Before the sun is fully up in Cutler Bay, Milagros Pla is already doing commute math.
“I get up around 5 a.m. because I make myself breakfast. By 8 o'clock or 8:10 a.m., I get here to catch that specific bus,” she said, standing at her local bus station.
Pla doesn’t drive. She rides the bus from Caribbean Boulevard to Southwest 168th Street, then finishes the last stretch to her job at a school in Palmetto Bay on a scooter.
“I use it [the South Dade TransitWay] to go to work, study, travel, and go everywhere,” she said.
For Pla, public transportation is the bridge between where she lives and what she can build. As she completes her bachelor’s degree in Human Resource Management at Miami Dade College, the South Dade TransitWay offers more than a ride.
“It is a convenience because it gives you a little bit of leeway and time. You don't have the sitting traffic.”
That “leeway” — minutes gained, delays avoided, connections that actually arrive — is at the center of a growing argument among researchers and local advocates: transportation is a major driver of economic mobility, shaping whether residents can reach jobs, education, and health care.
What the research shows
Research by Opportunity Insights, a Harvard-based policy lab, has shown that commute time is tied to long-term economic outcomes. Work by Raj Chetty and Nathaniel Hendren found that commuting zones with shorter average travel times are associated with higher adult incomes for children raised there; reducing commute times by one standard deviation is linked to a 7% increase in income in adulthood.
Locally, the Opportunity Atlas shows that many residents in historically Black Miami-Dade neighborhoods remain in the same commuting zone as adults, a marker of how place and mobility reinforce each other across generations. In Overtown, up to 83% of children remain in the same zone as adults. In Liberty City, the figure is up to 78%, and in South Dade, it’s up to 77%.
READ MORE: Long-awaited Miami-Dade rapid transit launch is just around the corner
With people remaining in their childhood neighborhoods, upward mobility depends heavily on whether transportation reliably connects them to job centers across the county. In short, transit can shape lifetime earnings.
Stacy Miller, director of the Miami-Dade Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW), said the department increasingly frames transit as an economic lever.
“We look at transit as an opportunity,” she said. “By providing a great transportation network that is safe and reliable, we are a catalyst for that economic drive.”
Miami’s commute reality
Miami-Dade’s daily reality underscores why travel time is an equity issue. Residents often feel trapped between a costly, car-dependent system and a transit system that can be slow or unreliable.
From West Perrine Park to Downtown Miami — approximately 23 miles — driving at peak traffic hours can take roughly 80 minutes. Late at night, the drive time drops to just 30 minutes, while public transit takes about an hour regardless of the time of day. Similarly, from Brownsville Bus Station to Brickell City Centre — about 6.7 miles — driving at peak hours takes about 30 minutes, up from the 12-minute drive expected late at night. Public transit takes roughly 25 minutes at any hour.
In other words, drivers’ commute times can more than double during peak traffic, but transit — while more consistent — doesn’t generally save riders much time.
Cathy Dos Santos, executive director of Transit Alliance, said underinvestment means transit commuters often spend twice as long traveling as drivers. According to the nonprofit, on average, the bus system is carrying two-thirds of all transit passengers in Miami-Dade County.
“If one bus doesn't come through, they will absolutely be late for work,” Dos Santos said. “Any little failing in the system is many different lives altered.”
Miller acknowledged that while bus service operates in mixed traffic, rail and dedicated corridors provide stronger reliability.
“The strongest connections are along our Metrorail spine,” she said. “Metromover and Metrorail are dedicated fixed routes; they’re elevated, so they have less impact associated with traffic.”
Lived realities
Pla, who has lived in South Dade all her life, says the South Dade TransitWay gives her a narrow margin of control.
“Without it, I probably wouldn't get there as quickly,” she said when asked if she could keep her job without the limited-stop service. “So that means that instead of leaving at 8 o'clock, I would probably have to leave around 7 a.m.”
Beyond time, there is the financial factor: she pays $112 for a monthly pass instead of hundreds for car payments, insurance, and gas.
She’s watching Miami-Dade’s growth push more residents south, forcing longer commutes.
“Miami is so congested,” Pla said. “People are moving more this way because downtown Miami is crazy expensive. It's almost like New York.”
The South Dade TransitWay operates two services: Metro Express, which stops at 14 major stations, and a local service. Miller noted that since the redesign, the corridor is saving riders "20 to 30 minutes in each direction,” and carries over 10,000 passengers daily.
However, in parts of Miami without dedicated lines, the experience differs. Brian Douglas, who lives in Overtown and works in Doral, says driving would take 15-20 minutes while the bus takes an hour. He uses the Golden Passport program allowing seniors to ride free, but frequency remains his biggest hurdle.
“The bus is supposed to run every half an hour,” he said. “Sometimes it's an hour, an hour and a half, two hours, in the hot sun or the pouring rain.”
Despite this, the system is his lifeline.
“If public transportation were eliminated, I would not be able to keep my job,” said Douglas. “As long as they are on schedule and they don’t break down, I don’t have a problem with the bus.”
Miller said the department constantly reviews schedules to improve frequency where demand is highest.
The cost of owning a car
Even for drivers, Miami’s congestion shapes career choices. Janielle Murphy, a social worker and lifelong Liberty City resident, spends over $1,000 per month on her car, insurance, and gas. While she has considered transit, her field work requires a vehicle.
“If I caught the bus, say, or the train to work, if I have to go to a site, then I have to catch the train back home, get my car, then go, so that would add to my time,” Murphy said.
She said commute costs often outweigh the benefits of a better job.
“You want to take a job for more money, but if you add in more commute, more gas, and more miles, it really defeats the purpose,” she said. “It takes more time off your life.”
From Liberty City to downtown Miami, she says the drive is about 30 minutes during rush hour; without congestion, she says it takes about 15 minutes.
Similarly, Eboni Marshae, who works in South Beach, used to drive until her car died in 2025. She now spends about $350 a month piecing together car shares, trolleys, and even the Miami Beach water taxi, which she says cuts down her commute. All of that amounts to less than the $500-plus she spent owning a paid vehicle.
“If I have enough time and if traffic is not as bad, I would depend on public transit totally. But why not? It’s because I need to get where I need to go very quickly.”
Bridging the gap
To reduce commute times for working families, Dos Santos advocates for dedicated infrastructure now.
“First and foremost, I would say it’s dedicated infrastructure for critical corridors where we know the transit is already getting a lot of use,” she said.
She pointed to heavily traveled routes like Route 100, which connects the Government Center to Miami Beach and often sits in traffic on the MacArthur Causeway.
“We cannot be waiting for the projects that are going to be coming 10 years from now,” Dos Santos said. “Miami's Black communities need those infrastructure improvements today. It has to start with a bus lane, good pedestrian walkways, and safe bike infrastructure.”
Miller said the county’s 20-year master plan prioritizes connectivity to employment hubs like the Health District and the airport, as well as multimodal access.
“When we can provide excellent transportation, safe and reliable transportation, and reduce travel time between that origin and that destination, it increases access for employment opportunities, and that often may mean higher wage employment opportunities because you have far-reaching access and you can obtain that access quicker.”
The department is also implementing new software to improve scheduling and commutes across fixed routes.
For riders like Pla, the stakes are simple: A transit line can be the difference between having options and having none.
“I can honestly say if there wasn't a transit system, I would probably be remiss because I don't have a license and I don't drive,” she said. “I think having a transit system gives people an option.”
This reporting was supported by Hy-Lo News through a grant from the Local Media Association.
This article is part of a national initiative exploring how geography, policy, and local conditions influence access to opportunity. Find more stories at economicopportunitylab.com/.
This story was produced by The Miami Times, one of the oldest Black-owned newspapers in the country, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. Read more at miamitimesonline.com.
