We’re upgrading bus system but not luring riders aboard

What is the county’s most common mass transit? Right, it’s the simple county bus. But its use has been getting less and less common, as riders keep fleeing.

Latest county reports show just over 3 million bus rides in January, less than half the 6.3 million seven years ago.
The 1.7% loss of bus rides from January 2021 came as free Metromover use rose 76.4% in pandemic recovery and paid Metrorail gained 4.2% in its rebound, so clearly the pandemic did not cause the latest bus losses.

We have long argued that buses don’t have to keep losing riders and in fact can add more. But that requires the four-step commitment to modern equipment, service quality, innovation, and marketing.

Buying buses is the most costly step and takes longest, but the county is on the road with that. We reported this month that we’re getting 75 clean, quite electric buses, all purchased and one undergoing tests. The others are all due by January 2023.

It’s too early to tell if Miami-Dade buses will maintain service quality. We reported in January that the county was actively recruiting drivers to fill 115 gaps in a 1,545-driver force. As a result, it had to suspend two routes and cut service frequency on others. Still, we expect the county to be able to find workers.

As for innovation, a huge change is revving up, as the Citizens’ Independent Transportation Trust notes in its latest bulletin. The county in fall OK’d a Better Bus Network, inspired by an independent community drive that seeks to beef up key routes with buses every 15 minutes and create better connections. That alignment is expected to roll this year. (Details: www.miamidade.gov/betterbus).

But while the county is serious about transit innovation, equipment, and staffing for full service, we still await evidence that it will take the step that matters most: even with the best product, you still must market it to customers – especially when you are bleeding riders every year, mostly at double-digit levels.

Six month ago this week we wrote that then-new transit chief Eulois Cleckley had to market to those who got off buses during the pandemic and prior to get them back aboard what is becoming a better product. As we said:

In marketing, the challenge is to show that the product actually works, is reasonably priced, is comfortable and convenient, and is used by “people just like us.”

We suggested attention-getters like occasional live entertainment at stops or aboard buses, games involving riders, clubs, and prizes. Those are corny, sure, but riders will talk about them and make others think about transit. Creative marketers could generate a dozen better ideas.

One of those ideas could yield a long-lasting campaign: advertise testimonials from riders about how their route saves them time or money, how comfortable or convenient it is, or how their driver went the extra mile for a passenger – they have to be real thoughts from real riders, which exit interviews could uncover. 

Each testimonial might produce a “passenger of the week” who gets a certificate and a mini-ceremony at a county commission meeting.

Don’t kid yourself: maligned as buses are, ever before a Better Bus Network the county can find many very satisfied passengers. Last weekend an executive neighbor told me how easily he gets where he wants to go by county bus but not by car. I’m sure he isn’t alone.

Market that satisfaction.

As Miami lures well-to-do new residents, they also are candidates to ride our buses. Remember, they have ridden buses in sophisticated cities all over the world. Welcome them aboard in marketing. 

The key to a successful marketing campaign is to show that the bus is not only for people who have no other choice – show that riders are “people just like us,” of every economic level, age and ethnic group. Nobody wants to ride something that no friend who has an option would willingly use.

No doubt the county will promote a new Better Bus Network. But it doesn’t have to wait to start filling seats – and even more important, to stem ridership loss in months ahead. Even when the county markets a new bus alignment, it needs to market amenities: quiet and pleasant electric buses, more frequent service or whatever.

Without the crucial step of heavy and consistent marketing, even new electric buses, a new routes alignment, and future South Dade bus rapid transit won’t stop the overall outflow of passengers.

Miami-Dade needs to be as serious about luring passengers onto buses as it is about buying equipment, hiring drivers and insuring frequent service on the busiest routes. Otherwise, taxpayers are just wasting their money on a stalled bus system.