Against the backdrop of what has been a tragic month on South Florida roadways, City of Miami residents and businesses can take solace that the upcoming Coral Way resurfacing project will now include numerous pedestrian safety improvements. Thanks to the work of District 4 City Commissioner Francis Suarez and the Transit Miami team, the residents of the Coral Way corridor will soon enjoy improved pedestrian and bicycle facilities, as well as a lower 35 mph speed limit as part of the Florida Department of Transportation’s upcoming 2.5 mile Coral Way resurfacing project.
The changes to the project come after FDOT officials originally presented designs for the corridor in November 2011 which were panned by advocates and elected officials for lacking pedestrian improvements; the plans maintained the meager crosswalk spacing and high speed design that typifies the corridor today.
Following the initial public meeting, Transit Miami was asked by District 4 staff to compile a list of pedestrian improvements that could be incorporated into the design. As a road resurfacing project, we were mindful that there was a limit to the improvements that could be made without drastically increasing the cost of the project. As such we identified a series of low cost, high impact interventions that could be incorporated into the project, which included:
- Additional north/south crosswalks across Coral Way at every side street intersection – 13 total
- Higher quality pedestrian crossings at major intersections (4 total)
- Lower speed limit throughout
These recommendations were forwarded to Secretary Gus Pego by Commissioner Francis Suarez’s Chief-of-Staff, Mike Llorente, along with a note from that said, “The basic message – that the contemplated project fails to capitalize on the opportunity to make Coral Way more pedestrian friendly – is echoed by City Commissioner Suarez and several area residents who attended the community meeting on Wednesday. As you know, the contemplated project does not include any additional pedestrian crosswalks. As a result, pedestrians will continue to have access to only one crosswalk every five blocks, or .5 miles. The lack of crosswalks makes this area very difficult to navigate on foot.” (A phenomenon Transit Miami went on to document in a video post.)
After intense lobbying by the Commissioner and his staff, FDOT agreed to perform additional pedestrian counts and a speed study to gauge whether demand warranted additional crosswalks and a lower speed limit. Not surprisingly they documented a corridor whose pedestrian activity is growing despite the lack of adequate pedestrian facilities.
The analysis led District 6 staff to include five additional crosswalks across Coral Way; 4 with flashing beacons, and one new full intersection. In addition, the City will be able to financially contribute to enhanced crosswalks at major intersections, to include raised pavers and timed crosswalk signals. These measures will be accompanied by a reduction in the speed limit to 35 mph (throughout), and the inclusion of bicycle “sharrows” along the entire corridor from 13 Avenue to 37 Avenue. While not all of the recommendations were followed, FDOT agreed to a majority of what Transit Miami recommended.
Though still governed by their ‘data driven design’ mantra, FDOT’s changes to this project should be seen as encouraging news for green mobility advocates because they reflect an increase in pedestrian activity, even as measured by FDOT engineers. District 6 Secretary Gus Pego and Project Manager Ramon Sierra were clear that additional crosswalks could be requested in the near future as the corridor continues to develop more pedestrian activity. We’ve been documenting the rise of Coral Way for six years now, and now more than ever the corridor can boast that it has a vibrant future ahead.
Kudos to Commissioner Suarez and his staff for going to bat for complete streets, and major kudos to FDOT for reevaluating their project and working together with elected officials and advocates to make these improvements. We hope that this project is an indication of how we might move forward, together to make our streets safer for all.
A friend of Transit Miami passed this gem of a quote on to us by FDOT District 6 Secretary Gus Pego. This is what he had to say earlier today at the MPO meeting (Metropolitan Planning Organization).
“Just as you wouldn’t go to a supermarket for brain surgery, you’ve got to trust that the engineers know what they are doing”
-With regard to the value of installing the flashing crosswalks instead of implementing real traffic calming measures in the MiMo District on Biscayne Boulevard.
You can personally send your reply via email to Mr. Pego: gus.pego@dot.state.fl.us
Please watch the below interview with an actual FDOT engineer.
Is Miami a city of traffic corridors and highways or is it a city for people? At the latest FDOT public meeting, the message from the Florida Department of Transportation is clear: Miami is for cars. Everything and everyone else comes 2nd.
Last night, FDOT held a public meeting to review the details of a re-surfacing project for Coral Way, from SW 37th Avenue to SW 13th Avenue, scheduled to begin in March 2013. Unfortunately, not much is being done to improve pedestrian conditions on Coral Way in spite of the booming pedestrian life visible every day. While the road will get silky new pavement, some wider sidewalks, a few brighter colored signs and ‘sharrows’, overall Coral Way will remain the same traffic sewer that it is today. Apparently, the status quo of Coral Way is all roses to the FDOT.
Except it’s not.
One thing that has always struck me about Coral Way is how difficult it is to cross it as a pedestrian. The traffic lights are so spread out that they may as well be located in separate zip codes. The design of Coral Way is one that divides people and business, rather than connects them. The traffic zooms from signal to signal in a speed’n-stop fashion reminiscent of a video game. The restaurants, the shops, the homes and the residents – are all separated by an impenetrable barrier of vehicles and plantings. Go to any part of Coral Way between Douglas and 12 Ave and you will see plenty of pedestrians trying to cross wherever they can. The road is the antithesis of walkable – by design. It is a roadway that’s patently ill-suited for an urban environment – and FDOT wants to keep it that way.
Crossing Coral Way in a wheelchair
The planted medians seldom have a mid-block crossing. Have you ever traversed a field of geraniums in a wheelchair? FDOT doesn’t really care.
The speed limit will remain a deadly 40 mph. Have you ever tried parallel parking with someone in an Escalade bearing down on you at 45mph? You’ll still have the chance the way FDOT is designing this road!
This project makes virtually no improvements to the comically tragic pedestrian experience of Coral Way, save for a few sections of wider crosswalks. The FDOT’s argument is that their own guidelines do not allow them to make additional safety accommodations, like signalized crosswalks, raised crosswalks, or anything else. Mind you, it’s those very same arcane guidelines that are the root cause of why Florida consistently holds the dubious distinction as the #1 deadliest state for pedestrians in the nation. Such improvements would also make notoriously dangerous Coral Way safer for motorists as well.
But things really hit home when I left the meeting at 2055 Coral Way and walked outside. I was with my bicycle and needed to cross the street. Look right: a traffic signaled crosswalk in the distance. (I measured it online – .25 miles. That would make it .5 miles total just to cross the street legally and safely) Look left: just a headlight-filled abyss. No crosswalk in sight. Someone from the FDOT had to explain this for me, so I went back inside.
I asked two of the project managers to come outside with me to experience first hand just how ridiculously divisive the configuration of this street is. I asked them, “where do I cross?” They pointed to the traffic light a quarter mile away. They simply don’t give a shit. Is that a realistic expectation? What ensued was classic traffic engineer speak. “A study didn’t show the number of pedestrians required to warrant more improvements,” I was told.
That’s because the pedestrian experience is so hostile and uninviting to begin with, rational people will avoid it if possible. “Studies” do not calculate human decision-making. It almost seemed as if I was actually speaking with a car, because the only responses were about accommodating the needs of motorists. In their eyes, I was the first person to ever walk out of that church and have to walk to the other side.
The FDOT representatives said that the speed limit can not be lowered, one reason being some of these drivers are going from Brickell to West Kendall and they need to be accommodated also. So there we have it folks. Creating the walkable conditions for businesses to succeed and all road users to be safe are not in the vocabularies of the FDOT. Coral Way is a road designed to whisk private automobiles as fast as possible through Miami. Everyone else be dammed. The ‘social world’ is of no importance. The ‘traffic world’ is the priority. Everything else is an obstacle to moving cars quickly. The ‘guidelines’ protect them. It’s perfectly acceptable to the FDOT to force a person, a mother with a stroller or a person in a wheelchair, to go .5 miles to legally cross a street.
Appropriate transportation hierarchy in an urban context.
It’s long-passed due that the FDOT revise their outdated guidelines with their own children and grandparents in mind. If their standards aren’t safe and effective for a 10 year old or a senior citizen, then they are failing. The proposed re-paving project of Coral Way is another missed opportunity for Miami to become an actual city instead of a collection of traffic corridors.
A series of FDOT meetings were held on this week around Miami-Dade County.
First the SW 1st St Bridge reconstruction to connect East Little Havana to Downtown over the Miami River was held at the Historic Miami River Inn. The discussion included options to rehabilitate the existing bridge or replace the current 4-lane metal deck structure with a 3-lane concrete deck structure including wider sidewalks and a bike lane. This important connection will link downtown to East Little Havana. FDOT is also considering options to connect the new bridge to the existing historic footbridges that currently connect to the Miami River Inn, a National and locally designated historic building. The new bridge will be shifted slightly north, away from the Inn, and will include railings, lighting and a bridge tender house with historic details.
Second a new bridge is being designed to replace the Tamiami Canal Swing Bridge over the Palmer Lake entrance to the Miami River. One of only operable 3 swing bridges in Florida, the existing bridge will be relocated to Fern Isle Park to connect the park to the recent acquisition at the Police Benevolent Association. The new Delaware Parkway Bridge will connect the Miami Intermodal Center to the 2 city parks further south and will be part of the Miami river greenway network in the future phases. FDOT will be expanding the bridge to a single leaf bascule bridge including 4-lanes of traffic and NO BIKE LANES. We question why there would be no bike lanes of an expansion project between destinations. Please tell FDOT Thank you for relocating the historic bridge and please find a way to add bicycle lanes across onto Delaware Parkway.
2 Beach routes were also heard this week.
The construction of the West Ave bridge will include travel lanes, sidewalks and bicycle facilities. This is envisioned as a small scale bridge primarily for bicycle and pedestrian access.
Second, the much discusses Alton road project is the subject of major controversy as it has led the city of Miami Beach to challenge state statute 335.065 which requires FDOT to consider bicycles in their plans. This could have HUGE implications for bicyclists all over the state. We need to come together and work with FDOT to support a preferred alternative that includes bicycle facilities before we return to the stone age of having no alternative but to ride on 4′ sidewalks.
25 people showed up to the public meeting Tuesday night at the Miami Beach Regional Library. It was an open format, with the project laid out on two long tables and key personnel available to answer questions and take comments.
One table featured a visual summary of the crash data, and one table showed the proposal from a bird’s eye view.
Mayor Matti Bower thanked everyone for coming, even if, “they [FDOT] never do anything I ask.”
There were several members of Miami Beach City Staff there: two engineers from Public Works, Rick Saltrick and Diane Fernandez. Fred Beckman, the Public Works Director was there, as well as Assistant City Manager Duncan Ballantyne and Community Outreach maven Lynn Birnstein.
Beckman, Bernstein and Ballantyne were there mainly to facilitate the participation of Marlo Courtney of Goldman Properties and Michael Comras, of the Comras Company, two prominent developers, who along with Realtor Lyle Stern and other property owners in the area have formed the Collins Avenue Improvement Association, (CIA).
CIA in turn, has hired engineering consultant Ramon Castella of C3TS in Coral Gables. It is heartwarming to see civic leaders like these gentlemen take such an active role in making our streets better. I, for one, am grateful for their efforts.
The CIA is working with the City Managers’ office, who has pledged to use quality of life funds to enhance the project. This extra cash will amp up a once vanilla RRR (Road Resurfacing and Reconstruction) project into a “mini mod” with new sidewalks, new curbs, landscaped bump outs and an additional amount of drainage.
Oh yes, and the addition of the 10 foot left turn lane. But I digress.
As merchants, the CIA are really focused on sidewalks. The sidewalks along this corridor are not only old and broken, but are really small. Between 5 and 6.5′. Add to that the massive amount of regulatory and way-finding signs, street furniture and café seating plus the large numbers of pedestrians and bicyclists, and it doesn’t take the other CIA to figure out Collins Avenue needs more sidewalks.
FDOT, happily, is committed to making the sidewalks as wide as possible, without moving the curbs. This means they will have to aggressively pursue encroachments. We wish them well. On Miami Beach, we sometimes loose 5-6 feet of public right of way on any given corridor to private landscaping or even hard construction due to these types of encroachments. The CMB policy, for the most part, has been one of “Don’t ask, don’t take.” This works well to quell the fear of construction for adjacent property owners, but does little to enhance transportation.
Unfortunately, CIA is so focused on picking out streetlamps and placing parking stations, trashcans and benches, that they have lost sight of the big picture. Addressing the congestion on Collins Avenue that makes the entire experience of being there unpleasant and unsafe for everyone.
FDOT is addressing the unsafe conditions – at least for cars. In the July 2011 Safety Study done by CH Perez and Associates, they document how unsafe Collins Avenue is for cars. They looked at reported crash data for a three-year period, (2007-2009). 1,152 crashes in three years gets you on FDOT’s High Crash List. 84% were property-damage only crashes. 29% of crashes were rear end, 23% sideswipe and 18% involved a park car. 6% of all crashes involved a pedestrian (2/3) or bicycle, (1/3) and of those 67 crashes, 85% resulted in injuries.
Good news is there were no fatalities during the study period. Bad news is we know how under reported bicycle-car accidents are.
The report names aggressive driving as the number one probable cause for the crashes, and believes the lack of a left turn lane is to blame.
And so, the hardworking and dedicated engineers, project managers and safety specialists who are working on this project use the extra ten-feet (gained by narrowing the parking lane and travel lanes) to add an extra lane of traffic.
In reality, the added travel lane will only make the problem worse by adding to the congestion of Collins Avenue, which will ramp up the aggression, which will cause more accidents.
Anyone who has ever been on Collins Avenue knows the score, especially at unsignalized intersections. Cars wait in the travel lane to make that left-hand turn. And wait and wait because of the congestion. Cars two and three behind them whiz around on the right when then can, often grazing the parked cars, shouting expletives and showing the finger. The driver waiting to make the turn finally sees an opening and makes a dash, only to be stopped short by the pedestrian or bicyclist he did not see because he was so focused on the cars coming at him in speeds that range from the posted 30 to 35 MPH. When the waiting driver makes his move, either a pedestrian or bicyclist gets hit or a chain reaction of rear-end collisions happen behind him. (As an aside, this craziness of the modulating posted speed limit should be addressed immediately, bringing the posted speed limit to 30 throughout the corridor. I would like to see 25, but that’s just me.)
The left turn lane allows traffic to continually move through the corridor while allowing three cars to stack up waiting to make that elusive left turn.
This will induce latent demand and add capacity – and traffic – to the roadway. More cars on Collins Avenue are not the answer. More pedestrians are key to restoring the economic preeminence of this retail district. You do that by making the sidewalks safer by moving the bicycles into a dedicated lane.
Additionally, the bike lane will help encourage users of Collins Avenue who are not in cars. More people biking and walking equals more choices for people to get around.
The best part is that in 20 years when we get a wholesale reconstruction of the corridor, we will have shifted the travel mode from 90% percent cars to 20% cars. Justifying removing the turn lane and extending the sidewalks and adding landscaping.
Adding bike lanes now is the seed required to achieve that future. Unfortunately none of the project managers ride a bicycle. I have invited them all to try it: on Collins now. Or ride the sharrows on Washington Avenue and see how that feels. They need to see there is more than one way to solve the problem they have defined, and there is a better solution is to deal with the root cause, not just add too it.
Please send an email to the man in charge, Harold Desdunes at harold.desdunes@dot.state.fl.us. He assured me he would have the engineers take another look at the study, but they need to put their bike helmets on to do it. Send an email asking for their support. My City Manager, Jorge Gonzalez said he direct staff to ask for the bike lane. It’s a start, but the Department is rushing to complete the plans. Time is of the essence!
All is not lost, but your help is needed to prod FDOT in the right direction.
Call me crazy, but I am the type of girl who likes to go to public meetings about road construction. They speak to me about the promise for a better future. I especially like the ones when I know at the end of the awful, dirty, dusty, jarring process, a new bike lane will be born.
So I was excited about the FDOT upcoming meeting to roll out the $2.5 million dollar project on A1A in Miami Beach, from Fifth Street to Lincoln Road. I have been waiting for this project for years, watching the funding shift to and fro from year to year in the Transportation Improvement Plan (TIP, yes I get excited about them too!) I was happy because last spring, the Department came up with a Bicycle Master Plan for all of A1A in District 6 that called for a bike lane on almost all of Collins Avenue!
Be still my heart!
I was thrilled to see in this project moving forward, with a projected start date of May 2013. They plan to narrow the parking lanes, narrow the travel lanes, reconstruct a few blocks to gain ROW, all the right moves…… BUT
My heart stood still…..
THEY DID NOT INCLUDE THE BIKE LANES.
So where oh where did the bike lanes go? And for whom will the ROW be?
Looks like that gained right of way is being added to allow for an exclusive left turn lane throughout the whole segment, i.e. MORE CAR TRAFFIC!
You can make a difference in putting this project back on proper footing!
Send an email to any of these FDOT officials and ask them to include a bike lane in Project Numbers 250236-1-51-01 and 250236-3-52-01. SRA1A/Collins Avenue from 5th Street to Lincoln Road. You may even want to remind them they already said they would!
Copy the local elected officials in Miami Beach:
COME TO THE PUBLIC MEETING
MONDAY, October 25, 2011
Miami Beach Regional Library
227 22nd Street, Collins Park, Miami Beach
6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.
This is more than a RRR. This is a chance to enhance mobility by improving modality for bicycles by designating a lane in which to build the share.
Hope to see you there.
[ipaper id=69633620 width=450]
The FDOT has officially entered the “Transit Miami No B.S. Zone”
Several weeks ago I received the below email from Kenneth Jeffries, Transportation Planner Florida Department of Transportation District Six. This email came in response to an article about the benefits of protected bicycle lanes that appeared in the Economist, which I sent to Mr. Gus Pego, FDOT District 6 Secretary, over a month ago.
Thank you for your interest in bicycle facilities on state roadways. The Department seeks to provide the safest possible facility for all users of the transportation system. Our statewide design standards do not preclude the construction of protected bicycle facilities.
Our designers have evaluated protected bicycle facilities as part of roadway projects in the past where they can be designed to within Department standards. The recently completed Resurfacing, Restoration, and Rehabilitation (RRR) project on SR A1A/MacArthur Causeway was designed per FDOT Design Standards, which includes on-road bicycle lanes. Providing protected bicycle lanes would likely require reconstruction and widening, which would incur significant costs beyond the scope of the RRR project. If you are interested in a protected bicycle facility along this roadway, I recommend that you contact staff at the Miami-Dade Metropolitan Planning Organization to plan, program, and prioritize funding for such a facility.
Thank you again for your interest in this subject. Please feel free to contact me directly with any future questions/comments regarding bicycle facilities on state roadways.”
Oh boy (deep breath).Where do I even begin?
Well, for starters, Mr. Jeffries stated that the Department seeks to provide the safest possible facility for all users of the transportation system? This was clearly not the protocol on the MacArthur Causeway, Biscayne Boulevard , Brickell Avenue, Coral Way or…..the list goes on and on…you get the point. How can the FDOT honestly say that these aforementioned state roadways are safe for anyone to ride a bicycle, especially a child? What a joke.
On a positive note, I’m glad to hear that the FDOT’s statewide design standards do not preclude the construction of protected bicycle facilities, but I have yet to see them wholeheartedly embrace this facility type. Actions speak louder then words, we have yet to see any action-just lip service.
Contrary to what Mr. Jeffries stated above, providing protected bicycle facilities on the MacArthur Causeway would not require reconstruction and widening. How about reducing the travel lanes? The current design speed of 50+ mph would be reduced with narrower lanes (accidents that seem to shut down the MacArthur Causeway on a monthly basis would also drop) and the extra few feet taken from the travel lanes could then be allocated to a protected bicycle lane. Sounds like a no brainer eh? Looks like I managed to find a solution that is inexpensive (paint), which does not require a road expansion project (expensive), and will actually achieve the FDOT’s stated objectives to make the transportation system as safe as possible for all users (drivers, cyclists and pedestrians). The BS and the reindeer games must stop FDOT.
We need your help on this one TMers! Please take a second to write a quick email to Mr. Gus Pego and invite him and his family to take a bike ride with Transit Miami on the MacArthur Causeway. I’ll bet the ranch he won’t take us up on this offer. The existing bike lane on the MacArthur Causeway essentially leads cattle on bicycles to slaughter. No sane person should ride a bicycle on the MacArthur Causeway unless they must.
*It should also be noted that I requested the MacArthur Causeway design plans from the FDOT over a month ago. They provided me with these illegible plans.I submitted a second request for the plans, but have not heard back from them.
Yesterday morning the construction zone at the intersection of SE 13th Street and Brickell Avenue was a pedestrian’s nightmare. Pedestrians can’t see the crossing signal therefore they don’t know when they should cross. Once they do cross they are forced out of the crosswalk, around the construction zone and into traffic coming from three different directions. Really? This is the best we can do?
Click to enlarge: SE 13th Street and Brickell Avenue
Please send an email to Commissioner Mark Sarnoff and the FDOT district 6 Secretary Gus Pego and ask them and their families to join Transit Miami for lunch on Brickell Avenue. We will be happy to walk them through the pedestrian experience of the area. Lunch is on us.
The FDOT continues to turn a blind eye to all the crashes that we have documented in the Upper Eastside on Biscayne Boulevard over the past year. The below scene must have occurred in the past 24 hours or so on Biscayne Boulevard and 48th Street. Another day and another light pole on Biscayne comes crashing down as the FDOT does nothing to make Biscayne Boulevard safer for those of use that walk, bike, shop, use transit or drive on this street. When will the FDOT actually acknowledge that there is a fundamental design problem with the way Biscayne Boulevard was constructed and actually do something about it? With at least 9 accidents in the past year the evidence is very clear. Are they waiting for some to die before they fix Biscayne? The design speed needs to be commensurate with the 35 mph speed limit. Currently the design speed is about 45 mph.
9th light pole this year; 2nd in four days
Debris field spreads out about 75 feet from point of impact. Speeding is clearly a problem.
The FDOT needs to stop playing with people’s lives. I have lived in the MiMo neighborhood for about a year and I am aware of at least 8 crashes involving motor vehicles taking out light poles/bus shelters/store fronts. I have documented most of them here.
Adding insult to injury our local elected officials, City Commissioner Sarnoff and County Commissioner Audrey Edmonson along with the FDOT, have done nothing to address the design speed on Biscayne Boulevard. The design speed on this street throughout the Upper East Side is about 45 mph. Although the speed limit is 35 mph it has become glaringly obvious that we have a speeding problem along this COMMERCIAL and RESIDENTIAL neighborhood.
A bus stop on a narrow sidewalk with cars flying by at 45+mph is a recipe for disaster.
Aside from a 1 day enforcement crackdown about a month ago on Biscayne and 45th Street, our elected officials aren’t doing nearly enough to make Biscayne Boulevard safer for those of us that are walking, biking, or waiting for a bus. Enforcement is not the solution. We need to design our roadways in order to achieve the speed we desire people to drive. In the case of Biscayne Boulevard the design speed should not exceed 35 mph. The FDOT (and our elected officials) must stop practicing wishful thinking and begin designing roads that discourage speeding that don’t require enforcement. Properly designed streets enforce themselves. Biscayne Boulevard is essentially a highway that cuts through commercial and residential neighborhoods; there are also several schools in this area. I cannot think of a good reason for a 45 mph design speed. You can find recommendations to make Biscayne Boulevard more pedestrian and business friendly here.
Commissioner Sarnoff has offered to pay for a $70,000 fence surrounding Belle Meade from the Quality of Life funds which will do nothing to improve the quality of life for anyone on the Upper East Side. I’d rather see the $70,000 used to make Biscayne Boulevard safer for those of us that walk and do business on the Boulevard. Pedestrian and business friendliness go hand-in-hand.
Please send Commissioner Sarnoff an email and ask him what he plans to do about this very serious issue. You could also send an email to County Commissioner Edmonson.
This situation is out of control and no one is being held accountable. The 8 documented crashes could have very easily involved 8 lost lives.
The below article come from the spring issue of the Brickell Homeowners Association newsletter:
Residents and business owners who have heard of plans to close the left turn from Brickell Avenue to Southeast Sixth Street are not pleased with the notion. FDOT is steadfast in their intent to close the median, despite the objections raised by many who live and work in the area. Residents of 500 Brickell already have problems with motorists cutting through their valet area under their building to make a quick exit from Brickell and head west. For those at 600 Brickell, the proposed median closure at Southeast Sixth Street looks disastrous.
No one has been successful at influencing this FDOT decision — and no one has authority over FDOT locally —despite citizens’ objections and support from our local officials.
“Our position continues to be that FDOT has to listen to residents on closing Sixth Street,” Commissioner Marc Sarnoff said. FDOT representatives reported in June, however, that after studying potential alternatives and conferring with their Central office, the recommendation for the median remains unchanged. Those outside of FDOT had not seen the traffic studies leading to that decision; FDOT agreed to make the studies public.
Ever since the Brickell Avenue construction project began, Downtown Development Authority has been facilitating regular meetings with Florida Department of Transportation, Miami-Dade County and City officials and other interested parties to discuss construction issues. The goal of the meetings is to bring the different government entities around the table regularly since the roads have overlapping authorities. Each agency has their own construction and rehab projects going on in the area, but there was no coordinating body.
Stakeholders asked FDOT about the potential impact to Fifth Street as a result of the median closure. FDOT said it was not in their jurisdiction or part of the project scope to consider or study that, however, they said they would “consider” the request. The only concession by FDOT was that their plan to lengthen the Brickell median cut in for left turns at Fifth Street was scrapped. The plan had created a public uproar as they were planning to remove a mahogany tree, considered a Brickell landmark.
For now, commencement of these Phase II changes is on hold, targeted for December 2012.“Clearly differences of opinion remain, such as the closure of the median onto Sixth Street, that may have to be resolved by other means,” said Javier Betancourt, deputy director of the DDA.“We did get FDOT to agree to provide their traffic studies to all interested parties, and to continue to work with our agency in resolving obstacles to the DDA-funded decorative crosswalks all along Brickell Avenue.” BHA will continue to follow the progress of these projects and report on the latest developments.
Two weeks ago, Miami Today News quoted Brickell Area Association President Mr. Randy Olen as saying:
“Most Recently the Brickell Area Association joined the crusade to reduce the speed limit on Brickell Avenue. Partially as a result of its joint efforts with the DDA and Commissioner Sarnoff’s office, the FDOT agreed to permanently lower the speed limit from 40 to 35 mph along the southern end of Brickell Avenue.”
In addition the transportation department conceded to the addition of crosswalks at several intersections as well as sharrow markings to encourage road sharing with cyclists.
Lastly, the department agreed that all of Brickell Avenue will now get modern fixtures that compliment the architecture of the neighborhood.”
We submitted the below response to the Editor of Miami News Today, unfortunately our letter was not published. So here you have it…
Dear Editor,
In last week’s article “Brickell Area Assoication events to look behind the headlines”, Mr. Brickell Area Association President Randy Olen correctly mentioned “the BAA joined the crusade to reduce the speed limit on Brickell Avenue partially as a result of its joint venture with the DDA and Commissioner Sarnoff’s office.” Although the concessions which were made by FDOT could not have been made possible without the support of the DDA and Commissioner Sarnoff, we think it is important to note that the “crusade” to reduce the speed limit and calm traffic on Brickell Avenue was initiated by Transit Miami and not the DDA or Commissioner Sarnoff’s office.
When Transit Miami caught wind of the resurfacing project in late July 2010 we took the initiative to meet with representatives from the FDOT to discuss the project. After discovering that the FDOT did not have any plans to improve safety for pedestrians or cyclists, Transit Miami began a grassroots campaign to make Brickell safer for everyone that lives, works and plays on Brickell. Working with the South Florida Bike Coalition and the Green Mobility Network we organized a coalition of stakeholders that included the Brickell Homeowners Association, the Brickell Area Association, Mayor Regaldo, Commissioner Sarnoff, the Miami DDA, and State Representative Luis Garcia. Thanks to the Transit Miami-led coalition, a conversation about pedestrian safety on Brickell Avenue has finally begun – but more can and should be done.
The FDOT is not doing nearly enough to promote a safer – and more beautiful – Brickell Avenue. Reducing the speed limit alone will not have the desired effect of speed reduction unless the roadway is designed to discourage speeding. In addition, while we applaud FDOT for adding 7 additional crosswalks to the project, this effort falls far short of the nearly twenty crossings that Transit Miami identified as currently missing from the one and a half mile stretch of roadway. Absent from the plans are any pedestrian crossings between SW 26 Road and 17 Road, while the median along the entire avenue is devoid of pedestrian amenity despite heavy pedestrian volumes and one of the highest residential population densities in the county.
Brickell Avenue is one of our premier streets – isn’t it time that we designed it that way?
Felipe Azenha
Writer, Transit Miami
Vice President South Florida Bike Coalition
Tony Garcia
Publisher, Transit Miami
Board of Directors, Green Mobility Network
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- Sprucing Things Up on the Wrong Side of the Tracks May 16, 2012Will French takes a look at the success of Birmingham's downtown revitalization, which – in the absence of a waterfront – embraced its historic railroads, instead.read more […]
- New York's Killer Trees May 16, 2012It sounds like the plot out of a bad B movie, but to the families of those killed and injured by falling limbs and branches from trees in New York's parks and public spaces, it's a real-life horror story that raises questions of municipal liability.read more […]
- Television Series Tackles Weighty Issue May 16, 2012Sarah Henry spotlights "The Weight of the Nation," a new series airing this week on HBO that explores obesity and its enormous economic, emotional, social, and health costs.read more […]
- What's Left for Venice in Its Golden Years? May 16, 2012Josh Stephens muses on the modern state of an erstwhile global capital that has kept its aesthetic charms, but lost its anima. read more […]
- Toward a Universal Subway Typology May 16, 2012
- John.Hopkins's blog
- Curds 'n' waves at Cabot ride sendoff May 13, 2012A few intrepid bicylists pedaled out from Miami's Bicentennial Park on Saturday to start the Cabot Community Tour, a 2,300-mile journey up the East Coast Greenway to Portland, Me. In this pre-ride photo by Suzanne Kores, the long-distance riders are in white jerseys. Cabot, the Vermont farmers' cheese cooperative, held a little fair for them on the […]
- Cyclists ride in Rocafort's memory May 7, 2012Hundreds of cyclists turned out on Sunday to honor cyclist Miguel Rocafort and appeal for the driver who struck him down on March 31 to surrender to police. "We'd like to encourage the guy who hit Miguel to turn himself in," said Eli Stiers, chairman of SafeStreetsMiami, a traffic safety campaign of Green Mobility Network. "It […]
- Ride for Miguel on May 6 April 26, 2012As you probably heard, our memorial ride for Miguel Angel Rocafort was postponed because of Sunday's hard rain Rocafort, of course, was the cyclist who was fatally injured March 31 at SW 137th Avenue and Eureka Drive. The hit-and-run driver who ran him down still hasn't been identified, but there's probably someone out there who knows who it i […]
- Curds 'n' waves at Cabot ride sendoff May 13, 2012
