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Micromobility and Job Access in Miami

Models developed by the consulting firm Conveyal show that widespread availability of

micromobility services in Miami-Dade County would allow commuters to access tens of

thousands of additional jobs without using a car. Some key findings include:

• In the city of Miami, adding widespread micromobility services increases the number of

jobs reachable by a substantial margin. On average, workers living in the City of Miami

have access to 281,000 jobs within a 45 minute commute by walk or transit from home,

compared to 394,000 jobs within a 45 minute walk, e-bike/e-scooter, or transit commute.

This increase is equivalent to making 40 percent more jobs reachable without lengthening

commutes or adding cars to the road.

• Some of these gains in job access have already been achieved by the Micromobility Pilot

in Miami City Commission District 2, which gives some workers a faster last-mile option

to connect to Downtown jobs. In City Commission District 5, a full micromobility

scenario would enable workers to access to an additional 93,000 jobs. Further expanding

the availability of e-scooters and e-bikes could unlock substantial additional gains across

the region.

• In each of Miami’s five city commission districts, widespread availability of

micromobility options would result in access to tens of thousands of additional regional

jobs, ranging from 85,000 in City Commission District 2 to 152,000 in City Commission

District 1.

• County Commission Districts 3 and 5 see similar gains, with increases in average job

access of 37 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

• Increases for certain home locations exceed 200,000 additional reachable jobs.

• For the average worker in some less central cities, such as Doral and Sweetwater, e-bike

and e-scooter availability could more than double the number of jobs reachable in 45

minutes without a car.

Conveyal’s models were used to evaluate three scenarios for commuting without a car. The first

scenario gauged baseline travel times by walking and public transit. The second scenario

assessed a Pilot Micromobility scenario, with e-scooters or e-bikes available for trip segments

starting in City Commission District 2 (with a five-minute pick-up delay). The third scenario,

Full Micromobility, assumed these devices were available with a five-minute pickup delay

region-wide. Conveyal then used U.S. Census Bureau data cataloguing residential and work

locations to compare the number of jobs reachable within a 45-minute commute under each

scenario.

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The results demonstrate the breadth of expanded access to job opportunities that e-scooters and

e-bikes can provide to the Miami region, without requiring longer commutes or adding cars to

congested streets and highways.

Results

A Full Micromobility scenario would provide much more substantial job access gains throughout

the region. The table below summarizes these results using weighted averages, describing the

average change in job accessibility for workers in multiple jurisdictions.

Jobs Within 45 Minutes for Average Worker

Average Worker in: Baseline

Pilot

Micromobility

Pilot vs.

Baseline

Full

Micromobility

Full vs.

Baseline

Miami 281,000 308,000 27,000 394,000 113,000

City Commission District 1 249,000 261,000 12,000 402,000 152,000

City Commission District 2 331,000 395,000 64,000 416,000 85,000

City Commission District 3 321,000 335,000 14,000 424,000 103,000

City Commission District 4 236,000 256,000 20,000 378,000 142,000

City Commission District 5 259,000 273,000 14,000 352,000 93,000

Miami Beach 142,000 155,000 13,000 176,000 34,000

Coral Gables 193,000 206,000 13,000 356,000 163,000

Doral 62,000 62,000 0 142,000 80,000

Sweetwater 69,000 69,000 0 138,000 69,000

County Commission District 3 251,000 272,000 21,000 344,000 93,000

County Commission District 5 274,000 295,000 21,000 370,000 96,000

The table below summarizes increases in number of jobs reachable for commuters starting in

various locations in Miami-Dade County.

Origin Location Jobs Reachable Within 45 Minutes

Neighborhood (Cross Streets) Baseline

Pilot

Micromobility

Pilot vs.

Baseline

Full

Micromobility

Full vs.

Baseline

Flagami (NW 7th St. & 45th Ave.) 219,000 229,000 10,000 376,000 157,000

Little Havana (Calle 8 & 17th Ave.) 312,000 331,000 19,000 414,000 102,000

Little Haiti (NE 62nd St. & Miami Ave.) 225,000 227,000 2,000 320,000 95,000

Shenandoah (SW 16th St. & 22nd Ave.) 249,000 265,000 16,000 410,000 161,000

South Beach (11th St. & A1A) 208,000 233,000 25,000 240,000 32,000

Doral Central Park (NW 30th Terrace & 87th Ave.) 150,000 150,000 0 210,000 60,000

Dolphin Mall (NW 17th St. & 111th Ave.) 110,000 110,000 0 159,000 49,000

FIU (SW 16th & 170th Ave.) 78,000 78,000 0 140,000 62,000

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From NW 7th St. & 4th Ave. in Flagami, a 45 minute baseline commute by walking and public

transit allows access to the area shown in red in the figure below, which contains 219,000 jobs.

In the Pilot Micromobility scenario, commuters could use an e-bike or e-scooter from

Coconut Grove or Douglas Road Stations, or other intermediate points in District 2, extending

their reach and allowing access to 10,000 additional jobs. In the Full Micromobility scenario,

commuters can combine micromobility and public transit to expand their reach in all directions,

as shown in blue, allowing access to 157,000 additional jobs.

From Calle 8 and 17th Ave. in Little Havana, baseline access by transit and walking is limited, in

part due to this origin’s distance from Metrorail stations. Micromobility allows faster

connections to Metrorail and other transit, expanding the area reachable north and south along

Metrorail and increasing the number of jobs reachable in 45 minutes by 102,000.

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From NE 62nd St. & Miami Ave. in Little Haiti, commuters in the baseline can barely access

Downtown and Miami Beach. Micromobility enables expanded access to the surrounding areas

and the Miami International Airport, increasing the number of jobs reachable by 95,000.

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From Shenandoah, walking and transit trips allow access north along 22nd Ave, west along 8th St.

and Coral Way, and south along Metrorail. Micromobility complements these options, unlocking

access to 161,000 additional jobs.

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For 45-minute commutes from South Beach, the Pilot Micromobility scenario increases jobs

reachable by 25,000 and the Full Micromobility scenario increases jobs reachable by 32,000.

Notably, the pilot in District 2 already helps connect people to job centers around Brickell.

Availability of micromobility services beyond the pilot area enables some additional job access

gains, and there might be further gains for commute durations longer than 45 minutes.

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For a 45-minute commute from Doral Central Park, micromobility would increase the number of

jobs reachable by 60,000.

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For a 45-minute commute from Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater, micromobility would increase the

number of jobs reachable by 49,000.

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For a 45-minute commute from Florida International University, micromobility would increase

the number of jobs reachable by 62,000.

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This comparison was repeated, calculating the increase in number of jobs reachable within 45

minutes, for origins throughout the Miami region. The results are shown in the figure below for

the Full Micromobility versus baseline scenario. Accessibility increases are widespread. For

neighborhoods around Miami Springs, South Miami, and Coral Gables, the increase in jobs

accessible without a car exceeds 200,000. Many of the areas with the largest job access gains are

just beyond the assumed walking distance from Metrorail stations, highlighting the role that

micromobility can play extending the reach of public transit.

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The Pilot Micromobility scenario was also compared against the baseline. As expected, the

largest gains in job access occur in City Commission District 2, where devices are assumed to be

available in the Pilot Micromobility scenario. Even if transit commuters from surrounding areas

do not have access to e-bikes and e-scooters near their homes, the availability of micromobility

services as a last-mile option downtown allows access to thousands more jobs.

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Methodological Details

In the baseline scenario, total travel time includes public transit time (time spent waiting at stops,

riding in vehicles, and transferring, when applicable), stop access (walking up 30 minutes at 3.1

mph from an origin to nearby public transit stops), and stop egress (walking up to 30 minutes at

3.1 mph from public transit stops to final destinations).

In the micromobility scenarios, total travel time includes public transit time (as above), stop

access (riding up to 30 minutes at 9.9 mph to nearby transit stops), and stop egress (riding up to

30 minutes at 9.9 mph from public transit stops to final destinations). To model e-bike/e-scooter

pickup time, an assumption was made that travelers wait for 5 minutes before starting a segment

of the trip by e-bike/e-scooter, then proceed by e-bike/e-scooter. The Pilot Micromobility

scenario assumes micromobility devices are available for trip segments starting within the

boundaries of City Commission District 2. The Full Micromobility scenario assumes

micromobility devices are available for trip segments starting anywhere in the region.

In all scenarios, travelers can also reach destinations directly, without using transit, for trips up to

30 minutes. For transit, the assumption was made that travelers generally consult schedules and

adjust their departure times within a window to avoid excessive waiting time; this is represented

by using the 25th percentile travel times for trips starting between 7 AM and 9 AM on a typical

weekday (July 19, 2019). For additional details and assumptions, see the source code of the

multimodal routing algorithm used in this analysis.

Public transit network and schedules are derived from the General Transit Feed Specification

(GTFS) files published by Miami-Dade Transit and SFRTA/Tri-Rail. Job and worker location

data are derived from the 2015 Longitudinal Employer-Household Dynamics Origin-Destination

Employment Statistics (LODES) published by the US Census Bureau. This dataset includes

block-level job locations, though in some cases, locations reflect administrative addresses. For

example, this dataset appears to code most Miami-Dade public school jobs at the district

headquarters, rather than at individual schools. Street networks are derived from OpenStreetMap

(OSM). The basemap data in the figures above is from OpenStreetMap © contributors.