Sorry Bus Stops: Miami vs. New Orleans

3:31 PM EDT on August 20, 2018

If you harbor any doubt that America treats bus riders as second-class citizens, look no further than these two bus stops.

Miami and New Orleans face off as we deliver more first round action in the 2018 Sorriest Bus Stop tournament. At these bus stops, car-centric development, poor maintenance, and plain old neglect have conspired to deliver horrific waiting environments for bus riders. Our cities need to do better.

So far Nashville, Cincinnati, Beverly Hills, Pittsburgh, and McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania, have sent bus tops through to the Elite Eight. Which of these bus stops deserves to join them?

Miami

This horrifying stop in the Miami suburb of Davie, Florida, comes to us from reader Ryan Shedd.

It's on Route 84, a Florida DOT service road for I-595, and it's on the wrong side of a highway sound barrier. Bus riders walk through a gap in the sound barrier to get between this stop and the suburban housing development on the other side.

This bus stop illustrates how irregular suburban street networks that funnel traffic onto highways are incompatible with good transit. There are a lot of homes near this bus stop, but the streets where those homes are located don't form a walkable grid. Instead of walking to a human-scaled avenue to catch the bus, riders have to head out to this hellacious traffic sewer.

New Orleans

Reader Lawrence Mason submitted this sorry, sorry bus stop on Sullen Place in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans. Mason writes:

The grass surrounding the bus stop has grown well beyond four feet in height -- except for a patch of grass that is kept at ankle/shin height. Additionally, this stop has no sidewalk despite its location right across the street from an apartment complex.

The stop is served by multiple RTA bus routes, but it looks like this is a failure of the city and its Department of Public Works more than the transit agency.