The Metrobus network provides bus service throughout Miami-Dade County 365 days a year, operated by Miami-Dade Transit. It consists of about 79 routes and 893 buses, which connect most points in the county and part of southern Broward County as well. As of 2023, the system has 58,282,300 rides per year, or about 201,200 per day in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Seven routes operate around the clock: Routes 3, 11, 27, 38, 77, 79 (No 24-hour service to Hialeah, all trips terminate at Northside Station) and 100. Routes 246 Night Owl & Route 500 Midnight Owl operate from midnight to 5 am. Other routes operate from 4:30 am to 1:30 am. All Metrobuses are wheelchair accessible, in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and equipped with Bicycle racks.

Bus route 301 (Dade-Monroe Express) extends into Monroe County, reaching Marathon, where a transfer is available to a Key West Transit bus proceeding further into the Keys. With the appropriate bus transfers, one can travel all the way from Key West to Jupiter entirely on public-transit buses. Metrobus has many connections to Metrorail and Metromover, also operated by Miami-Dade Transit, mainly in the city of Miami.

Added to the Metrorail on August 21, 2019, and Metrobus on December 23, 2019, Miami-Dade Transit riders are able to use their smartphones/smartwatches to pay (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, Fitbit Pay, Garmin Pay) and be able to use their credit or debit card that is contactless enabled (Amex, Visa, Mastercard). As of the 2019 implementation of tap to pay, Discover cards via tap to pay, are not accepted systemwide.

Bus ridership has reached as high as 293,000 daily,^[3] but is generally around a quarter million. It reached a high during the real estate bubble of the 2000s, then declined during the bad economy amid service cuts during the Great Recession, before rising again in the 2010s. From 2015 into 2016, bus ridership fell sharply, down to a low of 195,000 daily in June 2016,^[4] amid the lowest gas prices in over a decade, despite a locally strong economy and steady population gain. This during a time when much effort was going into enhancements, such as an air-conditioned bus shelter, mobile ticketing, and new rolling stock, including electric buses.^[5] Part of the problem is that buses, unlike other transit alternatives, are not exempt from the increasing traffic present.^[6] Nationally, bus ridership fell while rail ridership increased slightly in 2015.^[7]

More information South Dade TransitWay ...

South Dade TransitWay
Legend
Metrorail ■■ Dadeland South SW 104 St / Killlian Dr SW 112 St / Killian Dr SW 120 St / Montgomery Dr SW 124 St / Chapman Field Dr SW 128 St SW 136 St SW 144 St / Mitchell Dr SW 152 St SW 160 St / Colonial Dr SW 168 St SW 173 St / Banyan Dr W Indigo St SW 184 St Marlin Dr SW 200 St SW 112 Ave SW 216 St SW 220 St / Old Cutler Rd SW 232 St / Silver Palm SW 244 St SW 264 St SW 272 St / Epmore Dr SW 280 St / Waldin Dr SW 296 St SW 312 St Civic Ct SW 324 St / SW 4 St SW 328 St / Lucy St SW 177 Ave / Krome Ave SW 344 St
This diagram: view talk edit

Close

The South Dade Transitway (originally named the South Dade Busway) is a basic bus rapid transit system, or busway, in southern Miami-Dade County. It began operating from the Dadeland South Metrorail station to SW 112th Avenue on February 3, 1997, and was extended to SW 264th Street on April 24, 2005. The final 6.5-mile (10.5 km) segment of the Busway extension to SW 344th Street in Florida City opened on Sunday, December 16, 2007. It is parallel to US1/ S Dixie Highway, and runs along the abandoned Florida East Coast Railway line. It is an alternative to daily traffic congestion. The 13-mile (21 km) roadway was built by the Florida Department of Transportation just for Metrobus routes and emergency vehicles. Express buses on the exclusive lanes shuttle passengers to and from Dadeland South Station (see Metrorail) in about an hour or less.

Both full-size and articulated buses operate on the Busway and in adjacent neighborhoods, entering the exclusive lanes at major intersections. Local and limited-stop service is offered between Florida City and Dadeland South Metrorail Station. Park & Ride lots along the busway are located at SW 152d Street (Coral Reef Drive), SW 168th Street (Richmond Drive), SW 112th Avenue, SW 244th Street, and SW 296th Street. At Dadeland South Station, riders transfer to Metrorail. Riders headed downtown can transfer from Metrorail to Metromover, which consists of three shorter downtown loops, at Government Center Station.

The South Miami-Dade Busway features 28 stops, all of which look like light-rail style stations. A multi-use path stretches the length of the Busway. The busway stops featured large shelters to provide protection from the sun and rain. These are currently being rebuilt with the reconstruction of the South-Dade Transitway.

The Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP), under its BRT Standard, has given the Busway a preliminary classification as a "Basic BRT" corridor.^[8]

Ridership detail by average daily ridership on weekdays by month, with yearly average and highest ridership month in bold. Note the generally lower ridership during the summer months and December, month of the long Christmas and holiday season. Ridership has been falling since 2014 amid widespread rider complaints, an aging fleet, and sharply declining gas prices beginning in late 2014. Starting in 2016, this was also affecting Metrorail ridership. By 2016, 70% of the bus fleet was considered beyond its expected useful life, as the county was in the process of buying 30 electric buses with an option for 20 more.^[16] This is well under 10% of a fleet of nearly 1,000 buses. Other upgrades included a new mobile ticketing and contactless payment system, as well as upgrades to bus stops, including covering shelter-less bus stops and air conditioning at select locations. By mid 2016, average daily ridership was over 100,000 below a pre-recession peak in November 2007,^[17] and May, June, July, and August 2016^[18] were the lowest ridership months in over a decade. Some of the ridership loss may be accounted for by overlap and growth of the free Miami Trolley and other pseudo-bus systems. Very poor numbers in October 2016 across the entire system were partially blamed on one day of closures for Hurricane Matthew,^[19] which passed close to South Florida. Similarly, September 2017, the month of Hurricane Irma, saw even lower ridership. 2016 was the lowest ridership year since online records began in 1998. Summer 2017 saw weekday ridership decline another 10% on top of sustained decline.^[20] January 2018's ridership of 162,300 is the lowest since at least the 90s with the exception of the month Hurricane Irma hit. Annual ridership figures are rounded to the nearest 100.

• List of Metrobus routes (Miami-Dade County)
• Transportation in South Florida