FL: Miami-Dade considers axing free ride service amid budget crisis. Riders protest

As Miami-Dade County Commissioners debated the proposed 2025-26 county budget, MetroConnect – an Uber-like service that provides free, short rides in areas of the county with limited transit options – remained on the chopping block.

The move to eliminate the $11 million program comes as the county grapples with how to offset a projected $400 million deficit for next year.

Via, the firm contracted to administer MetroConnect, estimates that the service conducts roughly 2,000 rides each weekday. Many of those rides serve seniors, people with disabilities and lower income households, the company said in a statement to the Miami Herald.

Speaking during Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Eileen Higgins described the program as a “mixed blessing,” lauding MetroConnect for filling gaps in the county’s public transit network while calling out what she considered to be financial inefficiencies.

Others, like Commissioner Raquel Regalado, were less rosy about the service’s merits.

“MetroConnect is really, at this point, just a free driver for many people, and it’s abused by the little group of people that know that it exists,” she said.

In its statement, Via said its service “isn’t a luxury, but rather a lifeline that connects riders in transit deserts to Metrorail and Metrobus, and ensures equitable access to jobs, health care, and education.”

Regalado has spearheaded a campaign throughout this budget negotiation to charge users for the MetroConnect service as well as for the Metromover, which is currently free, as a way to avoid raising fares across other public transport options.

“We need to move from a full subsidy mindset to a partial subsidy and eliminate this concept of free transit,” Regalado asserted. “It’s still going to be subsidized, it’s just not going to be free.”

She pointed to the county’s Special Transportation Service — which provides door-to-door transport for people with disabilities for $3.50 per ride — as a potential minimum fare model for the MetroConnect to replicate.

But supporters of the program — many of whom turned up to the commission meeting in orange hats blazoned with “Save MetroConnect” — say that it provides an indispensable service to users.

Eularia Pedro showed up at the county building on Wednesday morning to show her support for MetroConnect, which she said she uses to get to and from school.

Pedro, an 18-year-old high school student whose immediate family lives outside the United States, is homeless and lives at the Lotus House Women’s Shelter.

“It’s so important for me,” Pedro said, adding that she hasn’t found an alternative, reliable transport option that can get her to class on time. The trolleys in Overtown are inconsistent, she said, and with no income, she can’t afford to take a paid rideshare. Walking, she added, would take “a very long time.”

Pedro feared she wouldn’t be able to come up with $3.50 per ride – $35 a week for five roundtrip rides – that Commissioner Regalado mentioned at Wednesday’s commission meeting.

While the proposed budget scraps all funding for MetroConnect, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava told the Herald on Tuesday that her office had received proposals to explore “anywhere between a $3 million and $6 million investment” in the service — figures not included in the current plan. In a statement issued to the Herald, Via said that it remained “committed to working with the Mayor’s Office to find creative solutions that would allow this essential program to continue.”

During the meeting, Higgins called for the county to open a request for proposals – a bidding process in which companies compete for a contract – adding that some paid version of MetroConnect could be maintained on a $2.5 million budget.

Should the program be cut, Levine Cava said that many MetroConnect riders could be eligible for the county’s Special Transportation Service, while students and low-income riders might qualify for reduced fares on other public transit options.

“We’re going to work hard to make sure everybody has access to those pro grams,” Levine Cava said, adding that community centers and county libraries would help residents apply.

This story was produced with financial support from supporters including The Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O’Keefe, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.