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The Miami Herald Streetwise Column

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 September 2005, 15:01 CDT

Sep. 19--The Miami Beach Electrowave is heading for the scrapheap of history.

The last 'wave will crest Saturday night.

Miami-Dade Transit officially takes over on Sunday morning when it rolls out the newly minted South Beach Local.

The new route will combine elements of the Electrowave's bread-and-butter, along Washington Avenue from South Pointe to 17th Street, with the well-traveled portions of Transit's old Route 'W' along Dade Boulevard, Alton Road and West Avenue, improving access to the two Publix markets and Walgreens.

The biggest bonus for riders: bidirection travel, rather than taking the one-way loop all the way around. The fare will remain 25 cents -- a bargain at twice the price. Transit is vowing to run buses every 15 minutes during off-peak hours.

It could prove to be an interesting social experiment as well. The Electrowave's core ridership tends to skew elderly; 80 percent of the riders are locals, the balance tourists. Transit hopes to build ridership with the younger, hipper, professionals dwelling in the newer condo canyons along West Avenue, where parking is extremely tight.

The 14 buses that Transit will be dedicating to the South Beach Local will be decorated with a unique set of ad wraps that will set the Local apart from the rest of the county fleet.

But it won't be the 'Wave, those finicky 22-foot electric buses that are on the fast track to obsolescence.

Electrowave loyalists and political demagogues are going to complain about noise and fumes from Transit's 30-foot diesel buses, but the fact is that Miami Beach was on the verge of buying six diesels to replace the original 'Waves.

Advanced Vehicle Systems, the Tennessee company that sold the city the original fleet, declared bankruptcy years ago. Replacement parts are virtually impossible to find.

The original system rolled out in January 1998, more than a year behind schedule, with plenty of promise and more than a little blind faith.

Ridership peaked early when the ride was free, at nearly 7,000 riders a day, -- compared with about 2,000 today.

The club kids never warmed to the 'Wave. The bulk of the riders were senior citizens, running shopping errands and to doctor's appointments, largely during daylight hours.

The free ride ended in July 1999. But the bigger problem was the city's complete failure to dedicate enough staff to properly maintain the electric buses and their tricky, temperamental batteries.

By 2000, the Electrowave fleet was on the back of tow-truck hooks more than on the streets.

The nadir: 440 tows in January 2001 alone. By July 2001, the city threw in the towel, turning over maintenance to a private contractor hired by the nonprofit Miami Beach Transportation Management Association. Tows dropped 96 percent the next year.

Ridership started to rebound. MBTMA killed a Collins Avenue route, but more than made up the difference with the additional riders it picked up with more frequent service on the Washington Avenue loop.

But the federal and state funds started drying up. The city was dedicating an increasing amount of its parking and sales-tax revenue to make up the difference. Even with 750,000 boardings a year, commissioners decided they would rather underwrite a portion of Transit's operation than run it themselves.

So now it's up to Transit to provide on-time, reliable, courteous service to the incredibly vocal, highly skeptical Electrowave loyalists.

Judy Evans, executive director of the soon-to-be-defunct TMA, has been with the 'Wave since the beginning. She's sad, but realistic.

"I think the Electrowave did what it was supposed to do," Evans said. "We proved a circulator shuttle system could work in an urban environment. We made it happen. This [takeover] is just a natural part of the evolution."

So what becomes of the dinosaur electric buses?

Miami Beach could transfer them to a city that still runs AVS buses, like Chattanooga, Tenn., so they can be cannibalized for parts to keep the existing fleet running a little bit longer.

Personally, I would prefer to keep them near South Beach: Sink them to the bottom of Biscayne Bay as an artificial reef, a colorful footnote in the city's tortured public transportation history.

Electrowave: 1998-2005. R.I.P.

If you have a commuting question or an idea for a future column, contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@herald.com or call him at 305-376-3410.

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Source: The Miami Herald

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