http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/12/v-fullstory/1923354/walkers-and-cars-clash-on-brickell.htmlWalkers and cars clash on Brickell
On booming Brickell Avenue, pedestrians must dodge cars to get across the street, but a big state resurfacing project contemplates few improvements for them.
BY ANDRES VIGLUCCI
AVIGLUCCI@MIAMIHERALD.COM
Along Miami's Brickell Avenue, a tower-lined urban boulevard booming with thousands of new office workers and condo residents, jaywalking and car-dodging is the order of the day -- and often the only convenient way to get across the busy street on foot.
The sight of people in business attire bushwhacking through the thickly planted median in the city's premier commercial district has become commonplace. Women pushing baby strollers must break into a jog to avoid onrushing autos. To get from bus stop to work, transit riders are often forced into the Brickell four-lane dash.
Don't blame the pedestrians, though.
According to city planners and elected officials, residents and activists, the reason is simple: Brickell Avenue, the spine of Miami's densest pedestrian district, lacks sufficient marked crosswalks and traffic signals.
But according to the Florida Department of Transportation and its traffic-engineering manuals, that's not reason enough to undertake substantial pedestrian-friendly changes on Brickell.
FDOT, which is about to embark on a year-long resurfacing of the 1.6-mile roadway, has rebuffed pleas from resident and business organizations, activists, city planners and even Miami Mayor Tomás Regalado, all of whom say the $9 million project presents a golden opportunity to better accommodate pedestrians and cyclists on Brickell.
FDOT officials say their hands are tied because of the limited nature of a resurfacing project, which typically doesn't include extensive roadway redesign, as well as regulations which restrict placement of crosswalks and traffic signals along a designated state and federal highway such as Brickell.
The resulting clash is shaping up as the highest-profile example of an increasingly common standoff in Miami and other cities across the country: local officials and residents who want livable, pedestrian-friendly urban neighborhoods going up against state traffic engineers whose mandate is to keep large volumes of cars moving as fast as possible.
``There has been this huge resistance by FDOT to do anything to slow cars down,'' said Natalie Brown, communications director for the Brickell Homeowners Association, the area's largest resident group, which has asked for additional crosswalks and lower speed limits along Brickell's residential stretch, where the posted limit is now a neighborhood-incompatible 40 mph.
Although no pedestrians have been killed on Brickell in the past few years, several have been struck, and experts say the dangers are real: The chance of a pedestrian dying from a collision with a car going 40 mph is 85 percent. At 25 mph, the cap activists seek on Brickell, there is instead a substantial likelihood of survival for the pedestrian. (The portion of Brickell Avenue in the business district now has a 35 mph speed limit).
Yet that entire 40-mph residential half of Brickell has just two marked crosswalks.
FDOT's district secretary, Gus Pego, said his agency will consider some limited improvements along Brickell where it's ``reasonable and feasible and safe,'' such as one additional crosswalk in the business district already included in the resurfacing plan.
``We still have time to flesh this out,'' he said.
But, he added, more crosswalks and traffic signals, as well as lower speed limits, are likely out because current standards don't justify them. Pego instead urges greater enforcement by Miami police.
``We can only do so much,'' Pego said in an interview. ``A state highway is not a residential street.''
Regalado, who said he came out of a meeting with Pego feeling frustrated, isn't buying. He believes FDOT can do more to slow cars, at least on the residential portion of Brickell between Southwest 15th Road and the entrance to the Rickenbacker Causeway, where the road ends.
``This is a residential road. You have to risk your life to cross it,'' Regalado said. ``I am still hoping they will listen to us.''
Similar issues have dogged a recently concluded resurfacing by FDOT of upper Biscayne Boulevard. The agency is now conducting pedestrian-safety studies after residents of the resurgent Upper East Side complained there aren't enough places to safely cross the boulevard.
On Brickell, regular users say the lacks are obvious. In the business district, several intersections have crosswalks on one side but not another. Some intersections have none. There are several long blocks without mid-block crossings, forcing pedestrians to jaywalk and trudge through plants in the median.
The problem, experts say, is not so much FDOT's engineers as the rule book by which they must operate. There's also Brickell's configuration -- basically a straightaway with a median and no on-street parking, both elements that speed traffic.
Those engineering rules were drafted in an era when pedestrian needs were largely ignored in favor of cars. In Florida, pedestrians consequently often pay the price: In a recent study, the nonprofit group Transportation for America ranked the Orlando, Tampa, Miami-South Florida and Jacksonville metro areas as the four deadliest for pedestrians in the nation, and blamed road designs that stint on crosswalks and pedestrian safety.
``This pedestrian-crossing issue is a very frustrating issue,'' said Billy Hattaway, formerly FDOT's chief of design and now an Orlando-based consultant who helps communities make streets pedestrian-friendly. ``I can't say the DOT is at fault. They are legitimately constrained. It's a flawed national practice.''
For instance, FDOT justifies crosswalks by doing counts of people attempting to cross at different unmarked points -- but those counts can be misleadingly low if people don't feel safe crossing in the first place.
But Hattaway warns that simply posting lower speed limits won't work. If Brickell was designed for cars to go 35 mph and 40 mph, motorists will naturally go those speeds .
Traffic signals, meanwhile, are expensive. FDOT's Pego also said closely spaced signals could increase the risk of rear-end collisions if fast-moving autos must stop abruptly.
Hattaway and city planners, however, say FDOT needs to rethink its approach to put pedestrians on equal footing with cars.
``If you have an opportunity to engineer the road to make it safer, it's incumbent on you to do it,'' said Collin Worth, the city's bicycle and pedestrian planner.
Worth says the city's position is reasonable, noting that no other comparable state-controlled corridor in the city has a speed limit higher than 35 mph -- the speed limit for Brickell north of 15th Road as well as its continuation, Biscayne Boulevard.
``I'm just trying to make it consistent,'' Worth said.
Since Brickell would be a natural for commuting by bicycle -- and is historically designated as a bike route -- Worth also wants FDOT to add signage to remind motorists that cyclists have a right to use the roadway, too.
City officials note that FDOT has an alternate rule book, drafted by Hattaway, y that give it greater flexibility to incorporate pedestrian-friendly measures in projects. But in a meeting with a reporter, agency engineers ticked off technical reasons why those alternate standards can't be applied on Brickell.
Alice Bravo, Miami's chief of capital improvements and until recently design director for FDOT's local district office, says state road engineers need a fresh perspective.
``The residents in that area are the customers. The challenge is on the technical folks to address that,'' she said.
MIAMI-DADE TRANSIT
Federal agency suspends payments to Miami-Dade Transit.
Federal authorities withheld payments to Miami-Dade Transit after discovering management flaws.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@ElNuevoHerald.com
The Federal Transit Administration has suspended grant payments totaling more than $182 million to Miami-Dade Transit after discovering problems in how the transit agency handled accounting of fare box cash collection and procurement, according to local and federal transit officials.
The suspension was announced in an FTA letter to MDT last week. It said MDT will not be able to withdraw funds through a Web-based system known as ECHO until it corrects the problems. The letter said specific ways to fix the problems will be detailed in a forthcoming report following a financial management oversight or FMO review.
``This letter is to inform you that FTA is placing MDT on ECHO suspension for all FTA grants, until such a time that MDT provides corrective actions to the findings which will be identified in the upcoming FMO report,'' said the letter signed by Yvette G. Taylor, regional FTA administrator in Atlanta.
It may well be the first time in recent memory that federal grant payments are suspended for MDT, though in the past the agency has been placed on watch for prior management issues.
In 2007, the previous transit director, Roosevelt Bradley, was fired for what county Mayor Carlos Alvarez said were several problems, including nepotism, overtime costs and mismanagement. Bradley has strongly defended his management methods.
Harpal Kapoor, the current MDT director, acknowledged the suspension but said he was confident payments will resume once MDT addresses FTA concerns in January or February. Kapoor also said the suspension will not disrupt services on Metrorail, Metrobus and Metromover.
Taylor's office referred calls to an FTA spokesman in Washington who then relayed a comment from FTA administrator Peter Rogoff in an e-mail.
``The FTA takes very seriously its role in ensuring that taxpayer funds granted to transit agencies are managed appropriately and are targeted towards services for transit riders,'' Rogoff said. ``In this case, our oversight and review of the Miami-Dade County Transit system leaves FTA with no choice but to take the critical step of withholding all federal funds until we are confident that the dollars collected from taxpayers and transit riders are appropriately accounted for and spent according to the law. The restriction on use of federal taxpayer funds will remain in place until FTA can ensure that Miami-Dade Transit has taken all the necessary steps to fully restore the public's trust.''
Miami Herald staff writer Lesley Clark contributed to this report.
State moves up plans to build FAU interchange, expand Andrews Avenue
State's five-year plan includes money for projects that were previously unfunded
By Michael Turnbell, Sun Sentinel
December 8, 2010
Major highway projects in Broward and Palm Beach counties are moving from the top of wish lists to reality.
State officials are including money in the latest plan to build an interchange for FAU's new stadium in Boca Raton, widen State Road 7 in southern Broward County and expand the last two-lane section of Andrews Avenue in Pompano Beach.
It's a dramatic turnaround from two years ago when the state had to delay numerous projects because of a decline in gas tax revenues and other resources. The state couldn't keep up with the rising cost of land and materials to build roads.
The state hasn't suddenly found a new source of money. But construction costs have become cheaper in the wake of the recession.
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"We've been able to stretch our dollars to do more work," said Stacy Miller-Novello, district director of transportation development for the Florida Department of Transportation.
This week, state officials are asking transportation planners in Broward and Palm Beach counties to approve tentative five-year plans for road and transit projects. A total of $2.37 billion will be spent in Broward County and $916 million in Palm Beach County from 2012 through 2016.
The new projects are in addition to work that already is started or will begin next year, such as the extension of the I-95 express lanes to Fort Lauderdale that will begin next year, the I-595 construction and I-95 widening in northern Palm Beach County underway and construction of a new Eller Drive overpass connecting I-595 to Port Everglades that will start in 2011.
In Palm Beach County, the plan includes $67 million to link Spanish River Boulevard to I-95, about midway between the Spanish River overpass and Yamato Road. Because the Spanish River ramps will be close to the existing Yamato Road interchange, ramps at Yamato will be reconfigured. The new interchange will divert FAU traffic directly to the campus instead of jamming Glades Road
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2015.
As recently as this fall, officials said there was no money for the project and one projection last year indicated it wouldn't be done until 2025.
The state needs $160 million to build the interchange plus add lanes on I-95. Although the interchange is funded, the widening of I-95 in the area will have to come later.
Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Susan Haynie said officials always have been confident the money would be available earlier, even if it was just enough to cover the interchange or a partial interchange.
"We're thrilled," she said.
In October, FAU broke ground on a 30,000-seat, $70 million stadium that is scheduled to be complete for the 2011 football season. After spending its first two seasons at Sun Life Stadium in Miami Gardens, FAU has used Lockhart Stadium in Fort Lauderdale as its home.
The university and the city of Boca Raton initially agreed not to build the stadium until work had begun on the interchange. But the two sides agreed last year to drop that requirement.
To deal with the stadium traffic, the university agreed to pay $1.7 million for improvements to the city's traffic signal system on parts of Glades Road, Military Trail, Spanish River Boulevard and Yamato Road to improve traffic flow, especially during stadium events. FAU also agreed to limit the number of events at the stadium and have a game-day traffic management plan.
In Broward County, planners are shifting priorities by putting more emphasis on mass transit over road projects.
The county will study improving mass transit on its busiest routes — Broward Boulevard, Oakland Park Boulevard, State Road 7 and U.S. 1. The improvements could range from pull-outs so buses don't hold up traffic to special equipment that allows buses to pre-empt traffic signals so they stay green longer so they can get through intersections.
Another study will look at improving State Road 7 from northern Broward into southern Palm Beach County, by improving mass transit and adding lanes.
One of Broward's top road priorities for years has been widening State Road 7 to six lanes from the Miami-Dade County line to I-595. But the holdup has been the cost of land.
In the past, the state only had money to build the section from Hallandale Beach Boulevard to Fillmore Street and buy rights-of-way for widening between Fillmore Street and Stirling Road.
But now the state has money to finish the entire stretch.
The plan also includes funding to build the two remaining narrow stretches of Andrews Avenue. Construction from Northwest 18th Street to Copans Road is scheduled to begin in 2014. The last two-lane section from Race Track Road to Atlantic Boulevard, which includes a sharp 90-degree curve, will be widened to four lanes with a gentler curve beginning in 2016. Once completed, Andrews Avenue will be four lanes from Fort Lauderdale to Copans Road, where it continues as Military Trail all the way to Jupiter.
In southwest Broward, the state has earmarked money to revamp the Griffin Road interchange on Interstate 75 in 2012. The improvements will be similar to what was done at Pines Boulevard and I-75.
State officials don't expect future spending plans to be affected by the same anomalies that drove up construction costs quickly, then back down.
In the past year alone, bids on publicly funded construction projects have been coming in way below budget estimates, as much as 30 percent less than expected.
With projects coming in under bid, the state has reviewed estimates on future projects and lowered costs. That freed up additional money to cover projects that previously were bumped out of the state's work program.
"We're using our funds more efficiently and effectively," said Miller-Novello.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/08/1962604/miami-dade-transits-federal-funding.htmlMiami-Dade Transit's federal funding freeze `not fraud'
Miami-Dade's county manager assures commissioners that the transit agency's federal funding suspension resulted from mistakes.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
ACHARDY@ELNUEVOHERALD.COM
Miami-Dade Transit's federal funding suspension grew out of accounting errors, poor management and erroneous information relayed to federal auditors, but does not appear to reflect fraud, Miami-Dade County Manager George Burgess told commissioners on Tuesday.
``Everything I've seen indicates that the situation is correctable, but we're still digging, we're still peeling the onion,'' Burgess told El Nuevo Herald after the lengthy and at times tense session in which some commissioners sharply questioned Burgess and his staff about why they allowed the crisis to erupt. ``This is not a sky-is-falling issue.''
The session brought to light concerns that several commissioners have about whether the federal funding suspension may disrupt transit services.
Burgess and Assistant County Manager Ysela Llort told commissioners it may
take several months for the county to wrap up its own investigation and carry out a modification of transit financial controls before the agency can persuade the Federal Transit Administration to lift the funds' suspension.
Burgess said he expects the internal investigation and ``corrective'' procedure to be wrapped up by early March. Llort said it was still unclear when the federal government would lift the suspension because she doesn't know when precisely the Federal Transit Administration will return to Miami-Dade to conduct a new audit.
While much of the information Llort and Burgess gave the commission had been reported, one new item caught the attention of commissioners.
County officials disclosed that a Sept. 20 letter from the Federal Transit Administration advised Miami-Dade Transit that its withdrawals of federal fundings through the ECHO system were being restricted. Nevertheless, about two hours after the letter arrived, a transit official withdrew nearly $15 million from ECHO.
Llort attributed the withdrawal to a ``miscommunication'' within transit. However, Harpal Kapoor, the transit director, said after the meeting that he did order financial officials to stop making ECHO withdrawals, ``but they didn't listen.''
The transit agency had to return the money, Kapoor said. ``We lost a lot of face with FTA,'' Llort told commissioners.
Just so you know..today I saw the MIA Mover moving (drive-test) on the new platform...it's getting closer to completion...
Here's a picture of what I meant...
thanks for posting.
there is also an article with video and pictures of the mia mover trains being installed at the miami herald:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/06/1960621/new-train-car-arrives-at-mia.html
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/25/1988687/trouble-at-transit-is-agency-in.html#storylink=fbuserTrouble at Transit: Is agency in control?
Miami-Dade's transit agency, facing a suspension of federal grant funds, has been beset by infighting and confusion as a recent federal audit flagged a lack of financial controls.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY, MARTHA BRANNIGAN AND MATTHEW HAGGMAN
MHAGGMAN@MIAMIHERALD.COM
In April 2009, a janitor sweeping Miami-Dade Transit's office made a startling discovery: In an empty cubicle on the 16th floor of the county's Overtown Transit Village complex, the cleaner found wads of cash totaling $9,863 and old checks for $14,772.
The former employee who had occupied the desk, Jeffrey Bechdel, helped run the county's seven-day Visitor Pass program, which sold weekly passes for bus and Metrorail. For 2 ½ years, before leaving Transit in January 2009, he stuffed the sale proceeds in his desk drawer. ``I'm a lousy bookkeeper,'' he later told police.
Police pegged possible losses at $120,000, but the staffer wasn't criminally charged. The reason: There was no evidence he stole, and investigators determined the agency was riddled with administrative flaws, including failing to create a system to deposit money from the pass sales.
``It was like they didn't want to bother with me,'' said Bechdel, adding that he never took any money nor was asked by superiors about where the money was going.
It was a sign of deeper woes.
Miami-Dade Transit is now under federal regulators' microscope, and at the heart of the inquiry are concerns about financial controls at the county department slated to spend more than $800 million in operating and capital costs this fiscal year.
In November, the Federal Transit Administration took the extraordinary step of suspending grant payments totaling some $182 million to Miami-Dade Transit. The FTA cited concerns about the ``effectiveness of internal controls,'' including improper accounting of bus fare boxes and a failure to document how federal dollars are spent.
Since the funding cutoff was first disclosed in The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald, county officials have scrambled to reassure Wall Street rating agencies that Miami-Dade's massive bond program remains financially solid.
TOUGHER TO FUND
Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart, a Miami-Dade Republican who sits on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, said the transit agency's latest woes further tarnish its image in Washington, D.C., making it tougher for him to advocate for funding.
``It does have an impact on their credibility,'' Diaz-Balart said. ``They need to clean up their act. We've made that point time and time again.''
The impasse, which could drag on for several months, follows allegations within county government of misconduct and incompetence. It includes the charge that county leaders misled federal auditors, according to more than a dozen interviews and hundreds of internal documents, including memos and e-mails.
The documents and interviews show the third-largest county agency was beset by infighting, confusion about job responsibilities, and a deep lack of trust that festered in plain view of federal auditors.
Even as top county officials became aware of the spiraling crisis in September, they did not take steps to prevent the meltdown.
When employees complained directly to the federal auditor about being wrongly blamed for flaws in the agency's revenue reporting, at least one senior leader sought to quell the discontent.
``Why are we airing dirty linen in front of others?'' Assistant County Manager Ysela Llort, who oversees transit, wrote to the Assistant Transit Director Marjan Mazza in an Oct. 29 e-mail.
Mazza, who clashed with her boss, Transit Director Harpal Kapoor, became the most outspoken critic of leadership. She was fired Nov. 23, and a subordinate, Transit's Controller Joelle Janvier, was reassigned the same day.
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Full Story - http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/25/1988687/trouble-at-transit-is-agency-in.html#storylink=fbuser#ixzz19EZnHQrz