I live next to a busy intersection in South Beach - Within the past few months, four-way stop signs went up at the intersection, making it significantly safer, or so I thought. One of the stop signs is all but hidden behind a tree. Cars blow past it all the time. This is doubly dangerous considering pedestrians now assume cars will stop at the intersection. There are people pushing baby strollers to the park, little kids going to shoot hoops, people walking their dogs.
I emailed the city to point out the problem. There had been small temporary stop signs in the middle of the road until recently, and I suggested they do something similar on a permanent basis or at least make the hidden stop sign more visible. Never heard back.
Walking home one night, I came across two
So, I’ve contacted the county’s public works department. They tell me they’ll check it out. In the meantime, I have a strong feeling someone is going to get hurt or killed. I hope I’m wrong.
Don’t bother arguing with the police; you are wasting your time. Send your email to the Mayor, all the commissioners and cc: the city manager and the public works dept. Once an accidents occurs, fwd. your original email (but this time cc: the New Times, Sunpost and Miami Herald), pointing out the city’s negligence. This should work. It’s sad to say, but things only get fixed in this city once people get hurt.
I’m sure when they put the stop sign behind the tree they forgot to repaint the cross walks too.
Looks like a great place for a traffic circle or some other traffic calming device
I lived on the corner of 10th and Meridian in the early 90’s (I still live on Meridian, 1800 block). There were so many accidents all the time. One neighbor, in protest I suppose, painted a “crime scene sketch” on a the street. Keep at ‘em. Being a nuisance is the only way to get heard.
One more thing, even with a TRAFFIC LIGHT, we regularly see horrible car crashes at the corner of Dade Blvd. and Meridian from our balcony. I haven’t owned a car in 13 years and it is because I don’t feel safe on the roads of South Florida. I’d rather be on a bus.
One potential solution is a flashing stop. That tends to be more visible. Ugly but visible.
Good piece, Rob. There’s a lot of ways this intersection could be improved, including the use of raised crosswalks, painted and perforated crosswalks, neckdowns, etc. To some this may seem like not such a big deal, but it’s exactly these kinds of issues that make a good neighborhood great and a functional city livable.
While neither a circle nor a full-on traffic light seem like good solutions, a flashing stop might be the ticket - especially amid the tree shadows.
I don’t think any crosswalk improvement, desirable as they are, will improve sufficiently the visible necessity for cars to stop. Hopefully, that can be a secondary step.
The county has been pretty responsive so far, promising they’ll get out there and coordinate with the city. We’ll see how it goes.
The red flashing stop doesn’t necessarily need to be ugly; in fact, there are many ways that it could be integrated into the tree canopy to be unobtrusive. Perhaps the best way to accomplish this would be to hang a single arcing pole from one corner angled out to the center of the intersection, with a four-sided flashing signal (LED lamps, of course).
I have to admit I passed through there on Monday evening, and didn’t even notice the STOP sign. I just drove through at 30mph. Sorry former neighborhood! I will not miss it again!
hidden stop sign that was recently put up, when that tree’s been growing there for years
?
cops waiting to give tickets?
sounds kind of like a speed trap to me. maybe that’s why no one’s giving you any attention. it’s lucrative.
@ sean: Remember, this picture kind of skews the view a driver would have. This is taken from the extreme right side of the lane. A driver in the left side of the lane will have a slightly better view.