FYI Miami: November 7, 2024

Below are some of the FYIs in this week’s edition. The entire content of this week’s FYIs and Insider sections is available by subscription only. To subscribe click here.

KENDALL PARKWAY PUSH: Efforts to build a $1 billion Kendall Parkway extension of SR 836/ Dolphin Expressway, begun in 2014 but tied up in environmental concerns and a battle over control of the county’s tollway system, may get a shove ahead from Miami-Dade’s Transportation Planning Organization. An item on the agenda today (11/7) sponsored by county Commissioner Roberto Gonzalez would, if passed, ask the organization’s Executive Director Aileen Bouclé to do everything possible to coordinate with transportation agencies to advance the Kendall Parkway southwest extension of 836 from the current terminus of SR 836 at Northwest 137th Avenue and Northwest 12th Street southward to Southwest 136th Street. The resolution asks that the Kendall Parkway also include a transit option for the mobility needs of the region within the design of the project.

AIRPORT AREA MOBILITY: The county’s Transportation Planning Organization is being urged to plan for a consultant to analyze transportation mobility and connectivity in the area that includes Miami International Airport, the Miami Intermodal Center and the future Miami Freedom Park to find ways to alleviate congestion and enhance transportation options. The resolution by organization member Rodolfo Pages, managing partner of Caoba Capital Partners, is on the agenda today (11/7). The resolution looks ahead to the opening of Miami Freedom Park on the former Melreese Golf Course just east of both the airport and the mobility center, which has various transportation modes in a single hub connecting the airport, Tri-Rail, Metrorail, Miami’s trolleys, county buses and the Rental Car Center. It notes that Freedom Park will add a soccer stadium, entertainment center, offices, retail, a hotel and a conference center that could congest area mobility.

PEDALING NEW BIKE LANES: Miami-Dade’s Transportation Planning Organization is rolling toward adopting the Florida Department of Transportation’s design for bicycle lanes as the concept for South Florida. A resolution for adoption today (11/7) would also urge the state to set aside money to install the bikeways to create safe, protected and connected bike networks throughout the region as a link to other forms of transportation. The resolution by planning organization chairman and Hialeah Mayor Esteban Bovo Jr. explains that a bicycle lane directly adjacent to a roadway would be at sidewalk level and, when it’s also adjacent to a sidewalk, would have a grass strip or textured pavement as a buffer between the sidewalk and the separated bicycle land. The legislation says this design is common in Europe and has recently been adopted in multiple US metropolitan areas including Chicago, Atlanta and New York.