What will the Better Bus Network mean to you? Here’s a look at changes coming in 2022

Miami-Dade commissioners on Tuesday approved an extensive redesign of the county’s bus system, with most schedules being changed, popular routes set for quicker bus arrivals and almost a third of the existing bus stops being removed.

Known as the Better Bus Network, the reworking of routes won’t go into effect until the first half of 2022, according to the county’s announced schedule. What will it mean to an individual bus rider?

The changes are so extensive, it’s hard to offer a comprehensive guide to the new route system — which began as the Better Bus Project campaign by the Transit Alliance Miami in 2018. Chances are good a bus stop near your home will go away, since about 30% of the county’s 8,000 bus stops are set to be removed. That’s part of the strategy to keep buses moving faster: fewer stops, with the average distance between stops increasing from three blocks to five blocks.

If you’re used to getting on a bus that’s crowded, you may be in for good news: the popular routes are generally being beefed up with quicker bus arrivals. If you’re used to taking buses for quick trips around the neighborhood, you may be in for bad news. Several circulator routes (including the 254 in Brownsville, and the 238 from Miami International Airport) are being cut as part of a pruning of about 30 of the county’s nearly 100 existing routes.

Here are some key documents in figuring out what the Better Bus Network could mean for you:

Is my bus stop going away in the Better Bus Network?

Miami-Dade’s Department of Transportation and Public Works published a list of bus stops that would be eliminated under the Better Bus Network. Click below to read the list or follow this link to an online version.

Will my bus route change under the Better Bus Network?

Most bus routes will see changes under a plan that aims to streamline the paths buses travel, and reduce overlap where multiple routes cover the same stops.

The best way to check an individual route is to search the new route-map book created for the proposal. Click below to see both the original route-map book and a collection of changes proposed Monday, on the eve of Tuesday’s unanimous vote adopting the plan.

Which routes are getting faster under the Better Bus Network?

The changes will most likely come during the times considered “off-peak” — periods outside the morning and afternoon rushes when most people start and end their workdays. Many routes with buses arriving every 20 or 30 minutes during off-peak hours would see twice as many buses under the new plan.

To get a broad look at the changes, there are two good options on the county’s Better Bus Network site.

The first is an interactive map that lets users scroll between the existing route map and the new Better Bus Network map. Click here to use that map.

You can also compare a countywide map of the existing routes and their typical frequency, and the same kind of map for the new system. Click here for the existing routes and here for the Better Bus routes.