{"id":82215,"date":"2025-12-13T15:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-13T15:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82215\/"},"modified":"2025-12-13T15:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-13T15:29:07","slug":"miami-beach-to-vote-on-free-water-taxi-service-miami","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/82215\/","title":{"rendered":"Miami Beach to vote on free water taxi service | Miami"},"content":{"rendered":"

The City of Miami Beach<\/a> Commission is scheduled to vote<\/a> on Dec. 17 on whether to enter into an agreement with Water Taxi of Fort Lauderdale LLC to operate a free ferry service between Miami and Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

If approved, the no-fare service<\/a> is expected to begin Jan. 20, 2026, offering a waterborne transit option across Biscayne Bay.<\/p>\n

The move is the next step in Miami Beach\u2019s long-term effort to establish reliable water-based transit as an alternative to roads, something city officials see as a way to help reduce traffic congestion and improve connectivity.<\/p>\n

A permanent water taxi system has been discussed for years and has been under evaluation by city staff and commissioners.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, staff opened negotiations<\/a> with Water Taxi of Fort Lauderdale<\/a>, which ranked highest in Miami Beach\u2019s request for proposal bids, after a pilot program with another operator wasn\u2019t successful. The pilot, run by Poseidon Ferry,<\/a> experienced operational challenges and was eventually scaled back, but it provided lessons for the city\u2019s long-term planning.<\/p>\n

Water Taxi of Fort Lauderdale has decades of experience<\/a> operating water transit in Broward County and beyond, which helped it rise to the top of contenders to serve Miami Beach.<\/p>\n

If Miami Beach commissioners approve the agreement next week, the service would begin early in 2026 and be offered for free to riders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The City of Miami Beach Commission is scheduled to vote on Dec. 17 on whether to enter into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82216,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[45673,45670,249,251,250,126,1642,23581,45668,45674,45671,45669,45672],"class_list":["post-82215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-biscayne-bay-transportation","tag-ferry-service","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-key-biscayne","tag-miami-beach","tag-miami-beach-commission","tag-miami-beach-water-taxi","tag-miami-traffic","tag-miami-transit","tag-water-taxi","tag-water-taxi-of-fort-lauderdale"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82215\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}