,868 |
2,016 |
| High Employees/Sq. Mile |
7,533 |
36,900 |
24,256 |
33,984 |
17,249 |
28,388 |
11,321 |
2,016 |
| Potential Choice Riders- GG |
M |
M |
M |
L |
M |
M |
M |
M |
| Potential Choice Riders- EH |
M |
M |
M |
H |
M |
M |
H |
H |
| Square Miles |
7 |
0.09 |
0.25 |
0.25 |
1.94 |
0.227 |
0.43 |
1 |
Based on staff's analysis, a potential route that serves Mount Sinai Medical Center and major employment destinations and activity centers along Collins Avenue between 50th Street and 17th Street could serve a large number of workers and areas with a large concentration of employees per square mile. The route proposed by Miami-Dade County once on Miami Beach is via Alton Road to the Convention Center. This would require trolley transfers to the Mount Sinai Medical Center and Collins Avenue 17th Street to 50th Street employment centers. A revised route on Miami Beach to minimize transfers to these employment centers would need to be further negotiated with Miami-Dade County, including exact stop locations on Miami Beach. It is important to note that the route outlined in the County's Adopted SMART Plan includes 41st Street and Washington Avenue rather than Alton Road.
Dedicated Lane
Critical to the success of a BERT project is the ability to travel in an exclusive lane, thereby avoiding traffic congestion. The north/south portion of the route from Golden Glades intermodal facility to the Earlington Heights Metrorail station will operate in the dedicated I-95 Express lanes. The concept of the BERT demonstration route anticipated the use of shoulders as has been used on other Express routes in Miami-Dade County.
FDOT has expressed opposition to the use of the outside shoulder of the Julia Tuttle Causeway due to impacts to the existing bike lane. FDOT has recommended using the inside shoulder for the service, but only after reinforcement and widening of the inside shoulder and restriping of the causeway and recommends that no service begin until this work is done. FDOT has advised that this work may take up to two (2) years.
Miami Beach is advocating for temporary use of the outside shoulders while expediting the required FDOT work to the inside shoulder.
- Peak usage of the bike lanes occurred when the Venetian Causeway was closed.
- Recent City-monitored bike usage shows minimal use during the peak hours.
- Used by 188 people per week in May/June 2017, per TPO data.
- City is currently gathering additional bicycle data.
- The City feels that Venetian Causeway and the 79th Street Causeway provide alternate/better bicycle facilities to the north and south.
Resolution of this issue is ongoing. If the interim use of the outside shoulder is not approved, the Administration and Miami-Dade County recommend deferral of the grant application. Further, the Administration and Miami-Dade County would work to modify the existing Airport Express (Route 150) to serve Mount Sinai and the hotel and economic activity centers along Collins Avenue.
Next Steps
If awarded funding through the TPO SMART Demonstration Project, and subject to confirmation of exclusive right-of-way use of expressway shoulders for this premium service, the next steps would include:
-
Conduct outreach and refine route with Miami-Dade County
- TPO review and approval of the City's SMART Demonstration Project grant application, anticipated to occur at the June 21, 2018 TPO Board meeting.
- Develop marketing plan and implementation strategy for the proposed BERT demonstration service.
- Finalize a Beach Express North BERT Interlocal Agreement and Business Plan with Miami Dade County.
- Interlocal Agreement (ILA) execution with Miami-Dade County, TPO, and/or FDOT.
- Miami Beach budget amendment approval.
If the City's grant application is approved by the TPO Board on June 21st, the budget amendment and ILA could be heard at the July 25th City Commission meeting, at the earliest.
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