MDX SURVEY SHOWS MDX’S FREQUENT TOLL PAYING CUSTOMERS STRONGLY SUPPORT THE KENDALL PARKWAY
In March MDX concluded a survey of 46,971 of its frequent toll paying customers. The results of this survey give us a glance at the support from our most frequent customers for our future plans. Of the 46,971 frequent drivers responding to the survey, 40,361, or 86%, support utilizing their toll dollars to build the Kendall Parkway. Given the sample size of the response from a countywide pool of customers, it accurately reflects not only the sentiments of our toll paying customers, but also of residents and business in our County.
In the same survey, 24,902 of 46,971, or 53%, responded that they would consider utilizing express transit service provided by MDX on the special lanes now being constructed for this purpose (known as XT Lanes) on SR836/Dolphin Expressway. The service will offer non-stop service to the Miami Intermodal Center at the Airport and to Downtown Miami. The response was asked if the service was compatible with their daily commute route. Only 10 percent said they would not try the service, with the remaining 37 percent living in other regions of Miami-Dade County where they could not utilize the new MDX East West SMART Plan corridor service.
MDX’s construction projects, operations and maintenance are financed 100% with toll dollars. MDX does not receive any taxes, subsidies or grants from the federal government, from the State of Florida or locally from Miami-Dade County. MDX has utilized its toll revenues to partner with the State of Florida and Miami-Dade County to leverage over $2 billion in transportation infrastructure projects. These projects that support the needs of the community would not have been able to be constructed if not for this partnership. This includes $41 million committed to date in transit related infrastructure for the Miami-Dade County SMART Plan and the commitment to operate a new express bus service on the Dolphin Expressway and the Kendall Parkway.
KENDALL PARKWAY – A SOLUTION IN SIGHT
For residents who live in and around the rapidly growing areas of West Dade and Kendall, a morning rush hour commute can take nearly an hour to an hour and a half just to get from home to an expressway like the Florida Turnpike or the Palmetto Expressway. The same time is lost in congestion on the trip home, which means that these commuters can spend anywhere from 2 to 3 hours daily in their cars. But things can change and with your support relief can be in sight.
MDX’s Kendall Parkway will be a new multi-modal north to south expressway running west of 167th Avenue from SW 8th Street to SW 136th Street with potential access points at SW 8th Street, Bird, Miller, Kendall Drive, 120th Street and 136th Street. The Kendall Parkway will connect directly with the existing SR 836.
Residents in West Dade and West Kendall will access the Kendall Parkway within minutes of leaving their homes, significantly reducing their daily commute. Existing traffic which now only heads east will split east and west between the Turnpike and the Kendall Parkway. This will create considerable congestion relief to local main streets and avenues, as well as to all neighborhood roads where drivers cut through today at peak hours.
The Kendall Parkway is proposed as a multimodal transportation corridor that will include Xpress Technology (XT) Lanes to be used for express bus service connecting to the same service that will be running on the existing SR 836 XT Lanes early next year. The corridor will also include a 14-mile nature trail for biking and jogging with buffer areas to the urbanized area.
Miami-Dade County has submitted an amendment to the Comprehensive Master Plan to allow for the construction of the Kendall Parkway. This amendment sponsored by County Commissioner Joe Martinez will be voted on by the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners on Wednesday, June 20, 2018 at 9:30 a.m. at the Stephen P. Clark Center at 111 NW 1 Street, 2nd Floor Escalators in the County Commission Chambers.
Upon final approval by the Board of County Commissioners, the project can break ground by the end of this year and be completed within three years. In order to make the Kendall Parkway a reality you need to speak at the public hearing and write your County Commissioners to let them know how the Kendall Parkway can change your quality of life.
Make your Voice Count!!!
Click to Support the Kendall Parkway
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CAN YOU AFFORD TO CONTINUE LIVING WITH CONGESTION?
MDX has launched a Traffic Congestion Calculator to help the public evaluate how transportation improvements can reduce the time spent getting to their destination. This tool provides a framework of the time commuters spend on a daily round trip, and translates the impacts over time on their personal and business life. The Traffic Congestion Calculator demonstrates how transportation improvements that offer even modest time savings can help recapture valuable time.
Residents of West Dade, West Kendall and South Dade, can calculate how many months and years of their life are spent in traffic with daily round trip commutes of 3 and 4 hours. The cost of time lost can be significant over an average life span of 76 years. This is lost time that you cannot recapture.
The exercise of calculating time stuck in traffic is sobering, even without calculating the cost of congestion to a commuter or the economic cost to business and commerce. Transportation projects that can reduce your commute times can have significant cumulative impacts on your quality of life. These improvements can have a momentous impact over a person’s lifetime just one year after project completion.
The Kendall Parkway itself can have a reduction of travel time of 25% to 33% for West Dade and West Kendall residents. MDX is also moving forward with the implementation of an Express Bus Service on SR 836/Dolphin Expressway which will eventually extend to the Kendall Parkway providing east west and north south mobility options for commuting and travel. These short term solutions will have tremendous benefits to the community without impacting future long term plans such as the Smart Plan rail options which require state and federal funds. It is the combination of short term, intermediate term and long term transportation projects that will move us forward into the future.
The precursor of the XT Lanes are now being built on the wider shoulders of the SR 836 to accommodate Express Bus Service departing from the Dolphin Transit Station Park and Ride with a downtown destination. These will be ready for Xpress Bus Service next year.
