Episode 64: A County Voice for Transit

On this episode, recorded at the 2022 Rail~Volution conference in Miami, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Eileen Higgins talks about why she thinks it’s important as an elected official to ride transit. Miami-Dade County’s South Dade Bus Rapid Transit project, zoning along transit corridors and the importance of FTA ratings in getting projects built.

“There are three things that matter fundamentally to our families, right? One is, can they afford where they live? What’s going on with the price of housing? Two, transportation, huge, huge cost burden, right? Five-six hundred bucks a month if you need a car with insurance; we have outrageous insurance rates here. So can you afford to live where you are? Can you get where you need to go? And then do you make a decent living? Do you have a job that pays you decent wages with decent benefits? And I believe if we improve any one of these three things, we are fundamentally improving people’s quality of life.”  – Commissioner Eileen Higgins

The South Dade Transitway, scheduled to open in 2024, will be Miami-Dade County’s first Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor. Twenty miles in length, it will connect cities on the southern end of the county with the Metrorail system, providing faster access to jobs and other opportunity. As Commissioner Higgins points out,  Florida City residents trying to get to work will save 45 minutes each way. “This is a meaningful project that’s going to transform economic opportunity for tens of thousands of low-income residents.”