Florida Highways Among Most Deadly

5 Responses to Florida Highways Among Most Deadly

1. Streetsblog.net » Squeaky Wheels Get the Bike Parking says:

   June 8, 2010 at 10:24 am

   [...] from around the network: Transit Miami on the deadly nature of Florida’s highways. Hugh Bartling on the potential for waterborne [...]

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2. Streetsblog San Francisco » Squeaky Wheels Get the Bike Parking says:

   June 8, 2010 at 12:16 pm

   [...] from around the network: Transit Miami on the deadly nature of Florida’s highways. Hugh Bartling on the potential for waterborne transit [...]

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3. LG says:

   June 8, 2010 at 1:39 pm

   This is part of the problem…
   “…
   Fitting too many drivers onto one expressway, even up to 10 lanes wide in Broward and up to 12 lanes wide in Miami-Dade, is another reason I-95 is so dangerous. The Florida Department of Transportation admits traffic volume is a problem, but a spokeswoman says it’s no longer possible to add lanes.

   “We don’t have the money to buy all those homes and all that right-of-way in order to add lanes to what’s already there,” she said.

   “You may have an I-75 with the same number of lanes, but it doesn’t service as many people, so you don’t see as many accidents, although I-75 certainly has its own challenges,” she said.

   What can be done, FDOT spokeswoman Barbara Kelleher said, has been done already: Installing express lanes in Miami-Dade — and eventually in Broward — to separate long-haul drivers from short-range commuters, and using traffic signals at on-ramps so motorists don’t all crowd onto the expressway at once.

   Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/06/06/1666879/i-95-in-florida-is-nations-deadliest.html#ixzz0qHgCPWwu

   IMO, what can be done is the following: stop thinking like FDOT always thinks, trying to add capacity to roads like I-95. Think public transportation and how to get people to use it more. This is the biggest problem we have with FDOT and people like Ms. Kelleher.

   I found her comments to be outrageous!

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4. Prem says:

   June 8, 2010 at 2:09 pm

   i agree it’s outrageous for FDOT to think they’re helpless simply because they can’t expand i95.
   If they’d expand their minds on the concept of transit itself perhaps something akin to a solution would be discovered.

   That aside, I severely question the use of the Daile Beast’s article as any evidence of how dangerous Florida’s highways are in comparison to others. It’s a very weak calculation done with completed uncorroborated information, and doesn’t tell us other buzz numbers we might be interested in like fatality rate of all users.
   Perhaps i95 has 2 deaths per mile per year, but what would that number mean to us if those miles still have a lower mortality rate compared to use?

   Doesn’t mean i95 isn’t dangerous, just that we don’t really know how dangerous it is and should promote safety for its own merit.

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5. Rob B says:

   June 8, 2010 at 9:47 pm

   Being from the Hudson Valley, I was shocked at how crazy I-95 was in Palm Beach County. So many lanes, with cars flying across them, and people speeding at ridiculous rates.

   The most shocking thing was seeing other possible public transit routes running parallel to I-95. I’m talking about: (1) Tri-Rail; (2) the Conrail freight line; and (3) the Intra-Coastal waterway.

   Each of these can be used to create mass transit opportunities. Sure there is sprawl, but there are also some Transit Oriented Design (TOD) places like West Palm Beach and some dense high-rise building clusters along the Intra-Coastal that could make mass transit cost-effective and successful.

   Suggestions for transit:
   Start running frequent-stop ferries and water taxis along the Intra-Coastal;
   Increase Tri-Rail frequencies;
   Put local trolleys along the Conrail line

   Suggestions for Development:
   Allow TOD dense new urbanist development near transit stops (like West Palm)
   Change zoning to disallow suburban sprawl strip malls and big boxes

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