(Photo courtesy Marlin Engineering)
Marlin Engineering, the village’s traffic engineering consultant, presented its recommendations to village residents during a Traffic Town Hall meeting on Wednesday, July 5, at Village Hall.
Maps dividing the village into three zones were displayed along with photos of various traffic calming devices ranging from chicanes, chokers/curb extensions, traffic circles, speed humps and speed tables, raised intersections and complete streets.
Data had been gathered over previous months from residents input, village administration advice, studies of traffic flow throughout the village, and historical traffic data. Automatic traffic recorder machines were used to perform daily traffic volume counts, peak hour volume counts and speed counts. The traffic data was analyzed and volume, speed and crash issues were mapped.
The stated goals were to make streets safer, reduce traffic volume, reduce travel speed, improve pedestrian safety, preserve quality of life and add value to the neighborhood. The various traffic calming devices were offered as suggestions to the council for ways of achieving that.
But while the focus of the report was on direct street-by-street projects, many expressed belief that the best way to reduce traffic through the village is by improving public transportation to get more cars off the road.
“We need rail,” Mayor Eugene Flinn said following the presentation. “The future of mobility in South Miami-Dade is dependent upon a successful mass transit.”
Village Councilmember (Seat 1) Karyn Cunningham had mixed feelings about the report.
“While I don’t feel that the recommendations captured all of the areas in the village that are problematic, it is a start,” Cunningham said.
“I have said since 2014 that we need to look at traffic calming and flow from a citywide perspective rather than in the haphazard manner in which we have been implementing solutions.
“More importantly, there is a great need for a comprehensive mass transit strategy with effective public transportation via light rail to move people out of their cars and reduce the need for folks to cut through our village to travel north to work,” she added.
Julia Brazell Cespedes, a village resident and senior academic advisor at the University of Miami, had definite opinions about the report and studies leading up to it.
“I thought they were a complete waste of time, money and resources,” Brazell Cespedes said. “I felt they kept changing the data in the charts and included irrelevant variables to make a specific result seem more important.
“Rail is important. There is no instant solution, in my opinion. The bus service can improve, too…the number of buses, the stations. I think the council, or at least some of the council members, should continue to demand Uber stations included in the new apartment developments. And then of course the bike lanes can always be improved and arrive sooner.”
The problem here in Miami has always been that the Rail System does not encompass the entirety of Miami Dade County, unlike a subway system like NYC, which was built with much forsight back in 1890 or so.
Ours Is great if you are going downtown or to Jackson or the VA- but even those that do, usually make other stops where there is no service and therefore must drive. Rail is carrying a lot of passengers but the trains and infrastructure need continual repairs which have been prolonged due to the expense.
Our Rail goes straight down US1 but traffic on that main route has not been less dense as a result.
Normally a substantially populated city would have a by-pass going around both sides of a downtown, so that not everyone has to transit every Municipality. We don’t have that because of Biscayne Bay. The answer is to build a causeway from The Turnpike at Silver Palm Drive just South of mount trashmore along the Bay with entry & exit in both directions at certain locations. It was done across Chesapeake Bay!
Build on & off ramps connecting to Key Biscayne, Port of Miami & the Beach.
You could be downtown from homestead in 20 minutes- from Cutler or Palmetto Bay in 15!
And think of what a great tourist boost- who wouldn’t want to drive across our beautiful Biscayne Bay! Locals could pay a dollar and tourists ten!
Additionally, to build light rail South from Dadeland at grade level would require a catanary system, which is not in the current build contract. Trains operating at grade level would have to conform to civil speed restrictions and signals (same as cars & trucks) and could not operate at higher speed that the local traffic. Think of having a railroad crossing at EVERY cross street and how that would affect movement of traffic!.
Dont’t get me wrong, I am all for Public Transportation but we can’t go subway here and elevated is too expensive and we will NEVER see another elevated extention according to Commissioner Bovo because it is too expensive! So start thinking practically about a causeway- then maybe the Federal money would support the project- it would be a neccessary venue for egress in Emergency situations!
Just saying…