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Transportation in South Florida

The three main Miami-Dade Transit-operated systems, Metrobus, Metromover, and Metrorail, at Government Center station in Downtown Miami. Not pictured is STS paratransit.

The Miami metropolitan area[a] composed of the three counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, also known collectively as South Florida, is home to a wide variety of public and private transportation systems.

These include heavy rail mass transit (Metrorail), commuter rail (Tri-Rail), automated guideway transit (Metromover), highways, two major airports (Miami International Airport (MIA) and Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport (FLL)) and seaports (Port of Miami and Port Everglades), as well as three county-wide bus networks (Miami-Dade Metrobus, Broward County Transit (BCT), and Palm Tran), which cover the entire urbanized area of South Florida. Census and ridership data show that Miami has the highest public transportation usage of any city in Florida, as about 17% of Miamians use public transportation on a regular basis, compared to about 4% of commuters in the South Florida metropolitan area.[4]

The majority of public transportation in Miami is operated by Miami-Dade Transit (MDT), which is currently the largest transit system in Florida and was the 14th largest transit system in the United States in 2011.[5]

South Florida is one of the most densely populated urbanized areas in the United States overall,[b] being bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the South Florida Water Management District and the Everglades to the west, with a fairly strict Urban Development Boundary (UDB). As of the 2010 U.S. census, South Florida is both the eighth-most populous and eighth most densely populated metropolitan area in the United States.[6]

Now, with a population of over five and a half million people living in an urbanized area of only 1,116.1 sq mi (2,891 km2), it has an average population density of over 5,000 residents per square mile. According to the population as of the 2010 U.S. census, the 35.68 sq mi (92 km2) Miami city proper has an average population density of about 12,139 residents per square mile, with Downtown area, particularly Brickell, being the fastest growing and most dense neighborhoods.[7]

A major problem for urban planning and effective public transit in Miami-Dade and South Florida is the fact that in terms of planning, it is one of the most sprawled out and automobile dependent metropolitan areas in the United States,[b][8] with a lot of lowly contrasted medium density development spread throughout the area.[9] A low percentage of the area's office space, only 13 percent, is located in the Central Business District (CBD) of Miami.[10] Subsequently, transit access between people and jobs in the city and region remains limited.[11]

  1. ^ "Miami-Dade County Maps". Florida Center for Instructional Technology. 2007. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  2. ^ "Contact Us". Miami-Dade County. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  3. ^ "Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL Metropolitan Division". Bureau of Labor Statistics. April 1, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  4. ^ Schneider, Mike (June 28, 2015). "Cape Coral-Fort Myers has longest commute in Florida". The Miami Herald. Associated Press. Archived from the original on July 1, 2015. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  5. ^ Williams, Andy (July 10, 2008). "Cubic wins contract to update Miami-Dade Transit's aging fare collection system". ContactlessNews. Retrieved September 19, 2011.
  6. ^ "USA Urbanized Areas Over 500,000: 2000 Rankings". Wendell Cox Consultancy. 2001. Retrieved November 10, 2011.
  7. ^ "Population & Demographic Profile" (PDF). Miami Downtown Development Authority. September 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on November 27, 2014. Retrieved November 14, 2014.
  8. ^ Gale, Kevin (August 24, 2011). "Tri Rail privatization studied as way to add FEC commuter service". South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved October 13, 2011.
  9. ^ Metro-Dade Transportation Administration (1984), p. i
  10. ^ Norton, Frank (April 3, 2003). "South Florida's office sprawl is nation's worst, study shows". Miami Today. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
  11. ^ Imbery, Lecia (August 8, 2014). "Bridges To Economic Opportunity: Why We Need Transportation Equity". Coalition on Human Needs. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015. Retrieved December 5, 2015.


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