Miami Riders Alliance is a nonprofit membership organization advocating for safer streets for all road users and better, more reliable public transportation in Miami. We organize bike and transit riders to move Miami forward as a world-class, liveable metro area.

Founded in October of 2019 by Alejandra Agredo, Kevin Amézaga, and Orion Zamparello, Riders Alliance began with its first kickoff meeting on October 30th 2019. Since then, we have worked with elected officials, administrators, community businesses, and the community itself to create a more mobile, transit-oriented Miami-Dade County.

Riders Alliance was founded on a simple idea: that everyone should not only have access to adequate public transportation, but to have access to the information they need to have their voices heard in our local government. In Miami, like most places, it can be difficult to find information on public meetings, forums, and other events (and even more difficult to know what will be discussed at those meetings). Our goal at the Riders Alliance is to give people the information that they need to better understand how they can get involved, the events that are happening all around them, and how to make themselves heard when they do get involved.

Riders Alliance has a simple mission: make transit better. We believe that by improving public transportation, everyone benefits (yes, even drivers). With a population and density greater than many American cities, Miami lacks the infrastructure that its peers have–and are currently building up on. We believe that to be a world-class city and county, we have to begin making changes in #ourcounty that reflect the growing needs of a growing population from today into the future.

Here's how we do it: we have three parts to our organization.

Informational Hub

Riders Alliance's website and social media function as a sort of hub to connect riders with the information and resources they need to make their voices heard and make the best decisions for themselves. Whether it be events around South Florida relating to transit, or campaigns to bring awareness to issues with the transit system, Riders Alliance's knowledgebase is here.

Our site also connects to Miami-Dade Transit's Alert system, so you can check for alerts on our site as well right here.

Community Advocacy

Riders Alliance has working relationships with municipal and county officials and is working to advance the agenda the community decides it needs. Unlike the interest groups working within the county government currently, our interest is not in private companies' profits, but in the success and opportunity of our supporters: the people.

In its first year, the Riders Alliance launched the Better Bus Stops Campaign (Report a Stop) which is creating a database of bad bus stops with no shelter or bench. In February it announced the Candidate Report Card, the first ever report card in South Florida specifically targeting the 2020 Mayoral Candidates' stances on countywide transportation issues. The First Edition was released in July for the 2020 Primary Election, and the Second Edition was released in October for the 2020 General Election. Also in February, the Riders Alliance fought against the County's contract which privatized 26% of Metrobus routes; the measure passed, but through our advocacy an amendment was passed by Commissioner Eileen Higgins (District 5) to rework the Americans With Disabilities Act training required of the contracted drivers, as well as retraining all the drivers for ADA compliance.

Community Engagement

Here at Riders Alliance, we recognize the need to inform the public. While we maintain a website and keep an active social media feed to inform residents, that is often not enough. Riders Alliance uses the various modes of transportation and has honest and open conversations with those who use our system to commute and know the situation the best. At the end of the day, Riders Alliance believes in what the community needs, and every community is different; having our pulse on the transit situation will keep us current and continuously fighting for what Miami-Dade needs at the current moment.

Our Kickoff Meeting was held October 30th, 2019 via Zoom with several members of the community voicing their support and learning about our platform.

Our First in-person event was held on November 21st, 2020 with newly-elected County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava in attendance along with members of the community biking the Slow Streets of Miami Beach, a project the Riders Alliance supports and has helped improve.

Our Structure

The Miami Riders Alliance is operated under section 501(c)(4) of the internal revenue code. As such, donations are not tax-deductible. The MRA is administered by a Board of Directors and is operated on a day-to-day basis by our amazing Staff. The MRA is operated out of the Center for Social Change at 2103 Coral Way FL 2, Miami, FL 33145. Our supporters can become Members through Patreon and can influence policy decisions and more. One-time donations do not constitute membership dues. We publish more information about how we are run on our Sunshine Page.