South Florida Transportation Part II

[Aceventura]

Spell, I've been thinking about your idea that it would be better to spend the money from a Orlando-Miami HSR instead on local transit. I still like the idea of HSR, but a couple of billion could make the FEC lines into a fantastic mass transit option.

There are so many crossings that it would be helpful if the line could be put below-grade, which would be major money. If they did this trains could run faster, and auto traffic would not be delayed.
Major mixed use rail stations could also be built with extra capital, an example would be using the land around the tracks in Aventura to build retail and apartments with a pedestrian walkway over US 1 connecting to the mall.

[spellbound]

Fully agreed, Ace. I like the below-grade idea a lot...even if it was something only done at a few of the very busiest intersections. But, yes, it would be very expensive to accomplish and probably unlikely.

The real concern now is that with the new Congress we're very likely to see much more resistance to transit projects that simply cannot be funded adequately without federal help. Not just new projects---but even upgrades to existing ones. Urban interests such as improved transit have never been a GOP priority, and we can expect the same now.

I'm not one that favors just throwing money at things. That's why I've begun questioning the wisdom of HSR on a cost/ridership basis if perhaps that money would be better spent upgrading and/or expanding existing urban systems across the country. Certainly, it would be nice to have both but that seems as likely as the sun rising in the West tomorrow. To me, improving what already exists so that it is up to modern global standards (and I'd include airports in that mix as well) is more crucial than HSR if it's a 'one or the other' proposition.

My fear, though, is that we'll see none of the above ultimately. In a budget cutting environment, transit and infrastructure funding is always among the first things to go. We'll see how this all shakes out.

[xerxesjc28]

Metrorail extension scheduled to be completed in April 2012

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/1...#ixzz14vDp8MnP

Officials say an extension of Metrorail to a transit hub near Miami International Airport is scheduled for completion in 2012.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
achardy@ElNuevoHerald.com

A $526 million extension of Metrorail to a transit hub just east of Miami International Airport is on track to be finished by April 2012, the second extension of the elevated heavy-rail train since the system was originally started in the 1980s, transit officials said Tuesday.

They provided the information to El Nuevo Herald in advance of a public meeting Tuesday night to celebrate the halfway mark in the construction of the 2.4-mile extension from Earlington Heights station to the Miami Intermodal Center now being built near MIA. From the MIC, passengers would reach MIA terminals via an automated train known as MIA Mover now being built.

The meeting from 6 to 8 p.m. at the Sheila Winitzer Central Administration Building, 3300 NW 32nd Avenue, drew residents, business owners and community leaders.

Miami-Dade Transit director Harpal Kapoor and other transit officials briefed the audience, telling it the project is on time and on budget and that completion is expected in April 2012. Previously, officials had only talked about finishing the project in the spring of 2012.

``This is a signature project,'' Kapoor said. ``A promise we're going to keep.''

The project is financed largely by a $426 million contribution from proceeds of the so-called People's Transportation Plan, a program funded from revenue generated by a half-cent sales tax in Miami-Dade. The remaining $100 million comes from the Florida Department of Transportation.

After it was built, transit officials over the years said the one-line Metrorail, running from Dadeland to the Palmetto Expressway in the north of the county, would grow not only to the airport but also to the Broward county line.

But in the end, only the MIA extension became a reality.

In July, County Manager George Burgess said in a memo that the long-planned Orange Line Metrorail extension to the Broward boundary would not happen because of a lack of funds.

An $87.8 million extension from Okeechobee station to Palmetto station just west of the expressway was completed in 2003. It was the first such Metrorail extension since 1989, after the basic one-line system was completed.

The MIA station will be the 23rd Metrorail station in the system since construction began in 1980. Whether any new extensions will be built any time soon is unknown.

When the half-cent tax passed, local officials promised several new Metrorail lines, but ultimately, only the airport extension was possible. Funds generated by the tax were never enough to fulfill the promises that officials later acknowledged were based on not much more than wishful thinking.

Construction of the MIA extension began in May 2009.

Much of the foundation work for the supporting columns of the elevated guideway is approaching completion, officials said Tuesday.

Construction is now focused on installing guideway segments over supporting piers.


Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/1...#ixzz14vDvtA6h

[Bobdreamz]

^ lol I posted the same article today at the bottom of the previous page! I guess some people missed it though because nobody had yet to comment on it! I wish one of you guys down there would go take pics of the Metrorail extension from the Earlington Heighs station down to the MIC for those of us who are out of town.

[mr jones]

Walkers 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.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/1...-brickell.html

[Aceventura]

I never have a problem legally crossing Brickell Ave. in the business district, it's not bad at all there. It would be nice if they put in bike lanes with bike boxes though.

[Södermalm]

Originally Posted by DShoost88

Living in Europe for the last two months has moderately affected my position on the service as well. The fact remains that American cities have been very, VERY poorly planned since the creation of the interstate highway network in the middle of the 20th century. We are now left with two generations of Americans whose train of thought (no pun intended) is largely that being American means being able to own a car and having the freedom to drive it wherever you want.

The fact is that the vast majority of people continue to prefer the suburban lifestyle, now more than ever. This is why the fastest growing cities in the US are those like Dallas which have a lot of land left.

You can read this recent article on the topic:

• JULY 6, 2010

The Myth of the Back-to-the-City Migration

The condo bust should lay to rest the notion that the American love affair with suburbia is over.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&hl=en&ct=clnk



also, read the comment section of this palm beach post article to get a feel of public sentiment towards the proposed FECR commuter rail line:

Linked local/express rail services proposed to connect South Florida for passenger travel

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/st...t-1031711.html

[ftlauddude]

New Tri-Rail parking at Cypress Creek much closer to station
Passengers who drive to the station will no longer have to cross busy Andrews Avenue
By Michael Turnbell, Sun Sentinel

6:49 p.m. EST, November 16, 2010

FORT LAUDERDALE —
As grand openings go, a parking lot usually isn't much to crow about. But the new 345-space lot opening Wednesday at Tri-Rail's Cypress Creek station is different.

For starters, it's next to the west side of the platform and a much shorter walk for people who carpool or drive to the station.

Before Wednesday, passengers had to park in the I-95 park-and-ride lot on the east side of Andrews Avenue, then cross six lanes of traffic to get to the trains.

"This will be of tremendous benefit to our passengers who drive to the station to catch the train," said Joseph Giulietti, executive director of the South Florida Regional Transportation Authority, which runs Tri-Rail.

Drivers can get to the new lot via Northwest Sixth Way off Cypress Creek Road, the first intersection west of the tracks. There is a separate entrance/exit off northbound Powerline Road, just south of Cypress Creek Road.

There are designated areas for shuttles, taxis and for cars dropping off passengers and a 235-foot pedestrian canopy leading to the station.

Tri-Rail's free shuttles will now load from the new parking lot.

But Broward County Transit buses will continue to pick up passengers in the park-and-ride lot east of Andrews Avenue. That's because the bus agency hasn't been able to obtain permission for its larger buses to use the private drives that lead to the new parking lot, said Tri-Rail spokeswoman Bonnie Arnold.

Tri-Rail has been making progress in the last year to boost parking at stations, despite a drop in ridership from previous years when gas prices topped $4 a gallon. Officials think parking demand will continue to grow as ridership rebounds.

In October, Tri-Rail opened its first garage at the Fort Lauderdale Airport station in Dania Beach. A new 30-space lot was recently completed on the west side of the tracks at the Pompano Beach Station.

A parking study in December 2008 found that most of the Tri-Rail stations had reached or exceeded parking capacity. Of the 18 stations, 12 were overcapacity, the study found.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/bro...,2827366.story

[spellbound]

-----

[BornInTheGrove]

Central Boulevard Widening Realignment & Service Loop Project



http://www.mdx-way.com/assets/10190/...t_Sheet_1_.pdf
http://www.mdx-way.com/assets/10194/...ng_signage.pdf

[ftlauddude]

Originally Posted by BornInTheGrove

Central Boulevard Widening Realignment & Service Loop Project



http://www.mdx-way.com/assets/10190/...t_Sheet_1_.pdf
http://www.mdx-way.com/assets/10194/...ng_signage.pdf

That's my project!!!

[dave8721]

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/11/2...-payments.html

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.

[Bobdreamz]

^ Well isn't this grand! I'm starting to wonder if the Feds have it out for MDT. First they deny funding for the North Line extension TWICE and now they suspend $182 million in grant money to the agency for accounting of fare box cash collection and procurement. They couldn't warn the agency first insteading of cutting off funds?

[LovesClassicTV]

Originally Posted by Bobdreamz

^ Well isn't this grand! I'm starting to wonder if the Feds have it out for MDT. First they deny funding for the North Line extension TWICE and now they suspend $182 million in grant money to the agency for accounting of fare box cash collection and procurement. They couldn't warn the agency first insteading of cutting off funds?

Read the article more carefully:

"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."


Even with that, when MDT makes the necessary corrections, they will be able to get the funds released.

[xerxesjc28]

Exactly what funds are being suspended?

[miami305]

WISHFUL THINKING...!!!!!

[DShoost88]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/pal...,6637624.story

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.

Stay on top of the news: Get breaking new alerts sent directly to your phone

"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.

[URBANITY REPORTS]

Wow, Abu DaBHI looks like Orlando.

[mr jones]

Miami-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.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/12/0...l-funding.html

[spellbound]

Originally Posted by URBANITY REPORTS

Wow, Abu DaBHI looks like Orlando.

Um, yes.

I've also been noticing how Des Moines has a certain "Prague" feel to it.