Transit Miami

I was recently looking through some old reports I have, when I discovered some depressing data that illustrates just how bad cycling conditions in Miami-Dade are. In the above graphic, the county’s roads were graded A-F based on the presence (or lack thereof) of typical “bike-friendly”conditions. Of course, a grade of “A” indicates high-quality cycling conditions and “F” indicates the least favorable conditions.

Some main criteria:

• Presence of a bike lane or paved shoulder
• Proximity of the cyclist to vehicular traffic
• Characteristics of the vehicular traffic
• Pavement condition

“Of the over 1,500 miles analyzed, only 8.6 percent of roadway miles received an acceptable level of service score of “C” or better. Over 90 percent of the roadway miles received an unnacceptable LOS score of “D” or worse, with approximately 58 percent of all segments receiveing an LOS score of “E” and 5.7 percent an LOS of “F”.”

Within the defined bicycle network, the County currently has less than 12 miles of on-road bicycle lanes meeting FDOT criteria for a bicycle lane. While there have been minor improvements in the overall number of county bike lane miles since 2001, they haven’t even cracked the surface regarding necessary improvements.

I gathered this information from the Miami-Dade Bicycle Facilities Plan 2001. While there is some encouraging language in the document implying cycling is a legitimate, important form of urban transportation, little has come out of the report, as evidenced by similar cycling conditions six years later. If Charlie Crist is serious about being a “green” governor, he would mandate that by law all Florida municipalities must create bicycle master plans, as well as language requiring at least 40 percent of roadway miles to score an acceptable “C” grade or better within a specified time-frame. A measure like this would ensure cycling catapults to the forefront of transportation planning in every town and city in Florida, which is long overdue.