Ranking from best to worst: Miami, Detroit, Jacksonville. Not really a surprise. Check out @LonestarTrips! Patreon: / milesintransit Twitter: / milesintransit1 Facebook: / milesintransit Website: milesintransit.com/
Metrorail being elevated makes sense because of both the water table and not having to deal with FDOT (it was also built along the US Route 1 ROW which was formerly Florida East Coast Railway ROW). For the Metrorail, when the system first opened in 1984, it opened with the MetroPath or M-Path underneath the tracks, originally a 10.5-mile trail for cyclists that crosses different intersections. This was built along the former the Florida East Coast Railway's main line ROW between Miami and Kendall, which was abandoned in 1972 and purchased by the county in 1979 for Metrorail. As a result of the success of the High Line in NYC, plans were made to revamp the MetroPath in 2014 as a linear park, dubbed the Underline. The first phase was completed in Brickell in 2021, the second phase from Brickell to just south of Vizcaya station was completed in April 2024, and when the third phase is completed, it will be completed to Dadeland South! Besides being a path for jogging and cyclists, it features things like bike repair stations, exercise equipment, art installations, and will provide access to public transportation to a university, over 20 schools, hospitals, urgent care facilities, major malls and over 10,000 businesses! Just south of Dadeland South, the paved path continues south as the South Dade Trail, all the way to Florida City. The entire route forms a 31-mile corridor! You can see just how much the Miami skyline has changed if you watch a show from the 1970s called "¿Qué Pasa, USA?" which features the old Miami skyline then in its intro! It's a bilingual sitcom originally made for PBS about a Cuban family fighting between keeping their Cuban traditions or adapting to the new Anglo-American lifestyle. Another urban people mover system that has led to a lot of development is the Punggol "LRT" in Singapore, which has done a lot of futureproofing as the line was built while Punggol is being developed as the Punggol New Town, with two loops, an East Loop and a West Loop which both connect with the Punggol MRT station. So due to limited developments around some stations on the loop at the time, only certain stations opened. Meaning that they built all these stations in 2005 and opened them only when there were developments. In January 2005, all East Loop stations except Oasis (2007) and Damai (2011) opened. In June 2014, West Loop except for Sam Kee (Feb 2016), Teck Lee, Punggol Point (Dec 2016) and Samudera (March 2017) opened. Teck Lee has remained closed since 2005 but starting in 2024, will be open to serve SIT's Punggol campus.
It's always fun to find you in the comments sections, Avery! Interesting insights into MetroRail! I've quite enjoyed the episodes of Que Pasa USA! I've come across on PBS over the years as a Cuban American myself.
I miss the metromover in Miami. Haven’t lived there in almost 20 years. They used to charge money to ride it but it was worth it to get around while beating the traffic. It’s crazy it’s free now
As someone from this city while our transit can be, interesting to say the least, the fact we made a airport people mover actually useful and free is genuinely really nice. I only hope there can be a south beach connection (please I’m begging the traffic is so bad 😭)
The Cat in the Hat clip....well played (Goated movie). Exactly, Metromover is so successful because of its connections, not just with Metrorail, Tri-Rail and Brightline, but also with multiple routes of the Metrobus network like dedicated bus loops at Government Center and Adrienne Arsht Center stations, it's a fully built-out system unlike the Jacksonville Skyway and DPM, and of course it goes where people wanna go, becoming a catalyst for downtown development! 7 million a year (in 2023) for a system that has been 4.4 miles long is impressive! And having a quirky system like this is good advertisement for transit, because it gets locals and tourists to want more transit! As for Metromover expansion, they've been wanting to expand it to Miami Beach, which would help increase ridership and transit connectivity to Miami Beach big time of course because of all the tourists and would help ease crowding on buses to Miami Beach from downtown (Miami Beach actually has an express bus from the airport too), but sadly in Feb 2024, Miami Beach's city commission voted to oppose a Metromover extension to South Beach. The "really cool building" at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="373">6:13</a> is the Freedom Tower! It was built in 1925 as the headquarters for the former newspaper The Miami News and was inspired by Seville's Giralda. In the 1960s, the US government used the building to process all the Cubans who arrived as refugees, and so they called it the Freedom Tower. While many Cubans who left during that time were the former Batista elite fleeing, my family left for the NYC metro area years before because they were working-class who hated Batista (and Cubans were already in the NYC area for decades prior; the Cuban flag was designed in NYC in 1849). As many Cubans who moved to NYC came for job opportunity, these are left-leaning compared to our Miami counterparts, and I was raised a leftist against the embargo! My mom was born and lived in northern NJ as a kid, briefly lived in Miami (her parents missed Cuba's climate), but her dad had to hide his beliefs from the Batista people, and she hated the weather and missed the walkability and transit of the NYC metro (she said before Metrorail how people hitchhiked because the transit was so bad) so she moved back to the Northeast. Before many moved to Miami after the revolution, Tampa was the dominant Cuban-American city in FL, with Cuban cigar makers moving to Tampa from Key West in the 1880s due to labor unrest, hurricanes, and lack of room for expansion. Unlike Miami Cuban sandwiches, Tampa-style Cuban sandwiches have Genoa salami, influenced by the Italian community in Ybor City.
Cuban sandwiches are the BEST! I'd eat an authentic Cuban sandwich before a Philly Cheese Steak, Chicago Pizza, or Kansas City BBQ, just to name a few foods, any day.
Hey Avery! The MetroMover really is a cool system! I really enjoy riding it. I was really excited to hear they were planning on extending it Miami Beach, particularly since the previous plan was that Private Casino Monorail. I was disappointed to hear that Miami Beach opted to oppose the plan. The Freedom Tower is a beautiful building with a lot of history to it. You can see it from Miami Dade College's Campus in Downtown. It's interesting to hear your family is from the Cuban Communities in NY and NJ. My father's best friend lived up that way for years. Many Cubans here are more Right leaning from the trauma of the Revolution and its aftermath. Miami did displace Tampa as the bigger Cuban city down in South Florida. I love Cuban Sandwiches, but I don't think I've tried Tampa-Style ones before. It's interesting how cultural contact can influence cuisine like that.
Wilkie D. Ferguson Jr. station is named after a Bahamian-American judge who served as a US district judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Florida (from 1993 to his death in 2003), as well as serving on the Florida Third District Court of Appeal and the 11th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida. He was the first African-American to serve as a circuit court judge in Dade County and was also the first African-American appointed to serve on the Third District Court of Appeal in 1980. Brickell was named after Ohioans William and Mary Brickell, who came to the mouth of the Miami River with their children in 1871. They opened and operated the area’s first trading post and post office. The Brickells traded with the Miccosukee and Seminoles who traveled from the Everglades. The Brickells had extensive real estate holdings that included all of present-day Brickell and extended south to Coconut Grove. Along with Julia Tuttle, who's considered the founder of Miami, who owned extensive land north of the Miami River, the Brickells had been involved with negotiations with Henry Flagler to extend his railroad to Miami and, also along with Tuttle, agreed to give land to Flagler when he brought his railroad here. Mary Brickell took control of the family’s real estate holdings, and Brickell is now the booming Financial District of the city thanks in part to Mary! She also developed Millionaire’s Row on present-day Brickell Avenue, as well as Brickell Hammock, which is now The Roads.
Miami surprised me last time. The buses I rode were (mostly) decent. The airport connections are, for the southern US, actually transit accessible (if you can at least have someone drop you off at a train station). I also rode Metromover like you and it was useful AND fun!
Welcome back to Miami, Miles! Hopefully, you can ride the new Tri-Rail line that just opened (Gold Line) from Downtown Miami to the Metrorail Transfer Station! By the way, Miami-Dade Transit just did a project on the Better Bus Network. You can try riding the redesigned routes as well. Metrobus also added some new routes (14, 20, and 100). 🙂
There will be a Tri-Rail video at some point! And I don't have any videos planned for the new bus routes, but I will say the 100 is incredible for frequency (even if reliability seems to be a big issue).
I absolutely love the style of low effort yet also considerable editing effort your videos have, but also this one in particular was fun. I have another reason to visit Miami now.
I love the dedicated transfer floor at Riverwalk Station! The ground-level entrance to it is cool too; they have a giant letter “M” with a clock inside of it!
@@AverytheCubanAmerican it's only because they were going to destroy low-income housing. I'm from Virginia Beach and a lot of locals had a big problem with it and they were afraid that if they extended it down to the boardwalk then it would invite shady characters down there more. It was crazy.
I tried to tell Miles that Norfolk can get pretty sketchy at night. That's why locals don't go down there after hours, and there aren't a lot of people out at night in those parts, especially in Newport News and Hampton. It gets really sketchy, really bad. People were afraid that if they extended The Tide light rail, all those people would come down to the boardwalk more, and a lot of rich white people got upset that it would invite crime if they extended it, which was a bunch of BS.
@@AverytheCubanAmerican One more destination wouldn’t fix the Tide. The lack of transit to feed the line with riders is the problem - the current network would work just fine if HRT actually ran a bus that connected to either end.
Clearly, Miami has changed for the better since I was there. I hope you had time to peruse the Art Deco buildings and soak in some sun on Miami Beach. Thanks for sharing!
Welcome to Miami! Thanks for riding the Metromover, whilst you're here I have a few recommendations for transit oriented stuff to do. I'm sure you will take Brightline and TriRail however, I would recommend visiting the South Florida Railroad Museum up in Deerfield beach (its open Saturdays), it has model trains and a lot of history about railways in South Florida. Also we do have a BRT in South Miami and Cutler Bay which is pretty interesting. I've never been on it however. Also on 48 East Flagler Street in downtown (which not many people know about), you can see the old Flagler Station, I'm not sure what's inside it today but its an interesting building to see. Have a nice trip!
Wish there would be a line connecting Miami Beach to Downtown, though the buses running between Miami Beach and Downtown Miami are good enough (plus the 150 airport bus from Miami Beach to the airport transit center).
@97nels In November of 2022 the Miami-Dade County Commission voted to extend the Metro Mover from downtown Miami to South beach which would be a 5 mile extension across Biscayne Bay. The County is currently seeking Federal funding for this extension.
My 12 year old son and I just did a Brightline trip to Miami. Every city in the U.S. needs something like this. Especially in HOT cities. Being free is awesome.
I use to live at south beach back in 2000. Took the bus across the bridge to downtown Miami to the metromover to the train in Kendall. Hands down back then it was a good system compare to any other part of Florida. Shame that the piss poor leadership past and present in Tampabay has not done equal or better.
Boats used to be able to go really far up the Miami River, but they added some water control gates that blocked boat traffic beyond it. There are old bridges that can lift or turn to allow boats thru that no longer operate that functionality.
Was in Boca Raton in March and took tri rail to Miami and rode the people mover for the first time. It works really well and is super convenient. Tri Rail was great too.
<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="339">5:39</a> this shot literally looks like something lit of a video game. all the buildings look painted on a blue wall or something. so surreal
It's an awesome system. Miami-Dade is trying to extend it to Miami Beach, but the Miami Beach city council voted unanimously to oppose the extension, claiming that it's "outdated technology." I think the true opposition is better represented by wealthy local condo owners, as noted in a February Miami Herald article: "Last February, South of Fifth residents voiced their displeasure during a meeting with County Commissioner Eileen Higgins at the Murano Grande luxury condo building, at one point chanting, “Stop the train!” John Stimmel, president of an owners association for the Icon condo tower in South Beach, said at that meeting that the Metromover, the county’s only free transit option, could bring “more crime” and homelessness to Miami Beach."
I really wish people would stop being closet racists and just be honest. You don't want blacks near your house, ok fine. I get it. But the coyness is infuriating, and the argument they make looks dumb for it.
@@MilesinTransit According to MDT the daily Bus ridership between South Beach & downtown Miami is around 14k. That is more than enough passengers to warrant a Rail line. The "crime & homelessness" issue is laughable at best & a typical NIMBY talking point.
This actually looks like a pretty useful little system. It'd be interesting to study building something like this to connect Albany and the capital and goverment offices with the Renssalaer Amtrak station especially if it turns out they can't practically move passenger rail back into Albany even if the infamous 787 waterfront highway is torn down. NYSDOT has actually began studying removing this scar on this historic riverfront city with the boulevard option being the cheapest option. Albany has several decent frequency express bus routes they bill BRT but those don't serve the Amtrak station which is surrounded by tons of surface parking and a large garage. A gondola was even proposed to link the station to Downtown Albany by a private concern but I haven't anything for a while. Do folks here think a Metromover could fill that niche or would something else be a better solution to better connect Amtrak passengers into Albany?
Hmm, I think this type of service works best when it's connected to frequent, all-day lines, and I'm not sure if Amtrak at Rensselaer really fits the bill...I think you'd end up with a couple times a day where the tiny vehicles get overloaded with people coming from a train, and then they'd be empty until the next train shows up. A better bus connection between the Amtrak station and downtown that times with trains would probably work fine for now!
@@MilesinTransitThanks for the analysis. Those are all great points. I agree that coordinated bus link would get the job done well. It’ll be interesting to see how things evolve in Albany over the coming years with I787 and if it gets removed. Fingers crossed it does.
I was wondering why the jingle from the announcements sound familiar and that's because it's the same one as the ones used in the LA Metro rail lines' announcements!
Only 2 soundbites in this one Miles Mocks Announcements <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="60">1:00</a> FER RY <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="307">5:07</a> Why does every single transit system in the US use the same chime- MARTA, Miami, LA all use the same chime
That 'brutalist' station on the way to Brickell, the ride up to it is so steep and at an angle too where you can look down at a highway and the river, it's kinda scary the first time.
The Metromover is an interesting system, especially with the way the train lines run straight through buildings like that. I don't know of many other transit systems that do that
That elevated stop with the incline ramps looks like something straight out of Chongqing, PRC. Any system that small, which makes you look at the system map and go uhh needs better way finding.
Here in Forest Hills they just built a luxury condo tower (well it’s not that tall, and it’s brick exterior so it doesn’t look terrible) with a mixed podium, there’s retail (a bank and a Trader Joe’s that’s actually in the basement, the front door leads to elevators and escalators going down), then a parking level, then the residential part of the building. I think something similar, but much larger, is wrapping up construction over in Rego Park, but the podium is twice the size of the tower (and there may be accommodations to expand as the rest of the block is just an abandoned Blinds-to-Go small box store, and a giant hole in the ground). Both are semi-close to the subway, though the larger one is only near the local M/R stop. The real menace are parking podiums that don’t have street level stores, it’s just a garage.
Lol. It looks like a quirky system. So many peoplemovers are a failure from the start but Miami is out here like "Task failed Succesfully". Also if we stretch the definition, I bet the Copenhagen Metro would count as a Peoplemover too so its like, the other good peoplemover... actually the dynamic between Metromover and Metrorail seems very similar to the one between the Metro and S-train back home here. Except Miami's is free and ours has a surcharge...
Automated trains are the future of transit. As much as some frothers love conductors and the jobs we really need automated trains to unlock future ridership growth and keep costs down... The best systems I've ever ridden are the automated ones like Vancouver's Skytrain...
Yes, but this is not a train nor is it useful transit. What we need is actual automated trains. So regular metros/subways with regular stop spacings and coverage, but with automated running and platform screen doors. This on the other hand is just garbaggio.
It's very useful. I used it every day for years! It really makes getting around downtown a breeze! Should we improve Miami's transit options and increase walkability? Yes! But this is a lovely little system!
@@MilesinTransit have you ever been to The Latin America and The Caribbean Region ever in your life? I went to Miami plenty times there during my shopping trip there and I knew one of the shipping boats goes to the Caribbean region. Boy go check Wikipedia first before you go there to Haiti and don't forget to go transit fanning there including Dominican Republic for heavy rail trains.
man videos on this system are starting to pop up all over the place. Certainly not complaining though, I've said for years that this is a PHENOMENAL system of downtown transit done right, and how to properly use weird systems
I'd argue there's at least one other good people mover - the Singapore LRT that connects various otherwise unserved residential neighbourhoods to the metro
Wow, this looks cool, and very similar! There was an implicit "in the US" in the title that I didn't make clear, I'm sure there are other good worldwide examples too!
It's super useful but it's a shame they haven't expanded it in decades. Miami has grown so much and rapidly densifying neighborhoods like Wynwood are completely left out of this system.
Miami won't be the only good APM for long. San Diego is proposing a self-propelled APM connecting the Downtown rail hub and Civic Center with the airport at 2 minute frequencies.
just want to note i watched this excellent content holding my 2 day old daughter who was born at the absolutely excellent pennslyvania hospital in philadelphia shout out to all their staff they are great seriously if your gonna have a baby and can have it there.
I think for one thing, it's very useful for downtown circulation - the outer loops give the system a decent enough length. But also, the trains come so frequently that it often does beat walking; a downtown streetcar would only come every 15 minutes and be useless even with the same track length, but with this you know there'll always be something coming in the next couple of minutes.
Its a shame there aren't more of these kinds of systems in cities around the country. Imagine how convenient it would be to get to just about any major downtown and ride a free people mover to your job or a convention or museum or whatever...
These downtown People Mover systems were created by the Urban Mass Transit administration (UMTA) back in the 1970's as a way to help cities relieve car congestion & the Gas crisis back then. Cities had to compete for funds since the FEDS were nearly paying 80% of the cost to build them. Only the cities of Detroit, Jacksonville & Miami were awarded funds. For some reason Detroit built a 1 loop system & never expanded its plans for a Metro system. Miami was already building it Metrorail system & it intergraded the people mover as the "last mile" option many cities lack.
This thing is like a mini Chicago El loop edit: Oh wait this thing is FREE?! that's sick. This actually rules. Imagine a future where it gets upgraded to longer trains and gets extended and it can be like a mini Vancouver Skytrain
@@BB-xm8jc pretty cool idea to be honest. I see an interesting future ahead for this system. Hopefully Miami Metrorail gets another line or an extension someday as well, it seems as though the two systems compliment each other really well
@@himbourbanist They are extending Metrorail to the Hard Rock stadium / Broward County line hopefully in time for the World Cup Events in the US. The County has already secured the ROW (right of way) along NW 27th. Avenue.
I'm still in the boat of automated is bad, because it takes away jobs. But at least it's useful, compared to Jacksonville. Also it just now occurred to me, how long are the door open times? For people who walk slowly. I hate it when T operators open the doors for 3 seconds and close them.
The station dwells are actually longer than I'd like them to be - it usually sits at each stop for at least 20 seconds regardless of if anyone's getting on or off.
@@MilesinTransit I mean no offense, but are people with walkers banned from this service? Like 20 seconds that's plenty of time for them to get on and off, as long as they get the priority seating. But if you want say 10 seconds, for them to fully stand up, there's 5 seconds used, I've taken the bus and it's taken those individuals to get off 10 seconds at least. Keep in mind, that's taken into account they do get the priority seating.
