In light of MDX’s increased revenues from tolls in the form of $90 million over the last three years, Miami-Dade Commissioner Xavier L. Suarez is pleading for $40-50 million of it to be mandated to the funding of the city’s SMART plan, which would build six new mass transit lines across Miami-Dade County.
"As I said this morning to FDOT Region Secretary Wolfe, it is time that we stop adding highways and start adding linkages to our mass transit system," Suarez says. "The tolls have made life difficult to our blue collar and clerical workers, who end spending an hour's wage just on tolls. The only way to give them relief is to make public transportation efficient and affordable. That's our objective."
Suarez wrote a letter addressing the matter to two members of the Florida House of Representatives, posted by The Next Miami.
SMART stands for Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit, which, if executed correctly, could provide much-needed alleviation of the increasingly congested Miami roads.
The construction of more highways and roads shouldn’t be among the most pressing concerns in this exploding city of ours, as more efficient and dependable mass transit should definitely take priority.