Last week, I dropped some people off at PortMiami. One week later, I went back to pick them up. What a nightmare. 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 M iami-Dade County’s 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’re going to keep growing the Port, we’d better have a transportation system capable of handling that growth. If MIA Can Move Millions, Why Can’t the Port? 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. So I have to ask: If MIA can manage that kind of volume, why can’t PortMiami do better? When I went to pick up my friend, I asked why they didn’t 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. That tells us something. A rideshare driver’s 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, “Just take an Uber,” doesn’t solve the problem if drivers don’t want to make the trip. This Is Bigger Than the Port And let me be clear: I’m not calling for another working group. We already have one. I’m not asking for another meeting, study or committee to tell us what we already know. I’m questioning whether we have the leadership and vision to fix the entire system. This is bigger than the Port team. It’s a Miami-Dade County transportation problem, a tourism problem and an economic problem. It demands leadership that looks at the whole system — 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, “This isn’t good enough. We’re going to fix it”? Our Front Door Needs to Work This isn’t just about traffic. It’s about the Miami experience — 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. 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’s 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’m not blaming Port employees, Uber, Lyft or the cruise lines. I’m 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. It’s 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’t getting us there, the answer isn’t another Band-Aid. It’s time for a serious, top-to-bottom look at how we move people through PortMiami — 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. Then let’s lead like it. Let’s stop accepting the nightmare. Let’s get the leadership, vision and entire transportation system working together — and let’s get it right. The post PortMiami Traffic: If MIA Can Do It, Why Can’t the Port? appeared first on Miami’s Community News. ...read more read less