Update: The 311 Experiment

Dec 7th, 2009

Even though the County Public Works Department had all weekend to repair all the pedestrian crosswalk signals at the SE 13th Street and South Miami Avenue intersection, they remain broken. This will be the second day in a row that the CPWD has neglected to provide a safe route to school for our children. It’s been four days since I first dialed 311 to report the problem. Although my report was flagged as an emergency, it has become painfully obvious that the CPWD does not seem to think that a safe route to school is all that important. Very sad.

Posted in: Uncategorized.

8 Comments

TM reader says:

December 7, 2009 at 10:07 am

Who do you think you are? the mafia? Did you not hear about job cuts, the lack of staff… Be real- within 2 weeks would be good service- they have thousands of traffic control signs, signals, lights in Miami-Dade County.
Felipe Azenha says:

December 7, 2009 at 10:23 am

Ha! The mafia, pretty funny TM Reader. The Transit Miami eye is simply reporting the facts. I don’t think I’m asking for too much. Having working crosswalk signals in front of an elementary school is pretty basic.
Other TM Reader says:

December 7, 2009 at 1:02 pm

If this is a Safe Route to School, are you also advocating for increased crossing guards or is this only about how fast PW responds to your requests. Is this really about pedestrian crossing or just a reactionary post? It’s neither entertaining or interesting.
They tell you it may take 2 weeks to fix something like that on the phone when you report, I would wait the alloted time and call back and hold them to their original date, but 24-hours maybe if it’s a missing stop sign or a red light blinking. I don’t think it’s like the mafia though, just overly reactionary.
Felipe Azenha says:

December 7, 2009 at 1:27 pm

There seems to be an on going problem with many of our pedestrian crosswalk signals throughout the brickell area and downtown.
That being said, all our schools should have safe routes for students to arrive and leave by foot.
My intent here is not to entertain, but rather to raise awareness of the realities that pedestrians must deal with on a regular basis. I feel like two weeks or even a few days is too much time to leave the crosswalk signals on a very important and dangerous intersection not working.
Prem says:

December 7, 2009 at 5:16 pm

If we’re having a debate, I’ll simply vote for the lights being fixed, regardless of whether or not other measures must be taken in the future to maximize pedestrian safety.
Brad K. says:

December 8, 2009 at 9:05 am

Life safety issues should take priority in a civilized society over anything else. Two weeks to fix a crosswalk signal? What do you expect pedestrians to do? Drive the 2 minute walk? In NYC or Europe there would be a revolution if it took two weeks to fix crosswalk signals and you couldn’t cross the street without taking your life into your own hands!

Funny that on the County Commission Agenda tomorrow is a $1.2 million item for “safe route to schools program”. Bet it doesn’t include any kind of crosswalk or signal repair – probably a $1.2 M contract to a well connnected consultant who will “study” the issue.
Interested Reader says:

December 8, 2009 at 5:30 pm

For reference, anything dealing with traffic signals is the responsibility of the County. SE 13 Street is a City road and South Miami Avenue is a County Road, but if its signal related, its the County’s responsibility.
Robert Williams says:

December 10, 2009 at 7:37 pm

A contractor hired by the Miami-Dade Public Works Dept. (MDPW) to upgrade the traffic signal and connect it to the new Advanced Traffic Management System encountered some complications with the pedestrian heads, but finished repairing them today. (Matters were partially complicated by a contractor that was also working on the Coral Way corridor for the Florida Department of Transportation.)

Please be assured that MDPW feels as strongly as all of the above respondents about keeping our signals operating as safely as possible for the pedestrians and driving public. Citizen input is always appreciated, and in some cases, critical, as we cannot be at all locations at all times-of-day. Please feel free to bring similar problems to our attention via the 311 system (311, 311@miamidade.gov) or directly to the Public Works Traffic Control Center (305.592.8925, ts&s@miamidade.gov)

P.S. The $1.2 M Safe Route to School project is not a study. It is a construction project that will result in significant pedestrian improvements near a number of schools in Miami-Dade County.

Robert Williams, P.E., PTOE
Chief, Traffic Signals & Signs Division