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Front Page » Communities » Congested Biscayne Boulevard may narrow

Congested Biscayne Boulevard may narrow

Written by on February 11, 2015
  • www.miamitodayepaper.com
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Congested Biscayne Boulevard may narrow

Newly christened Biscayne Green is moving ahead in an ambitious project to narrow a stretch of congested Biscayne Boulevard downtown from Northeast Eighth Street south to Biscayne Boulevard Way.

“The Miami DDA is in the process of building a three-dimension model that should be ready in the next two to three weeks,” Eric Riel Jr., team leader of planning, design and transportation for Miami’s Downtown Development Authority, said Friday.

It will be used, he said, for meetings with state officials “with the goal of securing buy-in and support to move this project forward.”

Last April, authority directors voted to reduce driving lanes from eight to four or six to make way for grass, trees and pedestrians. The plan shaves parking spaces from 388 to 187, costing the Miami Parking Authority $1.2 million a year revenue.

The plan would replace a shared bicycle lane with a dedicated lane and widen sidewalks. Cost for medians is  $24 million.

“We have an opportunity to create a grand promenade. There are not many other areas where this could be done,” said authority board member Jerome Hollo in April. “This will be something great.” Fewer lanes, he said, will slow traffic, making pedestrians safer.

A city study concluded that traffic impact would be minimal once lanes were closed, authority documents say.

For the project to advance, the Florida Department of Transportation must agree to reduce lanes and the parking authority must trim parking spaces and reconfigure what’s left. The plan calls for some parking at off-peak times only.

The development authority must enlist Miami-Dade County to redesign intersections, develop a phasing plan, then submit construction documents to relevant agencies. It’s the authority’s task to find funds for it all.

7 Responses to Congested Biscayne Boulevard may narrow

  1. Craig Chester

    February 11, 2015 at 11:33 am

    The headline here is a bit misleading. The roadway isn’t becoming ‘narrower’ – it’s just being reallocated. Narrower for cars, perhaps, but certainly wider for people walking, biking and otherwise enjoying downtown Miami and Bayfront Park.

    • marc

      February 11, 2015 at 1:26 pm

      Carcentric mentality.

  2. B

    February 11, 2015 at 3:47 pm

    4 lanes in each direction there is quite excessive. It’s way underutilized except during Heat games, when things will back up no matter how many lanes there are. I doubt the Parking Mafia will lose money since people will just park elsewhere, they may even make more money because more people park in the garages. And the current system of “sharrow” bike lanes only works well in situations with calm traffic, like 2-lane residential streets. It’s definitely not suitable for major bus corridors.

    My only beef with this plan is it still doesn’t get transit busses in dedicated bus lanes–something most cities figured out decades ago. Bus reliability is severely limited by the many events at the AAA as well as general unpredictable traffic there.

  3. VICTOR

    February 12, 2015 at 4:31 am

    “A city study concluded that traffic impact would be minimal once lanes were closed, authority documents say.” Really? That’s one of the worse roads to travel on. In a city where roads are bursting at the seams, now they want to eliminate lanes to make it even worse. Wow! Miami really have brainless people in government.

  4. Ben Grimm

    February 12, 2015 at 3:00 pm

    First the upper east side of Biscayne and now the downtown section too? Someone opened the floodgates to every urban planner looking to experiment at the cost of taxpayer money. That’s $24 million dollars to create more gridlock and add in the middle where NO ONE will walk or cycle.

    With a large park to the east why would one walk or bike in a giant median? One million dollars for dedicated traffic cops would make pedestrians, cyclists, and motorists way safer than artificially-engineered traffic jams.

    I want to blame the sun for the lack of common sense in this entire region but that would be a lie.

  5. metromoverlover

    February 12, 2015 at 9:21 pm

    How about yo spend that money on extending the metromover !

  6. MiamiTrafficNightmare

    February 13, 2015 at 12:12 pm

    Agree w/ the posts above that this plan is absurd! Particularly w/ the construction of Brickell City Center and the upcoming World Center. Traffic is already a nightmare and this will make it worse at at a time when the Miami downtown population is increasing.

    “The plan calls for some parking at off-peak times only” – this hints that one of the driving lanes will allow parking during off peak times and we all know that these cars will continue to park there during peak times causing a bottleneck (just like they do on N Miami Avenue – the only alternate to this nightmare) and the police / city will do nothing about it.

    MetroMoverLover – I think your idea to take this money and expand the MM is a great one.

    Hopefully FDOT has more sense than these people and hopefully they commission their own traffic study before approving anything.

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