3 Day Transit Only Trip to Los Angeles

A job interview in Los Angeles on December 20th meant I had to travel down there and get around the city. My choice was to use transit and avoid the use of a car for the entire trip. I could have taken Amtrak from Portland and it would have been about $50 cheaper than flying if I had to pay but I cashed in my frequent flyer miles and got a free round trip ticket to Los Angeles which included a free upgrade to first class on the trip back – bonus! My first preference would have been to fly into Burbank which is more convenient and has better transit access but it would have been 15,000 more miles for the ticket which is beyond what I had or wanted to spend so LAX would be the spot I flew into.

Red Line Train Arriving At Pioneer Courthouse Square with Siemens S70 cars

Politics and Transit

Los Angeles Infrastructure or Bust

Whenever politics controls what is happening with a project everyone looses.

Back when Miami was building its original Metrorail route, the northern part of the route was not determined by what was best option, instead the politicians overruled good transportation planning which has resulted in a route that is questionable at best.

Will the same thing happen when it comes to the Airport TRAX line? What will be the unintended consequences of going with embedded rails over the standard design? What is going to keep drivers from declaring the lanes their own and causing havoc with rail schedules?

Once again because of a few people with inferiority complexes and politicians too willing to give a vocal minority whatever they want, the best options are not pursued but instead politics rule the day.

Of course looking at the Los Angeles situation things could be much worst. Of course we can always ask, how bad would things be if the state politicians were given more control of UTA? I hope we never have to find out.

Articles from the week...

Image via Wikipedia From the Mobilizing the Region Blog out of the New York area comes this:

Highway Removal Olympics: Who Will Win the Gold?

San Francisco became famous for becoming the first area to remove a freeway after the 1989 Earthquake did serious damage to the largely completely freeway along the Embarcadero. Instead of a stub freeway they now have a beautiful pedestrian friendly boulevard with streetcar service.

Sadly, here in Utah we went the old direction with the rebuild of I-15 so we lost all the potential that could have been done with putting the freeway in a ditch and then a cap on top of it.

From Light Rail Transit Online comes:

TOD vs."TAD"

This has some good information about TOD developments. We are starting to see some developments coming on line and will see more in the future. I have noticed that more advertisements for housing stating that they are close to a TRAX line.

From the Denver Infill Blog:

The Denver Union Station Story

A great story about the history and future of Denver Union Station. While Salt Lake City let Boyer have their way with the Union Pacific Station, Denver is working to rebuild their magnificent Union Station. While it will not be a perfect situation (the light rail tracks will be about a block away from the completed station), it shows the what can be done.

That article was referred from the Denver Transit Stop Blog which has this story:

Sprawling From Grace

This talks about a video that is going to be shown at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this week. What I found interesting is the part of the video that talks about preventing gentrification and keeping character and diversity in a neighborhood.

From the Transit Sleuth comes this entry:

Last Night Wondering

Adron talks about his day doing things in Portland after work including how transit played a pivotal role in his activities. What this really points out is how Portland has become a city in which you can leave the car at home and hopefully Salt Lake will be there soon.

From Transit Miami comes:

UM: Wising Up To Transit

Apparently freshman are welcome at the University of Miami but their cars are not. The university is located on a Metrorail line and like the U Of U has their own shuttle service around the campus. When I was attending Railvolution last November I made a trip over to Coral Gables which included transferring from MetroRail to a bus to head over the Biltmore Hotel to take some pictures. In the 10 minutes I waited for the Metro Bus I counted at least six U of M shuttle vans stopping at the transit center on their trips around the campus.

From Streetsblog comes this:

The Parking Cure, Step 1: Diagnose the Problem

Previously I talked about how new school guide lines have made new schools walking unfriendly over the course of the last several years in this entry: Schools and Sprawl.

This situation in New York is very similar in that regulations have been enacted over the years that are pedestrian and transit unfriendly and need to be changed.

From the Seattle Transit Blog comes:

News Stands

Could news stands at certain TRAX stations help the newspaper and magazine businesses? They seem to work well in some of the major cities (obviously Seattle is not one of the them...yet), but what about Salt Lake City? Can't use the weather argument because cities with worse weather than us have them.

From the RT Rider comes this information from Sacramento:

RT's worst-case scenario at a glance

RT's current $2.00 fare may go up to $2.25 and severe bus cuts may be necessary. Once again Sacramento like most California systems are dependent on funding from the state and the Govenator is busing trying to transfer funds from transit to highways so they transfer that to other programs.

From Portland Transport:

Streetcar Loop Moves Forward, Your Input Needed on Future Routes

Portland is looking to extend its streetcar line across the Willamette River to the east side of Portland. Portland has been dealing with the federal governments bias toward buses over rail for in trying to get the streetcar off the ground.

From Cap' Transit Rides Again comes:

Cities are Born in Moments of Transition

Interesting perspective on why downtown areas died including highway bypasses.

Comparison of UTA and Miami-Dade

VS.

So how does UTA compare to the Miami-Dade transit system? So far UTA has not been able to win a victory against another transit system, but will today be the day? Read on and find out...

First of all fares, etc: Currently the Miami system has a lower fare since it is $1.50 while the UTA is $1.60. However, in at UTA you get a free transfer but in Miami you have to pay $.50 for a transfer and you can only use it once.

In addition UTA does offer a day pass (even if it is too hard to get), but there is no day pass in Miami. Miami does have their visitor's pass which is good for a week and is a good value which is something that UTA may want to look at.

While Miami may have a lower fare, you have to pay $75.00 for a Miami Dade monthly pass compared to a pass price of $53.50 at the UTA.

When it comes to fares UTA wins by decision.

Information and Ease of Use: Miami Dade does win as it does have a counter at the Miami airport (ok, no one was present there but it had schedules) however, only one Miami Dade bus had timetables on it and none of the train stations had any although there was racks for them. Miami did do bus changes a week and a half before I arrived but one thing that you can say about UTA is that when the changes take place there is timetables available on the buses and at other locations.

When it comes to ease of use we have a draw. Neither system has timed transfers and transfers are not really considered on either system.

Drivers: OK we have a huge win for UTA. Whatever you think about UTA, it does have one of the best group of drivers of any system I have ridden. Yeah there is the jerk every now and again but overall UTA has good drivers. Meanwhile I only encountered one somewhat helpful driver and all the rest were down right bad. Miami-Dade should be ashamed at the way their drivers treat their customers.

Bus Stop Signs: One thing that Miami-Dade does well is having a route map at every bus stop (at least every bus stop I was at). The map also shows the frequency of the route but does not have times. Meanwhile UTA has information at some stops which includes the times the buses should be at the stop but do not include route maps. So this one is a wash however I will note that when I was at the South Dade MetroRail station I had no idea when my next bus would arrive. Since there was no timetables available I had no idea when the next bus would come since all the sign said was the route ran every 40-minutes during the day, 20-minute rush hour. Apparently I just missed a bus because I had to wait 35-minutes. If I knew the wait would be that long I would have caught another bus route since I was looking for a restaurant.

Buses/Rail: Once again we have a win for UTA. The Miami buses are done up to stop vandalism. The buses are done in dark colors on the inside, have hard anti-vadalism seats and are generally not a pleasure to be in. Meanwhile UTA does have better quality seats in their buses plus a better color scheme.

Meanwhile it is a wash for the Miami MetroRail since they do have cushioned seats on their rail vehicles.

One thing that lowers Miami-Dade is the amount of graffiti present around the system. They seem to not deal with it at all, just leave it up. So after years the system looks dingy and dirty and not very impressive to visitors or choice riders.

So who was the winner?

UTA!!! Yes UTA has pulled off a victory that was well deserved. UTA is clearly a better transit system to ride. In this case the UTA does most things better that Miami. Can UTA learn some things from the Miami system? Of course, you can always learn from others but I doubt that anyone from UTA that went to Railvolution took the time to learn about Miami-Dade.

So who will UTA be up against next? Well, I can't tell you now but will bring it to you when I have an opportunity to check a system out.

Cause of Some High Cost and Long Planning Periods...

LACMTA Gold Line light rail transit system Los Angeles County Ca
Originally uploaded by Salaam Allah West Coast Transitphotography KING!

One of the problems we have here in the United States in building light rail lines is that it cost more than comparable lines in other countries.

Among the problems that causes that is that we build systems like tanks so to survive a crash instead of prevent the accidents, politicians putting pork into the project for such items as neighborhood improvements and what we would be talking about today planning.

While good planning is very important, over the last few years the Federal Government is requiring more and more items to be included in the planning. One example of that is the requirement that Bus Rapid Transit is required to evaluated on every project now. While at first this seems to make sense to study alternatives, let me give you some examples from Los Angeles where this is doing nothing but slowing down the process and increasing cost.

First of all I would like to thank Darrell Clarke of Friends of Expo for this information.

Downtown Connector: The two current light rail lines end at two opposite points of downtown. The Gold Line ends at Union Station which at the extreme northeast end of downtown while the Blue Line ends at the 7th/Metro MetroRail Station which is in the center west end of the downtown.

The two lines are currently connected by the MetroRail but requires two transfers are required. The downtown connector is designed to bring these two lines together so that trains can operate through. However, the Federal Transit Authority is requiring them to study BRT for this line instead of light rail. Now why would you connect two light rail lines by a short BRT? Not to mention that the lines are connected by overcrowded MetroRail already. Clearly the study of BRT is political and slows down the process.

Wilshire Subway: Extended the current MetroRail Subway from Western Avenue all the way to Santa Monica. Once again BRT is required to be studied as a possible alternative to the Subway. The problem with that? BRT already runs along with route and is beyond capacity. That is the whole reason the subway extension is being studied!

Expo Phase II: The first phase of the Expo line is now under construction and they are required to study BRT for phase II. This is equivalent to UTA building the first phase of the University line then having to build BRT to the Medical Center.

As you can see in these cases BRT is being used as a Red Herring and is doing nothing but increasing cost.

While we need GOOD planning, we do not need planning that is doing nothing but cost us money.

Miami Day 6...

It's hard to believe that it will be one month tomorrow since I got back from Miami and I am just getting around to posting about Day6 of my Miami journey but then again we have had a lot to talk about.

This day in Miami will be short. Basically taking MetroMover, MetroRail, and Tri-Rail from my hotel to the Fort Lauderdale Airport to catch my flight to Atlanta and transfer to my Salt Lake flight.

I started out by taking my last ride on the MetroMover. The train was very crowded with construction workers heading to their various construction sites plus their were many others on the crowded car.

Once I got off at the Government Station I went up to the third level which serves no purpose at this time or probably forever. From the TransitMiami blog I learned there is a ghost platform that was supposed to be used by the east-west line that never was built. It is on this third level and as you can see has sat unused for 20+ years.


Right in front of this platform was this sign talking about the expansion plans for MetroRail. If you look closely you can see ride and green lines which are extensions now in the planning stages. What is ironic is the placement of this sign in front of this unused platform. The expansion plans no longer include the Government Center so this platform will still be unused. In addition the sign is in an area that gets virtually no foot traffic so it's placement is kind of a waste.

Next I took MetroRail to the Tri-Rail Station. This station is in Hialeah which is not the best of neighborhoods but the station seems to be OK. I went to purchase my tri-rail ticket but the ticket machine was out but there was a person in the Tri-Rail office selling tickets. Not only did I have to come down the stairs you see but then I had to go up an elevator, cross over the tracks, then back down to get to the northbound platform.

Several trains were canceled due to mechanical failure but our train was running only 20-minutes late. Even though they had mechanical problems that canceled trains, they did not add any cars to the trains so they were still only 2 or 3 cars long and running standing room only.
When our train started approaching a Florida East Coast freight train blocked it's path for another 5 minutes. You can see the freight train in the background and our commuter train is on the other side.
But finally the train pulls in and as you can see I was not the only one taking the train to the airport (Tri-Rail serves all three of the major airports in the area).
I got off the commuter train and transferred to the free Tri-Rail shuttle to the airport. It was a tiny cutaway van bus which was not large enough to handle the people transferring plus their luggage. They should be using a larger bus for this service, however the bus did get me to the airport with plenty of time to have breakfast before boarding my flight.

My flight from Fort Lauderdale to Atlanta was on a 767-400ER. Now I can understand the 767 part since this flight gets a lot of cruise ship passengers (as a matter of fact everyone on the plane seemed to have come off a cruise ship) but why an Extended Range model on a captive plane going back and forth on a short route?
My flight was on time into Atlanta were I had a 3 hour layover before heading to Salt Lake. One thing I do like about the Atlanta airport is the variety of restaurants. I was able to get Chinese food and eat it while taking pictures of the many planes taxing by.

My plane would end up being one of the planes still painted in the colors of the ill-fated Song Airlines which was Delta's short lived attempt at a low fair subsidiary like United's Ted. Here I encountered the most unusually delay in all my millions of miles flying. A water drain plugged up and flooded some of the carpeting in the front of the plane. So the pilot had the mechanics come on board and replace the carpet in that side of the plane.



We ended up leaving Atlanta 45-minutes late but made up almost 30-minutes of it by the time we landed in Salt Lake City.

So how did Miami-Dade County Transit and Tri-Rail compare to UTA? Keep your eyes out as I will be posting that soon and also will be going to detail about some aspects of the MetroMover system especially when compared to streetcars.

Miami Day 5...

My last full day in Miami. Once again my journey today would start the Omni Bus Terminal which is next door to the Omni MetroMover Station.


I decided to catch the first bus heading over to Miami Beach that came along. Yesterday while I was ride the S line I saw several things I would like pictures of so I figured I would head over that way. The first bus to come along happened to be an S so I jumped on board and head back over to Miami Beach. in a commercial are

I got off the bus at 24th Street and took several pictures including of this apartment compex. I walked a few blocks then caught another S bus to take me further north.

This time I got off at 45th Street and took a large number of photographs while walking north. The temperature was actually not that bad so I just continued walking for about an hour. Here are a sample of the pictures I took.



Here is a southbound S bus.
I walked all the way to the Atlantic Heights area before catching another S bus and took it farther north to the Haulover Park area where I got off a took some pictures of the beach area.
I then caught an H bus which I probably would have missed because I couldn't see the bus company but someone else got off and the driver jumped off and started smoking for a few minutes. We then head north and then west over to the Mall at a 163rd.

I needed a new pair of jeans which I purchased at the mall then went to catch the 3 bus. I saw several of these Miami Mini Buses running in this area of Miami and I gather they are operated by and for Haitian Immigrants although anyone can ride.
Next I took the 3 bus down to 135th where I saw a place called Jumbo Buffet yesterday. Yes I still haven't had the Chinese food I have been craving for several days and this provided me the opportunity.

I rarely find a Chinese place that disappoints me but this one did. The restaurant was located half way between two bus stops and since walked north from the previous bus stop I decided to continue walking north to catch the bus.

I barely got out of the restaurant when a southbound 3 came by. This picture shows that bus stopping at the bus stop were I would catch it. This road was way too dangerous for me to attempt to cross and since I was not in a hurray why worry.


Maybe I should have worried? Here is a sign you don't see in Salt Lake City.

The next 3 came along and headed back to the hotel. I decided to stay in the hotel and watch the Nextel Cup race, have some dinner at Burger King before getting ready to catch my flight back to Salt Lake City the next day.

Miami Day 4...

OK, before I talk about day 4 here is a follow up from day 3. I mentioned the Blue Bird bus wrapped to look like an old streetcar, well here is the picture I took but couldn't find earlier. This is taken from route 282 which is laying over at the Palmetto MetroRail station.

My day started off at the Omni Transit Center. This picture was taken on day 3 since it was still dark when I left at 6:20am the day before the time change. I originally going to take route A which is the most direct route to the part of Miami Beach I was heading for. However, 6:30am came and went with no bus so ended up taking a Route S over to Miami Beach. Now the route actually has a number but they only go by the letter which I am sure can be confusing to some
customers.
I arrived at the Loew's resort where Railvolution was being held at 7:00am and head some breakfast and to get ready for my presentation. After my presentation I went into another session before picking up my box lunch. The final Plenary did not hold much interest so I decided to take a walk and get some pictures of terrific Art Deco architecture that I love and Miami Beach is know for. I must of looked pretty goofy walking around the Miami Beach area in a suit but oh well.

Here is some pictures I took:




Next I started walking north along the main drag. Here is a picture of the main Miami Beach shopping area and its classic business area.

Next I caught another Route S and took it up all the way to NE 195th and over to Adventura Mall. I saw many things to take pictures of along the way so I decided I would return tomorrow. The Route S remained very busy with a full load all the way from Miami Beach to the end of the line at Adventura Mall. The Adventura Mall is a transit center and very busy mall. The first thing I noticed is that while its nice that the mall allows the transit center, they need some work. When several buses were loading and loading plus cars going by created some bad congestion.

Next I caught a route 3 which would take me back to the hotel. I was hoping that I would see a Chinese restaurant on the way that I could come back to for dinner. The 3 bus finally showed up and was standing room only before leaving and stayed that way. I finally saw some Chinese restaurants along the way that I could come back to.

When we got to 125NE the traffic lights were out with no sings and no police directing traffic. We made it pass the intersection when the bus stopped and the driver said we have broken down, everyone off. So here is some of us waiting for the next bus that would come along.
The driver wouldn't say what the problem was but the bus still ran and he got back in with the A/C running. So he made his 50 plus passengers sit in the hot humid sun while he stayed in air conditioned comfort. That should be cause for termination right there. Talk about spitting on your customers.
The bus was supposed to run every 25 to 30 minutes but it was more than 40-minutes before the next bus came and it was even more packed than our bus was. The driver had passengers all the way to the front door and pointed us to the back door. About 5 people got on and that was all that would fit. The driver got angry that people were looking at them through the front door and started screaming he wasn't going to open the door.

Finally the driver of our broken down bus came over talked to the driver through the driver's side window then walked to the back door and saw that there was no room left. That bus took off and our driver once again jumped back into his bus.

After a little while longer a third bus showed up and although it was also packed, there was enough room for the people off our bus. We jammed on and had a pretty unpleasant ride back to my hotel.

While I understand that buses will break down, that is something you can't help. What made me angry was the way the drivers handled it especially our driver who kicked us off the bus and then stayed in his bus with the a/c running.

After getting back to the hotel I watched the Busch series race and Carl Edwards win the championship. After words I decided I didn't want another bus trip so I hopped on MetroMover to find someplace else to eat besides Burger King and Checkers that is across from the hotel.

I knew there was a McDonald's along the MetroMover so after seeing nothing else worth eating I settled for it. After words it was back on MetroMover to the hotel.

Miami Day 3

Day 3 started out earlier than yesterday. In fact I was out of my room and at the transit center by 6:45am. I wanted to get an early start tomorrow in order to be ready for tomorrow when I had to leave even earlier in order to arrive at Railvolution on time.

Today I wanted to travel to the far reaches of the Metro-Dade system in order to get the best looks I could at the Miami area and its transit system. I took route 16 from the Omni transit center to the 163rd Street Mall. The route traveled along Biscayne Blvd, one of the main north-south streets then it travels NE 6th Ave, NE 125th Street/123 rd Street, NE 16th Ave, NE 159th Street, NE 15th Ave, then loops around the mall that is part enclosed mall and part strip center. The "transit center" is a area behind the mall with bus areas. Not a very inviting center to say the least.

My next route was the 91. I will not even begin to describe this route a s it zig zags along multiple streets, does a loop and makes a U-turn. Just like the 16 I drew another NABI low floor which are no better than UTA's Gillig Advantages.

This route does go by the stadium that the Miami Dolphins play in. I got off at the intersection of NW 82nd Ave and NW 186 Street and here you can see a picture of my 91 bus after having dropped me off.

Next I waited for the 282 bus which is also referred to as the Hialeah Gardens Connection. It was very fitting being from Utah that the corner was taken up by a large LDS church, one of two I saw on my trip.

This route goes through residential, office complexes, light industrial, commercial and finally heavy industrial areas before finally ending at the Palmetto Rail Station. This bus was the only non-NABI low floor I rode in all my Miami journeys. The bus was from Blue Bird and it was one adapted to transit use from a school bus. The bus was painted like an old trolley car but was not a trolley replica bus. However, the seats were high back cloth with nice cushions which made it the most comfortable bus I rode in Miami.

I originally planned to continue my bus riding from here but I looked down and saw route 41 but could not find a route 41 bus and it was supposed to leave in one minute. Then I looked again and I was supposed to take the 87 to the 41 but by the time I realized that the bus was pulling out and I wasn't looking forward to spending another hour on a NABI low floor so I decided to catch MetroRail down to Coral Gables, my next destination.

I got off the MetroRail at the University Station which is the home of the University of Miami. Here you can see a couple of shuttle buses I took a picture of while going down the escalator.

Here is another University of Miami cutaway shuttle passing the MetroRail Station.
Next I took the 56 bus to the Biltmore Hotel. Here is a picture of another 56 going by just after I exited the my 56 bus.

Here is a picture of the Biltmore built in 1932.
Next I walked along De Soto and took a picture of the Venetian Pools.
Coral Gables is considered a "walking community" but I will comment on that in the future. I left De Soto and walked down Andalusia/Biltmore Way, Segovola, Alhambra and the Ponce De Leon. Here is a picture of Alhambra Circle before it hits the business district.
I had not had anything to eat and since it was past 1:00pm, I was getting a little hungry. I was still craving Chinese like yesterday but did not have a lot of luck finding a place. I finally decided to hop the free Coral Gables fake trolley and take it back to MetroRail unless I saw someplace to eat along the way. The bus was pretty full the whole way but slowly emptied out at Village at Merrick Park. Once we turned off of Ponce De Leon onto Ruiz we were delayed for 15-minutes because trying to pick up a garbage container that goes on the back of a truck. He couldn't get the thing to roll all the way up onto the truck. After about 5 attempts he finally got it far enough on the bed of the truck that the bed lowered he moved the truck. Here is a picture of the fake trolley along with the guy that was behind him.
Next I took MetroRail down to the Dadeland South Station. Good thing I was traveling southbound at this point as there was no trains moving northbound at the moment due to a stalled train. Here is a picture of my train arriving at the station.
One I got off at the station you could see my destination which is the Dadeland Shopping Center which is an interesting multi story structure that includes a Target. To the left is some new condos that have been built with easy access to the MetroRail.
Once I got to target I got a pizza from the Pizza Hut located in the Target to satisfy my huger. After doing a little bit of shopping I headed back onto MetroRail to Government Center, caught the MetroMover and head back to the Hotel. I wanted to rest this evening since I had my big presentation at Railvolution the next day.

Well that's day 3 down, tomorrow is a trip to Miami Beach for Railvolution then more bus riding.

Miami Day 2...

For those of you that have been waiting anxiously since I did day 1, here is my experience on Day 2 in Miami.

I actually slept in late (8:30am Eastern Time which of course is 6:30am Mountain Time which is still late for me) but was ready for the day. My goal today was to ride the entire MetroRail line and the South Dade Busway.

First I walked over and up to the Metromover Station. I first rode to the final station on the Omni loop which is School District. What a difference two blocks from my stop. This area is filled with vacant lots and abandoned buildings. One interesting note is that this station has a car washer for the Metromover which seems like a strange location.

I then took Metromover to First Street and walked down to Flanger in order to get my visitor pass for the transit system (Metromover is free). However, when I got to the address I wrote down from the Metro Dade website I couldn't find were to go so I walked west trying to find it. Just a few blocks away was the Government Center so I figured I would check there on where I could buy my Visitors Pass. The brochure for the visitor's pass I saw online does not show this Metro-Dade location selling the visitors pass but when I got to the window they said they could sell them. I thought they would ask for ID to prove I was from out of state like Metro does in Seattle but they just took my money and gave me the pass.

Next I took MetroRail to the northeast end of the line at Palmetto. This station was added a few years after the original system opened and is the last new station to open until the extensions they have planned open in a few years. It appears that they plan never to extend the line beyond the station since way this station was designed which is short sighted but typical transit system mentality.

I briefly got off the train to take this picture:

Next I rode the train all the way to the other end of the line at South Dade. This is the connecting point for the South Dade Busway. Here is a picture of a couple of trains at South Dade. You can see some graffiti in both of these pictures. Despite security personnel being at every station, the system is covered with graffiti. It may not be the New York subway in the 70's but it's pretty close.

As you can see from this picture there is TOD being built at this station which is the only sign of it I saw anywhere on the system.

Here is a couple of picture I took of the area were you catch a bus including the ones using the busway. Buses that are arriving at the station arrived on the opposite side to the right of the photos. There are signs with route maps but they only include frequency of the buses not actually times.

I originally planned to ride the entire busway but was getting kind of hungry. Two 34 expresses left with Standing Room only before a busway local 31 came in and I took it. Wouldn't you know that the bus I grabbed was wrapped on the left side !! Just my luck. While I was really craving Chinese Food especially a buffet, after a few stations I saw a Taco Bell and decided just to stop and eat before it got any later. Here is my bus letting me off. I would end up with the same bus coming back.
I walked across US Highway 1 to the Taco Bell and ate. After words I came back caught that same 31 and then transferred to the MetroRail. I rode it back to the Government Center were I decided to ride MetroMover over to the Brickell Area. Here you can see another MetroMover car coming off the Brickell Loop.
Here is a photo from the front of our MetroMover car. As you can see that ride has some characteristics of a roller coaster.
At the end of the line at Brickell I decided to get off, walk to the water then walk back toward downtown. Here is a Metromover train passing over the Miami River on the section of track I had just been on.
Just like Charlotte when I lived there a brief shower came in and dumped for about ten minutes and a half hour later it was clear again.
Miami Dade has a bunch of the new Opus Optima buses like UTA however, they have the "BRT" front end that is supposed to make them look more sleek and magically make riders think it's light rail.
I looked for a convenience store but the only thing I found was a Walgreens. I purchased a couple of things, and then continued walking. Since by this time I was soaking wet from sweat due to the humidity and heat I decided to walk over to the MetroMover's Bayfront Park Station and head back to the hotel thus ending day 2 in Miami.