[vel0city]

You can get expansions in funding approved, solicit bids from multiple firms to make the trains, analyze and approve the bid, get a factory to make potentially several to dozens more trains, ship them across the country (or potentially internationally), hire and train a lot of workers, in less than 24 hours?

[bedobi]

you're just being obtuse

in the realm of infrastructure investment, all of that is overnight

vs eg the yet another additional bridge to nowhere they're currently building that is taking decades and costing billions

but tell you and every other frothing at the mouth motorist what, enjoy sitting in traffic

[vel0city]

> but tell you and every other frothing at the mouth motorist what, enjoy sitting in traffic

You're being quite rude here about this for no reason and projecting an identity on me that's not warranted. I'm generally pro public transit, but I'm also a realist and not suggesting it takes practically zero time to procure additional rolling stock and hire a lot more people. A lot of people think having a higher level of service is just run the trains/busses more, but chances are they're already running all the stuff they currently have the capacity to own and operate. It's not like most transit orgs have double the current capacity just sitting idle and nobody thought to run them.

It took them three years after finding the funding and getting all the approvals and signing the contracts to add rolling stock last time. So probably more like four or five years at least to add some additional trains. And that was replacing existing trains, not expanding the fleet, so its not like they had to considerably expand their existing workforce. I imagine most people would consider four or five years not "overnight".

The bus service near me is usually every 20 minutes. That's terrible. I'd absolutely love it to cut that in half. It also means it would cost significantly more to operate. Getting everyone to agree to pay that (a massive task at the start), getting all the proposals put together, soliciting bids, signing the contracts, getting the new busses, hiring the new drivers, and actually increasing the service isn't something that is going to happen in 2025. Probably also not 2026.

[bedobi]

the disconnect here is you have a status quo biased thinking

the current state of things is, roads get all the money and transit and bike infra get scraps and are poorly run (so are FDOT road projects too btw)

no one disputes that?

what is being advocated is increasing trirail frequency, implementing an actual network of segregated greenways and expanding metrorail

you're saying "oh we can't do that"

but like, yes, we can? I promise you, if you send out construction crews to apply green paint and put down curbs for greenways, there's no natural law of the universe that would make the paint not come out

and once it's in place, there's nothing preventing millions of Miami residents from using them the same way they're being used in NYC, Montreal, Barcelona etc etc instead of having to get in the car for literally every single trip and errand

likewise if you procure trains there's no magic wall that prevents them from crossing into the state of Florida etc etc

these things are trivially achievable, but misinformed policymakers and voters alike think adding more roads is somehow not costing any money (it costs way more) and will fix traffic (it won't)

[vel0city]

> the disconnect here is you have a status quo biased thinking

No, the disconnect here is you're being quite rude here about this and projecting an identity on me that's not warranted. And now you're even putting words in my mouth.

> you're saying "oh we can't do that"

I never once made the claim. I just argued it wouldn't be "overnight".

None of my statements were about greenways or even about expanding the Metrorail. Just that adding additional capacity can and often does take a while to be approved, acquired, and put into service. Stating it can be done overnight is ignoring reality just as much as someone arguing the paint somehow wouldn't come out to paint a greenway.

I'm for them adding more trains and expanding the existing lines. I'm for the bus service outside my house being a lot better than it currently is. I'm also looking at the fact the cities around me are talking about slashing the funding instead of increasing it and seeing the people around me cheering for such an idea. Me thinking it can be improved overnight is a delusional thought given the realities of today. Thinking Tri-Rail can just snap their fingers and magically get approvals and sign contracts and get trains delivered overnight is also delusional.

Even if we somehow changed people's minds "overnight" to want to increase train service, it'll still take a few years to actually do all the process for acquiring and implementing the additional capacity. Governments almost always move slowly. Even when talking car infrastructure, something which generally is popular, it takes forever to put together the budget proposals, get the funding approved, get the bids together, purchase the materials, and actually get to work. They're still working on doing projects related to a road bond package in my city passed several years ago, and that's once again ignoring all the planning that went into it just to get the proposal together and get it passed.

None of this happens "overnight". Even just getting everything together to officially change the traffic patterns and put the paint down will take many months at the fastest. And that's assuming it's a popular decision.