Re-elect don slesnick
Mayor of coral gables
Posted on Mon, Feb. 19, 2007
STREETWISE
Trolley is a hard act to follow
BY LARRY LEBOWITZ
Imitation might be the sincerest form of flattery, but it doesn't always translate into good policy, especially when millions of public transportation dollars are at stake.
Exhibit A: The Coral Gables Trolley, which isn't really a trolley but a diesel bus tarted up to resemble a streetcar of yesteryear.
Several cities, including Boca Raton, Naples and Miami Gardens, have inquired about the Gables' success story with the city's transportation consultant, Tim Plummer, and the trolley's hard-working general manager, Ed Cox. Fort Lauderdale is pushing a downtown trolley plan.
And the legion lining up against the $200 million Miami Streetcar are pointing to the Gables trolley system as a more cost-effective, rational alternative.
Circulator buses, this faction argues, will be vastly cheaper to operate and give Miami more flexibility to modify routes as growth patterns change in the downtown arts district, Wynwood, Edgewater, Midtown Miami and the Design District. Once the rail is laid in the street, Streetcar routes are fixed.
Take a closer look at the Gables system, which is recording about 4,500 boardings a day and costs about $1.3 million annually to operate.
A lot of what works in the Gables is unique to the Gables. Land uses, the types of riders, a dearth of parking and the ease of connections to other transit plays a huge role here.
The Coral Gables Trolley is a Monday-to-Friday phenomenon, catering primarily to office workers, high-end shopkeepers, restaurateurs and school kids.
The Streetcar, by comparison, is being designed to serve a mix of future high-rise condo residents, accommodate nightclubs and arts centers and deliver workers and patients to the University of Miami/Jackson hospital district.
The Gables trolley route is compact -- just 2.3 miles up Ponce De Leon Boulevard from the Douglas Road Metrorail station to Southwest Eighth Street. The Streetcar route is much longer: nearly 11 miles.
The trolley is convenient. Ponce is a busy artery, but it doesn't attract anywhere near the vehicular traffic on parallel Douglas or Le Jeune roads. This makes it easier and safer to drop off and pick up riders. And it's just a two-block walk from either Le Jeune or Douglas.
The system works because trolleys are constantly circulating. If you miss one, fret not: Another is just three to five minutes away. Most of the time you should be able to look down Ponce and see the next one approaching. The price is right, too: free. Plummer and Cox estimate ridership would drop by 30 to 40 percent if they started charging fares of 25 to 50 cents.
The weekday trolley serves five distinct ridership periods. Besides the traditional a.m. and p.m. peaks, it handles a late-morning get-to-lunch crowd, the early-afternoon return-from-lunch folks and a mid-afternoon spike with school kids.
And then there are the ''X'' factors, starting with Cox. He's a maniac -- in the best sense of the word -- sweating every detail, especially customer service. The nonunion drivers are chatty, polite and well-informed. Many actually seem to enjoy their jobs.
Cox and Plummer haven't been afraid to admit failure or tinker to improve successes. It took them two years, but they finally were able to kill a politically engineered east-west route along Miracle Mile that didn't attract riders.
The original fleet of environmentally friendly hybrid-electric buses proved to be incredibly unreliable. Cox has quietly supplanted many with lower-emission diesels. Service calls that once peaked at 18 a day have plummeted to one a week.
But there is a flip side to the success, Plummer said: It's hard to expand while maintaining the high level of service that riders have come to expect.
In March, Cox will ask city commissioners to extend the Ponce route a little farther north, to Flagler Street, to try to pick up more transfers from popular Transit bus routes.
Another proposed expansion, from Douglas Road Metrorail down to the Riviera business district, needs more time to develop.
The Gables trolley works because it's compact, convenient and obsessed with customer service. It provides easy access to major activity centers and transit connections. It doesn't try to be all things to all people. It does what it does well, serving riders, not politicians.
All admirable goals.
But not easily replicated.
Got a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410.
