Coral Gables traffic calming initiative targets 2027 finish

Almost seven years in the making, Coral Gables’ citywide traffic calming initiative is pushing forward with a targeted 2027 completion goal.

Starting out as a multimodal transportation plan in 2016, the objective was to develop a 10-year blueprint for the city’s transportation system. The plan ended up with a roughly $5 million traffic calming project, which was one of the priorities that came about, said Hermes Diaz, the city’s director of public works, during the Jan. 11 city commission meeting.

“We’ve been collecting data for seven years and we compiled over 150 citizen comments,” he said. “They’re being logged, reviewed, mapped, analyzed and tested for specific locations where these requests were provided.”

With approval from Miami-Dade County, a systemic approach and toolkit have been developed. The city will be divided into five zones and take about five years to install 123 traffic calming devices, which includes roundabouts, speed tables, intersection improvements, median islands and speed cushions.

In 2018, the speed limit on all local residential streets was lowered from 30 to 25 miles per hour, Mr. Diaz said. “This is important for us to meet our traffic calming goals and create safer, more livable neighborhoods.”

The city also made an agreement with the county to construct certain traffic calming measures without having to go through specific approvals.

There’s a number of these type of items that can be done without having to go through the county process, which can be a little bit lengthy, he added.

It has been a long time coming and a convoluted process getting approvals from the county, Mayor Vince Lago said. “A lot of it has been out of our hands. So, I appreciate the efforts and we’re moving forward as quickly as possible.”

“This commission has all coalescent and has really made it a priority because we’re never going to stop people driving through the city, Right?” Mr. Lago said. “We can at least have people respect our streets.”