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Last week, I dropped some people off at PortMiami. One week later, I went back to pick them up. What a nightmare.<\/p>\n
I sat there watching cars, buses, taxis, private vehicles and rideshare drivers trying to get in and out, and I kept asking myself: Why are we putting up with this?
PortMiami is one of Miami-Dade County\u2019s biggest economic engines, and it keeps getting bigger. The Port recently welcomed its 10 millionth cruise passenger of the fiscal year, setting another passenger record. We want more ships, passengers and business. Great. But if we\u2019re going to keep growing the Port, we\u2019d better have a transportation system capable of handling that growth.
If MIA Can Move Millions, Why Can\u2019t the Port?<\/p>\n
Then I started thinking about Miami International Airport. More than 55 million passengers moved through MIA last year. People park, get dropped off and picked up. Taxis, rideshares, buses and rental cars come and go. Is it perfect? Of course not. But the airport has built systems designed to move enormous numbers of people and vehicles, including designated rideshare staging and pickup operations.<\/p>\n
So I have to ask: If MIA can manage that kind of volume, why can\u2019t PortMiami do better?
When I went to pick up my friend, I asked why they didn\u2019t take an Uber or Lyft. The answer was simple: They had already been waiting about 30 minutes for a rideshare. So I picked them up myself.<\/p>\n
That tells us something. A rideshare driver\u2019s time is money. If getting into the Port, reaching a passenger and getting back out takes too long, that driver could be somewhere else making several trips. Telling passengers, \u201cJust take an Uber,\u201d doesn\u2019t solve the problem if drivers don\u2019t want to make the trip.
This Is Bigger Than the Port
And let me be clear: I\u2019m not calling for another working group. We already have one. I\u2019m not asking for another meeting, study or committee to tell us what we already know. I\u2019m questioning whether we have the leadership and vision to fix the entire system.<\/p>\n
This is bigger than the Port team. It\u2019s a Miami-Dade County transportation problem, a tourism problem and an economic problem. It demands leadership that looks at the whole system \u2014 the Port, County, City of Miami, cruise lines, taxis, rideshares, buses, traffic patterns and the thousands of people trying to move through the same place at the same time.
Right now, everybody seems to be looking at one piece of the puzzle. We need somebody looking at the whole thing. Where are the bottlenecks? How are rideshares and taxis staged? What happens when several ships unload thousands of passengers at nearly the same time? Most importantly, who brings all those pieces together and says, \u201cThis isn\u2019t good enough. We\u2019re going to fix it\u201d?<\/p>\n
Our Front Door Needs to Work
This isn\u2019t just about traffic. It\u2019s about the Miami experience \u2014 and the Miami economy. For many visitors, PortMiami is part of their first or last impression of Miami-Dade. We promote our beaches, hotels, restaurants, shopping and attractions as a world-class experience. We want visitors leaving Miami talking about what a great experience they had, not remembering that they sat in traffic or waited 30 minutes for a rideshare.<\/p>\n
PortMiami is part of our front door. The front door needs to work.
Cruise passengers also stay in hotels, eat in restaurants, take taxis and rideshares, shop and visit attractions. PortMiami\u2019s success touches businesses throughout our community. If we want that economic activity to keep growing, getting people in and out of the Port has to be part of the equation.
I\u2019m not blaming Port employees, Uber, Lyft or the cruise lines. I\u2019m asking whether we have the leadership and vision to bring them together and fix the system. Miami-Dade has the talent, money, technology and experience to solve this. What we need is somebody to take ownership of the big picture.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Time to Lead
MIA shows us what coordinated transportation infrastructure can look like at enormous scale. PortMiami should demand the same level of attention. If the existing system isn\u2019t getting us there, the answer isn\u2019t another Band-Aid. It\u2019s time for a serious, top-to-bottom look at how we move people through PortMiami \u2014 led from the top, with a vision that goes beyond the Port itself.
PortMiami is too important to Miami-Dade County for us to accept this as normal. We want more cruise ships, more passengers and more tourists spending money in our community. We want to remain the Cruise Capital of the World.<\/p>\n
Then let\u2019s lead like it.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s stop accepting the nightmare. Let\u2019s get the leadership, vision and entire transportation system working together \u2014 and let\u2019s get it right.<\/p>\n
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