On November 13, 2023, Miami-Dade County’s transit agency, Miami-Dade Transit, implemented significant changes to its bus network - designated the “Better Bus Network.” These updates aimed to enhance coverage for neighborhoods and business districts that primarily serve lower-income residents. As a result, many routes and stops were altered, relocated, or removed.
To the best of my knowledge, much of Miami’s transit data on OSM was originally contributed by user drynwk around 2021. Most of their contributions have remained untouched for nearly three years, despite the major changes from the Better Bus Network almost a year ago.
Miami-Dade Transit has provided updated transit information to platforms like Google Maps, Apple Maps, and likely other GIS services. I believe it’s essential that OSM volunteers also have access to this data. To that end, I’ll be making an effort to obtain the relevant information from Miami-Dade Transit and share it with the OSM community here in Miami.
In addition, I plan to update the bus route relations on OSM to reflect the new route names, ideally matching the official names used by Miami-Dade Transit across their buses, maps, and app. I’ll also be reaching out to request the correct route names for accuracy.
Discussion
Comment from Udarian on 27 September 2024 at 17:56
Miami Dade County already provides GTFS files of their network so you may not need to reach out to them directly. The reason I haven’t used these yet is because I am not 100% sure that they can be used as sources for OSM though I think they could due to Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner.