As usual, I have been attending a lot of meetings discussing the traffic problems in South Miami-Dade County. A bunch of folks there were quite excited about the fact that the Busway is now being called the Transit-way. Yippee!
As for the bus/transit-way, I for one get terribly irritated as I sit on S. Dixie Highway in tons of traffic and glance over at the two bus lanes that could easily be converted to four and absolutely no one or nothing using them. The Department of Transportation would like to use at least one of those lanes as a reversible toll lane to get people back and forth to where they need to be in much shorter time.
Of course the problem will exist in that overpasses are absolutely necessary. Perhaps a brief test might be in order now. Suppose that we build at least one overpass crossing a major east-west road such as SW 136th Street. Now understand that without the advantage of this overpass traffic backs up on Dixie Highway in both directions for people waiting to make the turn and cross the busway, train tracks or whatever may be there.
The population west of US1 is growing much more rapidly than any other section and the traffic there will be getting worse and worse as time goes by. No one has attempted to address this problem. Of course, I am told that the overpasses will be quite expensive but I frankly do not see an alternative to them and, if we were to try at least one test location, we may prove that Ernie Sochin is right again. Now you’ve heard a lot about the SMART plan, but I have a new one called the DUMB plan.
Dont use Metrobuses.
For all these folks complaining about trying to do something about the traffic that they are in I suggest that they look at the cars around their vehicle when they are jammed in traffic. You’ll notice that the drivers for the most part are parents taking their kids to or from school or other activities: mothers shopping for their food supplies; none of which can be done on a bus or a train. Think about it!
There are some small adjustments that might be made such as building a small bridge on SW 87th Avenue where it dead ends at a canal now. Of course the people living near that will holler and scream that they don’t want additional traffic on this street. Neither do I, but I don’t have the right to tell other people that they cannot use the shortest route to get where they are going rather than waiting in long lines of traffic. Sorry folks but that’s the way it is.
There are some areas, in particular Downtown Kendall, where people are now able to live and work in an area that they can get to without using public transportation. Anyone familiar with New York City will see how it works there. Yes they have traffic and yes it is noisy and crowded but they still have some options available to them which we in Dade County apparently do not.
I love trains as much as the next guy and had a whole attic full of them at one time and they were fun to watch speeding around the circle, going through crossing gates and all the other things that trains do but they are very unforgiving when someone or something decides to get in their way, hence the need for overpasses.
I would much rather see one overpass than 20 miles of unused transit way or busway doing nothing but adding to the traffic. Of course we could always move to Iowa, or Nebraska, or some other less populated state and sit back and enjoy the scenery and grow your , but I sincerely doubt that many of you will choose this lifestyle.
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