South Florida Transportation Part II

[miamicanes]

In case anyone's interested... Dade County did do a full study back in the 1990s evaluating the possibility of buying the old FEC right of way for use as a light rail transit corridor between Dadeland and Miami International Airport, but came to the fairly obvious conclusion that it was a tempting possibility except for one tiny problem: there was nothing of interest within walking distance of the line, nor likely to ever be enough to justify it even if the land were free.

Now... that said... back when the study was conducted, the conclusion was unarguable. And DMUs didn't exist, so the only real option would have been either fully-electrified light rail (expen$ive), or a full-blown diesel-hauled train (gross overkill, with huge noise footprint). The corridor hasn't gotten a whole lot better, and I think the track south of sw 80th street was ripped up a year or two ago. Still... it wouldn't surprise me if someone at the County were toying with the idea again, especially now that small DMUs that can run on normal tracks exist. But I still think such a service launched along that corridor anytime soon would flop miserably.

Maybe someday when MIC is done, Metrorail goes to MIC, Flagler & 8th Street have had another 10 years of condo growth, and the East-West line is done, it might be appropriate to reconsider the value of the corridor, though.

[brickell]

At one of the Kendall Link meeting the manager was toying with the idea of having a light rail down Kendall Ave and then taking a left turn up the Ludlam FEC ROW. I'm not crazy about the idea and still think it should be a great bike/walking trail. Apparently Ludlam Trail is all but dead.

[nothingman]

I've lived in Kendall for almost a year now.

Why is the traffic so f**ked up here? I've never seen such bad traffic in a suburban area, and I've lived in a lot of places!

Is it that the roads are inadequate, or are there just too many damn intersections? I wish MetroRail was extended west, but it'll never happen. It would also be great to see them widen the Palmetto to at least 4 lanes from US-1 to Bird Road.

[miamicanes]

My pet theory puts the blame on schools. In most normal places (Broward, SW Florida, etc) the schools sit away from major roads, often surrounded by residential areas. In Miami, though, schools tend to sit not only on major roads, but often occupy corners of major intersections. So... every afternoon, the school zone speed limits kick in and cause gridlock that never has time to recover before the first wave of drivers hits the road around 4pm in a desperate attempt to beat the traffic.

My other favorite target of blame is George Bush. Well, more specifically, any President with family members or a home in Miami... which also includes Clinton and George, Senior. Every time they come, the secret service shuts down 836 and any other route they follow for 15 minutes before and after the motorcade, causing gridlock that persists until midnight. You can always tell the days when it happens, because those are the days when it takes an hour to drive from Doral to Coral Gables, with hopelessly-snarled traffic in every single direction and no escape whatsoever.

The other problem is the way roads get built in western Dade County. In normal places (Broward/SWFL), roads get widened all at once, and the cost gets passed along to adjacent developers. In Dade County, we do f**ked up things like having developer #1 build a quarter-mile of 2-lane road, then having developer #2 build another quarter mile of 2-lane road (but on the opposite side of the future street, so cars have to veer across a detour that lasts for years), then eventually developer #27 widens a quarter-mile segment of existing 2-lane road to 4 lanes, followed by developers #28-80 over the next 20 years, so that finally the county can come in and widen the whole 4-lane road to 6 lanes. The outcome is a network of roads that have bottlenecks, gaps, and semi-permanent detours for years, if not decades. Doral and Kendall are perfect illustrations of this insanity. I'm convinced that this, more than anything, is the reason why driving north into southwest Broward consists of an hour of excruciatingly painful gridlock that literally vanishes the moment you cross the line into Broward County. It's maddening... total, dysfunctional gridlock that vaporizes 10 feet past the sign that says, "Entering Broward".

[dave8721]

Another problem with Kendall (especially west Kendall) is that it is a very dense area with no real public transportation and totally unwalkable (not a good combination). Add to that its location far from employment centers which are all East and North of it. So come every morning, every single person in Kendall gets in a separate car and heads East and North in unison. I would think that would cause some traffic. Add in the school speed zones and parents who must drive their kids to school since they can't walk or god forbid take the bus (during the summer traffic is less awful) and the bottleneck cause by only a few roads crossing the turnpike and its nasty out there.

[Ceilingfan]

I lived in Kendall for many years and it was fine until it got so that it so long to get to the Metrorail and there was often not parking. So the commute to downtown was over an hour. For many years I lived near the airport, waiting in vain for decent transportation (it was 15 minutes in car, one hour on the bus) so I took the car. Now I live North and take the express bus from Golden Glades, which works pretty well, so again it's an hour commute. I guess people who find public transportation degrading will eventually have to consider it if gas keeps going up and then maybe more attention will be paid to developing workable solutions (trains!!!)

[brickell]

Kendall really isn't that bad if you avoid Kendall Dr. Look for shortcuts and backroads. Go west of the Turnpike and all bets are off however.

I'd go along with Dave. Very dense, with very few options other than driving.

[miami1]

County's deal for CSX tracks awaits appraisal

By Charlotte Libov
A plan to use a freight transportation company's rails to expand Tri-Rail service into southwestern Miami-Dade County appears on track as officials await an appraisal of the lines.
Preliminary work is being done to set up an appraisal, which will be performed by representatives of the county and CSX Transportation of Jacksonville, which owns the rail line, said Shira Castan, director of policy and legislative affairs for County Commission Chairman Joe Martinez.
"This is a very positive step because if all the parties are OK with the appraisal and if the outcome is fair, we'll be able to move forward to negotiate an agreement to run the trains on those lines," she said.
County and CSX officials have been negotiating a county lease or purchase of the lines to establish passenger service on the planned Homestead spur between Kendall-Tamiami Executive Airport and Miami International Airport.
The spur could be operational on CSX lines by next year, county officials say, whereas construction of new lines could be a 10-year project.
The agreement to conduct an appraisal was part of a larger agreement between CSX and state officials announced earlier this month by Gov. Jeb Bush to invest $491 million in bringing commuter rail transportation to Central Florida.
CSX agreed in principle to cede control of dispatch and maintenance on the 72-mile South Florida rail corridor it shares with Tri-Rail.
According to Gary Sease, a CSX spokesman, the agreement "certainly expresses progress on all fronts as it relates to the South Florida transportation initiatives.
"We've agreed in principle to continue talks on the Homestead extension, and that would initiate with the state and with Miami-Dade County an appraisal of the property. Upon completion of that appraisal, Miami-Dade could conceivably purchase it," he said.
He said CSX wants a provision that would allow the company to continue transporting some freight on the line.
Mr. Martinez' staff and CSX officials are working out details of a "demonstration day" to preview commuter service for county officials, Ms. Castan said.
"When you show someone a project on paper, that's all great. But if you should show them that the (Diesel Multiple Unit car) is a very nice, cushy, comfortable train and show them how this line would go through a congested part of town, they could experience it themselves," she said.
Mr. Sease said some areas of the track have not been maintained for passenger traffic and might require some work to make them safe.
The double-decker cars that would be used for the service were built in Colorado and are bound for Central Florida after a stop in Miami.

[skyscraperhighrise]

Originally Posted by Verticus

Found this in the Miami Herald today (8/7) regarding when we might get a commuter rail running on the FEC tracks from Miami to Palm Beach. That line will be like adding a heart by-pass to a sick patient. Once it kicks in, downtown Miami will begin a second sustained renaissance:

Back-channel talks have been under way between top state transportation officials and Florida East Coast Industries over the 82-mile corridor that runs through all of the redeveloping east-side downtowns from Miami to West Palm Beach.

''I think it's a huge opportunity to create a light-rail option,'' Stutler said last week. ``I think it would be really exciting. We've got to create more [transportation] options and we've got to be smarter how we retrofit our communities to deal with the future needs.''

Most transit experts believe the FEC corridor that Henry Flagler built is where Tri-Rail should have been from the get-go. But the 1980s-era FEC wasn't interested, so the state turned to CSX and bought the old Seaboard line along I-95.

Today, the FEC corridor is ripe for high-density, high-rise, mixed-use development. More than 1.1 million people live within a half-mile of the rail line in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

Imagine what the area could become over the next three decades as population continues to rise, land becomes scarcer, traffic congestion worsens and cities retool vertically.

With a few exceptions, most of the FEC corridor from Miami to Jupiter is 100-feet wide -- plenty of room to lay two ribbons exclusively for FEC freight and two for future South Florida passenger service.

DIFFERENT COMPANY

And today's publicly traded FECI, headed by longtime Miami business fixture and power broker Adolfo Henriques, is a much different company than the one that wouldn't negotiate in the 1980s.

FECI is not only a major freight hauler, but one of the state's largest -- and most politically connected -- landowners, especially since it acquired the real-estate and development empire of Bush's old business partner and mentor, Armando Codina, earlier this year.

Henriques and Codina know FECI is sitting on a gold mine.

The state might agree to buy the corridor and provide the infrastructure to guarantee uninterrupted freight and passenger service. Imagine FECI agreeing to sell some of the right-of-way in return for tax credits that will help it build workforce housing near some stations and secure air rights over other key stations.

''As a resident of this community, I believe we need to work very aggressively to develop a viable public-transportation system,'' Henriques said. ``Passenger traffic [on the FEC corridor] needs to occur. We're prepared to discuss it. I'm willing to discuss anything.''

TIMING IS RIGHT

The timing is right. The corridor is needed. Traffic congestion already ranks among the top issues cited by voters in every poll. FDOT can't pave its way out of the problem. We'll worry about how Miami-Dade, Broward or Palm Beach counties can pay for their respective shares another day.

Want to bet a deal gets done before Bush leaves office in January?

''I think you should stay tuned,'' Stutler said.

Got a commuting question or an idea for a future column? Contact Larry Lebowitz at streetwise@MiamiHerald.com or call him at 305-376-3410.

I Hope we could do this in the november elections.

[brickell]

Does anyone have any maps for the proposed CSX Kendall route?

[dave8721]

http://www.miamisunpost.com/sixthstoryfrontpage.htm

Bay Link Revisited
A Beach Group Still Hopes to Bring a Streetcar System — or at Least Some Form of Alternative Transportation — Into Existence

“It started with residents saying ‘I don’t want those people coming over,’ but they couldn’t honestly give that as a reason….”

By Samantha Smith

With only three members in attendance and starting their meeting a half-hour late, the Alliance for Reliable Transportation discussed ways to bring a streetcar system or other alternative methods of transportation to Miami Beach.

The Alliance for Reliable Transportation was formed in April 2003 by “concerned Miami Beach residents, in cooperation with local businesses and other organizations, in order to improve public dialogue on transit issues,” according to ART’s Web site, www.protransit.org. Denis Russ, community development director for the Miami Beach Community Development Corporation, and Dan Outerbridge and Daniel Rosenberg, both members of ART’s steering committee, were the only ART members present at the August 7 meeting.

ART favors creation of a streetcar service connecting Miami Beach and Miami.

Bay Link, a $488 million light rail system, was backed by most Miami Beach officials in 2003 as the preferred local alternative. But the system, which would require digging up Miami Beach streets and taking up lanes of traffic, remained controversial, with many residents—including Mayor David Dermer—arguing against it. In November 2004, a straw ballot was held, with most residents voting in favor of the Bay Link. A few months later, however, the county’s Metropolitan Planning Organization dropped Bay Link as a preferred transit for federal funds.

Frustrated, Dan Outerbridge blamed xenophobia from many of Bay Link’s critics for the system not moving forward. “The reasons for opposition vary,” he said. “It started with residents saying, ‘I don’t want those people coming over,’ but they couldn’t honestly give that as a reason, so they came up with other reasons: overhead wires causing problems during a hurricane, losing parking spaces [and lanes] in the street. But every one of those issues has a logical solution and reason.”

Outerbridge, a real estate agent, expressed his aggravation that the Bay Link was not supported, feeling that the streetcar initiative was the “smartest one to be funded within the federal package.”

Daniel Rosenberg brought up an alternative to the Bay Link. “I think that the best option right now is to get something going on both sides of the bay,” Rosenberg explained. “As long as we have something going in downtown Miami and something going on the Beach, we will have an easier time connecting them.”

Denis Russ said the problem is not funding, but a lack of local consensus. “There are buckets of money [for public transportation],” Russ said. “The problem is that there are more ideas than money, and unless the community comes together to back a specific project, we will remain at a standstill.” His suggested solution: developing a strategy to promote streetcars among Miami Beach residents.

Committee members also looked at other transportation alternatives. Among those discussed was the Zipcar system, which has been tried in cities like New York, Washington, Chicago and Toronto. Zipcar allows licensed drivers to rent a car for a short period of time and return it to a designated parking space. According to zipcar.com, tens of thousands of members have given up their private cars, alleviating the roads of some traffic congestion.

Also considered: a free bicycle program. Implemented in Philadelphia, the program provides bikes to citizens free of charge. Bikes would be returned to specific bike racks after each use.

Russ said ART will meet again on October 2 to discuss light rail transit and other alternative transportation systems. The plan is to have suggestions solidified prior to the November 2007 city elections.

— Erik Bojnansky contributed to this story.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com

[BornInTheGrove]

Glad to see some people actually care and are doing something about it.

Roark, you weren't at this meeting?

[Verticus]

They should call their little group "Alliance for Antiquated Transportation." My reasons "agin it" are here:

[spellbound]

^The odds of that ever being reality are about the same as Bin-Laden being elected president, but I LOVE the way you think, Verticus!

(awesome graphics, too!)

[DShoost88]

Bay-link monorail; GENIUS!!! Just when I was celebrating the concept of "Snakes on a Plane", I saw your bay-link idea and agree it's fantastic. There are very few counterpoints that can be made to your proposal, and just those two images make it appear aesthetically pleasing. Miami and Disney (or Universal, or Hardrock, or any other other private entity) would be foolish not to invest in that idea. With Metrorail, Metro mover, and Miami-Dade Transit buses currently present in downtown Miami, a monorail link could fuel the potential creation of a "downtown intermodal center/port". I think one factor that disappoints a lot of people about Miami is the absence of a "grand-central terminal" or a "30th street station (Philly)" linking the city to the rest of its metro area.

[Bobdreamz]

Miami Beach seems to be stuck in a transportation time warp circa 20th Century pre-Metrorail. It's funny how some Nimby's say 'I don't want those people coming over here" which is quite amusing since those people are already there! Where do these people think they're living at??....Fisher Island?...Indian Creek?...LMAO!
Miami Beach truly needs Metrorail to be extended across the bay even if it's only 1 or 2 stops then let them use streetcars for local service. Why do we need so many different types of systems instead on building on what we already have and making it a seemless transportation sytem like other cities do?

[Verticus]

Originally Posted by Bobdreamz

Miami Beach seems to be stuck in a transportation time warp circa 20th Century pre-Metrorail. It's funny how some Nimby's say 'I don't want those people coming over here" which is quite amusing since those people are already there! Where do these people think they're living at??....Fisher Island?...Indian Creek?...LMAO!
Miami Beach truly needs Metrorail to be extended across the bay even if it's only 1 or 2 stops then let them use streetcars for local service. Why do we need so many different types of systems instead on building on what we already have and making it a seemless transportation sytem like other cities do?

Regarding my BayLink monorail solution, it is envisioned looping around the PAC with connections at the MetroRail Miami Arena and Bicentennial Park stations before heading back to the beach along MacArthur Causeway. It's rubber tired, not steel rail and something MetroRail will never be: aesthetically pleasing.

[brickell]

It's an interesting idea, but one major point you're missing is the stations. Since it's not at grade, you'd need to build large, bulky elevated stations, similar to Metrorail or Metromover. I don't see a lot of space in Miami Beach for those. The size and cost of building them would limit the number and therefore the effectiveness of the line.

[Rx727sfl2002]

i really think a metromover system connecting to southbeach wold be better and then do street car since there is no rush on the beach when driving...
i would prefer to see metromover expand around the city core of downtown and overtown and have streetcars located in midtown and all other areas.

[Verticus]

Originally Posted by brickell

It's an interesting idea, but one major point you're missing is the stations. Since it's not at grade, you'd need to build large, bulky elevated stations, similar to Metrorail or Metromover. I don't see a lot of space in Miami Beach for those. The size and cost of building them would limit the number and therefore the effectiveness of the line.

Dude, look at the picture. The north-south line runs ON THE BEACH where there is lots of room and no streets to tear up and utilities to move. It runs "at grade" along the MacArthur Causeway-- that will save money. As for the stations, who says they have to be "large, bulky"? Why can't they be "light and minimal" to save money? Except for the run from the west side of SoBe along 5th Street to the Beach and a loop to the Convention Center and back to the beach (sand), it might be less expensive than you think since it will require digging up less streets and realigning utililities. Because of the north-south run along the beach, it also greatly speeds up construction and as we all know, time is money. Finally, the cost could be reduced by creating a joint venture between the public and private sectors. Think about it. This solution is not re-inventing anything. It's borrowing from a system that has proven itself for over 30-years. And, when I say "borrowing," I mean using the same companies that built the Disney monorail and the companies that built those graceful elevated tracks (which are themselves works of art-- unlike the stark, monolithic MetroRail elevated runs). Who knows, maybe the concrete molds and yards where they were poured are still available. If so, that should save money too. Finally, let's face it, a Disney-style monorail will boost the economy on both sides of the bay and paint a brand new, futuristic face on the two cities while a "streetcar," an idea from the turn of the 20-th century, says just the opposite.