Last week, Transportation for America officially launched their plan to improve our nation’s infrastructure, reshape our economy, and wean Americans off foreign oil. T4America is a grassroots network composed housing, environmental, public health, urban planning, transportation and other organizations. Transit Miami will be actively working with T4America over the coming months to bring you the latest news from the congressional front lines. Together with T4America, we can make a substantial change on national (and Local) transportation infrastructure policy. We are committed to enacting sweeping changes in the upcoming 2009 Transportation Equity Act (TEA), a long-held bastion for highway lobbyists and insiders.
T4America’s 5 Step Plan:
BUILD TO COMPETE – We must catch and pass competitors in China and Europe, by modernizing and expanding our rail and transit networks to reduce oil dependence and connecting the metro regions that are the engines of the modern economy.
INVEST FOR A CLEAN, GREEN RECOVERY – Our nation’s clean-energy future will require cleaner vehicles and new fuels, but it also must include support for the cleanest forms of transportation – modern public transit, walking and biking – and for energy-efficient, sustainable development.
FIX WHAT’S BROKEN – Before building new roads, that will themselves have to be maintained, we must restore our crumbling highways, bridges and transit systems.
STOP WASTEFUL SPENDING – Re-evaluate projects currently in the pipeline to eliminate those with little economic return, that could deepen, rather than relieve, our oil dependence.
SAVE AMERICANS MONEY – Provide more travel and housing options that are affordable and efficient, while helping people to avoid high gas costs and traffic congestion. Save taxpayer dollars by asking the private developers who reap real estate rewards from new rail stations and transit lines to contribute toward that service.
It is amazing to watch how Green Mobility and other cycling groups have made the City of Miami Move along with bike infrastructure. The upcoming Bike Miami could put old school transport back on the map . As we close the chapter of phenomenal growth in the County, I am disappointed as I gaze back on many great redevelopment achievements that did not include better-planned streets and sidewalks, crossings, and grades. The fact of the matter remains that too many public and private projects have gone forward with major underground retrofits and right-of way reconstruction – countless missed opportunities where five feet of clear, walkable sidewalk AND bike lanes could have easily been implemented:. A complete street of course. Biscayne Boulevard is a perfect example. Where is the bike lane? Where are the wide sidewalks? As construction comes to a grinding halt, Biscayne Boulevard will continue to look this way. It is the poster child of what we’ve done wrong (twice) within this last century.
If a few thousand people gather and populate along this downtown strip, go shopping, have lunch, make friends and go about their business without cars, the argument will be over, once and for all. Bikes and alternative forms of transportation matter and we, as the residents of Miami Dade County, must clamor for our civic leaders to push our city forward with clean, livable street infrastructure. After all, the sky will not fall; the river will not run dry if we have fewer cars on our roads as a normal course of affairs. The only way to achieve this is by making physical accommodations to the roadway for transport other than cars. The political chicken and egg story. Let’s crack it wide open and have it cook on the asphalt of old – politicians and bureaucrats all will take notice of that day of Bike Miami.
I look forward to seeing you and your friends at Bike Miami.
Upcoming Events:
We all know how I feel about Miami Beach. A great City to live or visit, but I wish you did not have to drive everywhere. And my wish could be granted, on such a small and perfectly laid out Island, if only we had the right mix of parking and public transit, complete streets and wide sidewalks. Getting my town closer to this tropical urban utopia will require your attendance at the following Public Meetings:
- Dade Blvd. Bike Path (for the proposed bike/pedestrian bridge) on Oct. 21st 6:30 -8:30 p.m. at the Botanical Gardens.
- And the ever-important Transportation Element Planning workshop tentatively scheduled for Oct. 27th, with a place yet to be determined.
The first meeting addresses upcoming projects that have the potential to include enhancements to non-motorized transportation. The second is a state requirement to conform to our wonkish Comprehensive Plan, an important technically we should utilize to realize global solutions to our constant state of gridlock and redundant bus routes. I would hope the TE update meeting could turn into a mini “Transit Summit” for the Beach that focuses on mobility for residents and guests. Only your attendance can make that happen.
An excellent article from the New York Times covers rising transportation costs the world over, which is causing what economists call the ‘neighborhood effect.’ That is to say, global supply chains are shrinking and more goods are starting to be produced closer to home. The days of fish caught in America and then shipped to China for packaging, only to be shipped back to the United States for consumption are probably numbered.
From the Times article:
Cheap oil, the lubricant of quick, inexpensive transportation links across the world, may not return anytime soon, upsetting the logic of diffuse global supply chains that treat geography as a footnote in the pursuit of lower wages. Rising concern about global warming, the reaction against lost jobs in rich countries, worries about food safety and security, and the collapse of world trade talks in Geneva last week also signal that political and environmental concerns may make the calculus of globalization far more complex.
“If we think about the Wal-Mart model, it is incredibly fuel-intensive at every stage, and at every one of those stages we are now seeing an inflation of the costs for boats, trucks, cars,” said Naomi Klein, the author of “The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.”
“That is necessarily leading to a rethinking of this emissions-intensive model, whether the increased interest in growing foods locally, producing locally or shopping locally, and I think that’s great.”
Read the full article here:
Thanks to a tip from one of our dedicated readers, David, it has come to my attention that US Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters will be speaking at the Downtown Miami Hilton Today. The event, A New Transportation Approach For America, is sponsored by the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce and will begin at 12:30 (Click here to register, $75 fee for non-members.) I’m going to try my best to make it there and hope that despite the short notice some of you all can attend. You can find some of the emails SBH has shared with me concerning the subject here.
Like our friend over at Hallandale Beach Blog has noted, we too find it interesting that Mary Peters can make some time out of her busy schedule to speak about transportation in Miami, while FDOT director Stephanie Kopelousos remains MIA in the South Florda region. Kopelousos recently held a transportation summit in Destin Florida to discuss the congestion issues of North Florida. I guess a drive down to Miami would have been to difficult.
Here is what the Halladale Beach Blog has to say:
When federal public transit policy meets South Florida’s notoriously fickle apathy, who wins?
Oh, right.
Everyone loses!
98% of Americans are in favor of expanded public transportation. Yes, there is a catch. This is what the study released today by the APTA concluded:
A study released Monday by the American Public Transportation Association reveals that 98 percent of Americans support the use of mass transit by others.
Now, that is a scary statistic. With hordes of environmental and financial problems looming over the US economy (chiefly the result of our unappeasable appetites for oil), one would assume that our citizens would become better acquainted with more sustainable lifestyles. This national mentality falls in line with some situations we’ve addressed here on TM; evidenced by the opposition against bringing commuter rail service to the CSX corridor because it would “hamper the commutes of motorists traveling along several east-west corridors.”
Of the study’s 5,200 participants, 44 percent cited faster commutes as the primary reason to expand public transportation, followed closely by shorter lines at the gas station. Environmental and energy concerns ranked a distant third and fourth, respectively.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news America, but this is not how transportation works:
Anaheim, CA, resident Lance Holland, who drives 80 miles a day to his job in downtown Los Angeles, was among the proponents of public transit.
“Expanding mass transit isn’t just a good idea, it’s a necessity,” Holland said. “My drive to work is unbelievable. I spend more than two hours stuck in 12 lanes of traffic. It’s about time somebody did something to get some of these other cars off the road.”
You will notice that equally important in our quest of reshaping the American Landscape (and mentality) is to create a better understanding of our land use policies.
Recommended Reading:
- With Gas Over $4, Cities Explore Whether It’s Smart to Be Dense (WSJ)
Miami may be one of “America’s cleanest cities,” but it certainly is not one of the most bicycle-friendly. This fact was recently recognized in the June 2008 issue of Bicycle Magazine, which bestowed Miami with the dubious distinction of joining Dallas and Memphis as one of the three worst cities in America for bicycling. The excerpt, linked above states the following:
In Miami, the terrain lies pancake-flat and the sun shines bright nearly every day–perfect conditions for cycling. But Miami-Dade County has done little to foster safer streets for bikes, despite the fact that Florida ranks second in the nation in bicycle fatalities and that much of Miami’s poorer population relies on bikes for transportation. The county enacted the Bicycle Facilities Plan in 2001, but it failed to state any specific goals. The city of Miami has no finished lanes, and the only one under construction is less than a mile long. The rest of the county’s lanes are just as short, appearing randomly and disappearing a few blocks later. “We’re so far behind and in the dark with bikes it’s absurd,” bike-shop owner Chris Marshall told the Miami New Times in January. “I’d say we’re stuck in the ’60s, but it’s worse than the ’60s. In the ’60s you could still get around by bike.”
I agree that we are far behind, but the article fails to mention Mayor Diaz’s new Bicycle Advisory Committee, which is working under the umbrella of the Office of Sustainable Initiatives to create a bicycle master plan that dovetails with Miami 21. It’s an uphill battle, but it’s a step in the right direction.
Interestingly, the City of Boston, another cycling-poor city in which I have lived, repeatedly received similar honors from Bicycling Magazine. However, thanks to an aggressive agenda to improve cycling conditions the city is quickly altering its reputation. Let’s hope Miami is not too far behind.
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