On a recent business trip to Washington, I landed at Reagan National Airport in suburban Arlington, Va., walked from the terminal to the Metro station inside the airport and took a train to Dupont Circle. Total cost for my off-peak train trip: $1.85.
We’re not so lucky here in South Florida. Commercial transportation to and from the airports isn’t cheap, and public transit certainly isn’t easy.
I have, however, found a fairly economical shuttle service from Miami to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. Like many North Miami-Dade residents, I often fly out of Fort Lauderdale rather than Miami for a cheaper fare or better connection.
When Fort Lauderdale airport had $3-per-day economy parking, leaving my car there for an entire vacation wasn’t prohibitively expensive. But now that the “cheap” parking is $9 a day, that no longer works.
So I’m taking the GO Airport Shuttle, which costs $18 to $21 one way per person for a shared ride to or from my door on Miami’s Upper East Side to Fort Lauderdale airport (www.floridalimo.com, 954-561-8888 or 800-244-8252; rates from farther south may be higher).
There are trade-offs. You need to reserve a day ahead and leave your house early to allow time for the shuttle to pick up other passengers. If you have a group, you might get a better deal reserving a private car from GO Shuttle.
The cheapest transportation I’ve found to MIA is the SuperShuttle, also about $20 each way to go about one-quarter of the distance (www.supershuttle.com, 305-871-2000).
Maybe if we all lobby our county commissioners, we can get affordable public transportation to our airports within our lifetimes. On second thought, you might have better luck persuading a friend or neighbor to drive you.
