Transit Miami Films took a field trip to Brickell Avenue and Southwest 8th Street in Miami last week to have a look at the busy pedestrian conditions during an average workday.
Following our last film, 9 Minutes of Mayhem, a Transit Miami reader gave us the heads up on this brutal crossing in the heart of Miami’s business district.
It is quite something to see well-off professionals in Brickell treated with such indignity simply trying to cross a street. For a successful urban environment, walking needs to be the most attractive option – not the least.
Turn up your speakers and enjoy!
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19 Responses to No Respect : A Transit Miami Films Production
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All Miamians should be outraged by this!
This video proves why people jaywalk by crossing at mid-block. Because it feels SAFER.
You have time to react to the cars coming at you from all sides; those making the left across traffic; those making the right-turn on red; and those turning right with the traffic.
Heck, you understand why you see people crossing at mid-block all the time at SW 27th Ave + US 1. It’s a miracle just to get to the other side.
One day you are going to catch someone getting run over in one of these films. It’s only a matter of time. Watching these films from Denver and Boulder make me realize how good we have it here.
After years of crossing this dangerous intersection myself I’m glad to see these dangerous conditions are being discussed and brought out to the public light! I hope this will persuade commissioners and FDOT to make the necessary changes in these very buys intersections. Thank you to Transit Miami and Craig Chester for all their great work.
Another bad one is SW1st Ave and 10th st, right between the Metrorail and Brickell Village. It’s a faded two-line crosswalk without any additional signage, except for a stop sign on 10th street. It’s also a crossing people use to take their children to school at Southside Elementary. While waiting for the B bus on any given morning, I see drivers speeding, not even slowing down before turning at the stop sign, and of course not stopping for pedestrians. I’ve even seen a blind man with a cane who was already a quarter way into the crosswalk almost hit by a pickup turning left from SW1st onto 10st st. And the driver giving the guy a mean stare! It I have my camera with me sometime, I’ll have to take a video of this madness… Some parts of Brickell are fine for some recreational walking, but as a walkable community, it has a long way to go.
Making right-turns on red illegal is a mandatory step in improving pedestrian safety. Otherwise, the behavior depicted in this video flourishes. However, you also need a police department that is interested in enforcing the law…
B – Some good news on SW 1st St: The city is going to re-do that street and plans now call for a green-painted, buffered/segregated bike lane, which could be the first of it’s kind in Miami. I’ll have a follow-up post on that sometime in the coming weeks.
More good news to report – this video made it’s rounds through the offices of elected and city/county officials today. We can look forward to increased enforcement to include more than just speeding. Also, the FDOT plans for an ‘all-stop’ pedestrian crossing here in an upcoming project.
Things aren’t the best now, but they’re getting better!
In my heart of hearts, I believe that by the time my son gets to be my age, this city will be a much better place thanks to the work being done now!
Great job, Transit Miami and Craig Chester!
Carry an umbrella with a metal tip. It rains a lot in South Florida.
Great short Craig. This is our harsh reality at about 99.99% of intersections in Miami. There’s a lot of work to be done down here!
@ Brian: When it does rain it’s generally for about 5 to 10 minutes. Heavy downpours are less frequent… Don’t be a douche!
Gotta love those Miami drivers.
This is great stuff you’re doing, Craig. And I’m going to follow your lead. The intersection of SW 8th Street and 109th Avenue is a massive intersection with incomplete crossings and terrible driver behavior, not to mention the high speeds on 8th Street. I’m going to go there and just get a few minutes worth of footage to show what kinds of things go on there and present it to the FDOT representative of FIU’s CTST at our next meeting.
Re those people making left turns against the walk signal: Are they getting a green left turn light to make that turn or are they going against the red light as well? (if they do have a green turn arrow, then why is the arrow green when the walk sign is illuminated?)
The turning on Red rule needs to be removed. Both Left and Right turns need to be changed to Go On Green Arrow only. And there needs to be strict enforcement of blocking pedestrian crosswalks and intersections. Another thing pedestrian’s crossing the street need to do it at marked crosswalks. As a professional driver I can’t tell you how many times I witness pedestrians J-walking. Many elderly and parents with little children in strollers. Our Media needs to do the job they are required to do set forth by the FCC more than eighty years ago to provide Public Service Programming. Like drumming into our heads on how to safely engage traffic intersections instead of repeating over and over again Lindsay Lohan’s drinking and sexual escapades. The 7 PM weekday television hour is garbage. By the way when I was a kid back in the 60′s I got a traffic ticket for J-walking. My mother was horrified. My father laughed.
Dave – The drivers have a green arrow to make that left, then many drivers run the red arrow once it changes to sneak through (in typical Miami fashion. The problem is, the intersection/turn is much wider than drivers anticipate, and the ‘Walk’ signal comes on as the light turns red, just as the last couple cars cheat the light. That’s why some cars are coming into the crosswalk even 7-8 seconds after the Walk signal comes on.
I’m trying to understand the dynamic here. Do drivers feel invincible? Is it a different class of people in the cars vs the pedestrians? Or would the pedestrians be doing the same in a car?
I feel as though where i live in the northeast this would not be tolerated. If drivers were cutting through people, or making you rush they would get a pound on the window or slap on the bumper. If not called out verbally.
Overall not surprised at these scenes, i’m surprised no one is flipping out on these drivers.
That is what we should do. Call the news outlets and do a civilian sting ourselves. Those people do not know any better, because in Miami it has never been taught to respect pedestrians. We have never had this many bicyclists and pedestrians on our streets than at this time right now. Even nobody will teach these motorists a lesson than maybe we should.
Check out this article, “The Crisis in American Walking” http://www.slate.com/articles/life/walking/2012/04/why_don_t_americans_walk_more_the_crisis_of_pedestrianism_.html
I am a walker and find this happens to me ALL the time. I am tired of fighting the cars, my finger is getting very tired.