Why is South Florida road infrastructure so poorly designed? (Miami: fit in, sales)

[transitfan]

In past winters, my observations have been about evenly split between Quebec (Montreal) and Ontario (Toronto) plates. This year, I've seen a bunch of Quebec plates (including two back-to-back once) and like one or two Ontario plates. Don't know if it means anything, and of course winter hasn't officially started yet (though weatherwise, I suspect it actually started in Canada some time ago).

[MrKnight]

Originally Posted by Nolefan34

South FL's road infrastructure is vastly superior to D.C.'s roads and infrastructure. DC's situation is terrible. I'm not even sure how you compare the two. The entire DC/VA/MD metro area is very narrow, heavily congested roads with slow speed limits. That is why accidents are fewer, because when cars go 25 mph versus 55 mph, the risks are greatly reduced.

I also don't understand the complaints about synchronization. This is something that Broward does well in my opinion, and synchronization is non-existent in many other cities. I think the lights in general turn much quicker here than in other parts of the state. Orlando's traffic isn't any better, and their expressways are too narrow with too few lanes.

The main problem with South FL's infrastructure is that it was mostly built in the 1960's (in Miami) and 1980's in Broward, and the population has quadrupled in that time. The original designs and concepts were good, but nobody anticipated such a dramatic rise in population. They can only widen and expand roads so much. Now that land has been fully built out, there is nowhere to add new roads without demolishing entire communities. The future is railways.

The biggest difference between SoFlo and DMV roads is that while DMV road infrastructure is older, traffic signals are synchronized and strategic efforts are made to increase traffic flow, there are also many back roads and side roads that can be taken as alternates, especially in the city.. In SoFlo no efforts are made, getting stuck at every red light is completely inefficient, something as simple as synchronizing traffic signals would have a substantial impact on increasing traffic flow, not sure how anyone would not agree with this..

[Enigma777]

It was simply not designed for this much traffic and this many people.

In 1994, I could drive from Boca to South Beach in 35 minutes. Now it takes 2 hours. Everyone complains about South Florida, but everyone wants to live (or visit) here.

"...Even though Florida has more than 50,000 square miles of land, nearly 60 percent of the state’s population lives in less than 5 percent of it. Florida’s residents are packed in and around the state’s thriving metropolitan areas, including Orlando, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. No wonder Floridians and visitors are facing clogged roadways!"

Why Is Traffic So Bad in Florida? - Miami & South Florida Traffic

[HotandHumid]

I know what you mean about the traffic lights. I was driving down Broward Boulevard several times in the past from Federal Highway to I-95 at 4am in the morning and hit every single red light following the speed limit.
I emailed the City of Fort Lauderdale about this and they emailed back that it was the responsibility of the county to time the lights.
When I emailed the county, they emailed back that new devices had been installed that would detect any car coming up north or south to Broward Blvd. on those streets and that the lights on Broward Blvd would stay green all along Broward at that time of the morning until cars were detected stopped at the cross streets whereas the lights would then proceed to go red to allow those stopped vehicles to cross Broward Blvd.
Apparently, they never sent anyone out to see if this new expensive system paid for with property tax money was working as they told me to let them know if it was working the next time I drove on Broward Blvd.
Of course, it wasn't working and I let them know several times but it's never been addressed.
I also wrote the Mayor and Commissioners of Fort Lauderdale when President Obama had a program in place after he was first elected to give grants to cities that would use the money to help people from wasting fossil fuels.
I asked them to apply for some of this money so that the city could start a policy of only opening up the bridges on the Intracoastal at certain specified times for tall boats to go through them so that blocks and blocks of motor traffic wasn't constantly being held up waiting with engines burning fossil fuels while the bridges were lowered and raised any time a tall boat showed up at the bridges as is the case presently.
I also asked the Mayor and Commissioners to apply for some of the money allotted for fossil fuel conservation to be used to either put the railroad trains crossing major boulevards and streets on bridges built over the traffic or underground so again, blocks and blocks of motor vehicles burning fossil fuels wouldn't have to be sitting stopped while trains are going over the tracks.
I guess we can blame most of the traffic problems on our local elected officials in the city and in the county who don't care about the traffic problems because neither the Mayor nor any of the commissioners ever answered any of my emails I sent to their offices about getting the grant money that was offered to use it to help alieve a part of the causes of congestion on our major streets and boulevards and the county apparently never sent anyone out to actually check to see if their new car detection at intersections system was really working.

[BNBR]

Originally Posted by HotandHumid

I know what you mean about the traffic lights. I was driving down Broward Boulevard several times in the past from Federal Highway to I-95 at 4am in the morning and hit every single red light following the speed limit.
I emailed the City of Fort Lauderdale about this and they emailed back that it was the responsibility of the county to time the lights.
When I emailed the county, they emailed back that new devices had been installed that would detect any car coming up north or south to Broward Blvd. on those streets and that the lights on Broward Blvd would stay green all along Broward at that time of the morning until cars were detected stopped at the cross streets whereas the lights would then proceed to go red to allow those stopped vehicles to cross Broward Blvd.
Apparently, they never sent anyone out to see if this new expensive system paid for with property tax money was working as they told me to let them know if it was working the next time I drove on Broward Blvd.
Of course, it wasn't working and I let them know several times but it's never been addressed.
I also wrote the Mayor and Commissioners of Fort Lauderdale when President Obama had a program in place after he was first elected to give grants to cities that would use the money to help people from wasting fossil fuels.
I asked them to apply for some of this money so that the city could start a policy of only opening up the bridges on the Intracoastal at certain specified times for tall boats to go through them so that blocks and blocks of motor traffic wasn't constantly being held up waiting with engines burning fossil fuels while the bridges were lowered and raised any time a tall boat showed up at the bridges as is the case presently.
I also asked the Mayor and Commissioners to apply for some of the money allotted for fossil fuel conservation to be used to either put the railroad trains crossing major boulevards and streets on bridges built over the traffic or underground so again, blocks and blocks of motor vehicles burning fossil fuels wouldn't have to be sitting stopped while trains are going over the tracks.
I guess we can blame most of the traffic problems on our local elected officials in the city and in the county who don't care about the traffic problems because neither the Mayor nor any of the commissioners ever answered any of my emails I sent to their offices about getting the grant money that was offered to use it to help alieve a part of the causes of congestion on our major streets and boulevards and the county apparently never sent anyone out to actually check to see if their new car detection at intersections system was really working.

"They didn't take my suggestions" ... "and I have all the solutions" ... "Whine whine whine."

Goodness.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by DanielAvery

I don't think the problem is that it's "poorly designed," as it simply wasn't "designed". Growth occurred around whatever roads and access points were available at the time people started showing up. New roads and bridges were put up only in reaction to growth, not in anticipation of it, so the size of the project was geared to the size of the problem at that time. Once an area is "bought up" (developed), your options for road-building are limited by what land is still available.

It's too late (not to mention cost-prohibitive) to tear it all out and draw up a better grid system, or to uproot large groups of people from their homes and businesses in order to organize and expand the roads. It's too over-developed to do large, pro-active road projects. All that can be done is putting lots of metaphorical Band-Aids on what's already there.

This ^^

I grew up in Hollywood and growth was so explosive in the 60s and 70s that there simply wasn't time to develop a road infrastructure and prior hadn't been a thought given there wasn't the need, and one could never at the time forecasted the growth seen. East-West thoroughfares have long been the achilles heel of the transportation network and attribute that to the way it was built out, an east to west creep versus something more even which by the time it quickly evolved eliminated much of the required right-of-way access for more/improved roadways.

[shunketsu]

3 words: Public (Rail) Transportation.

[TreeZoo]

The connection of I-95 and the Swagrass/Turnpike in Deerfield Beach has finally been approved. Only about 30 years late. It was the residents who surround these highways that choked off progress all these years. They never realized that the traffic was still there, it just clogged up the secondary streets instead. When this is finally built in 5 years or so, Wiles Road, Hillsboro Blvd going east and west and Lyons Rd, Powerline Rd, and Military Trail will get some relief.

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by shunketsu

3 words: Public (Rail) Transportation.

For some reason the entire southeast seems to frown on Transit. Of course having transit probably means walking a little also. It's absolutely pathetic. So many will complain about traffic, but would never vote for transit projects. I think some walking to a bus stop or a train station is in order in every FL Metro. If not to help with less cars on the road. Then to help with the laziness and overweight people that populate these regions. Otherwise the traffic congestion getting worse every year. Is very much deserved. It will be 2017 in 2 weeks. Yet it is no more advanced in this state, on this issue than 1980.

[DanielAvery]

It isn't always about "laziness and overweight people". If I need to go to a specific address (say, on the west side of X town) at a specific time, I would have to rely on the train to arrive within walking distance of that address, at or around the time of my appointment. I'll also need the train to come back through the west side of X to take me home at a reasonable time. This hinges on whether the civil engineers can even get a rail line into that part of town at all. If I'm unsure of how long I'll be at that address, I can't be assured of a ride home if that train is on a limited run in that possibly lesser-traveled part of town. And if the train station is too far from my destination, I'll have to take a taxi (putting a car on the road after all) or a bus (adding to the uncertainty of a reciprocating ride back to where I started). And what if I need to make multiple stops for errands, etc.? I don't think the train engineer is going to park outside Publix while I "run in for a few things". I may as well just drive myself there, not only out of necessity, but convenience.

And I won't even go into the fact that a lot of people will tell you they wouldn't be caught dead riding a bus or a train with "the riff-raff". Conspicuous consumption is alive and well and spends its winters in Florida.