#Storytime People complain about traffic in Miami. Although I have been places where it is MUCH worse (won’t mention any names), there is a lot that could be done here to calm traffic without even spending much money.
Yesterday, we were going to an event in the Parkwest area at 6:00pm. I was coming from South Beach and A was coming from Miami Lakes. We literally (not figuratively) got there at the exact same time. Why?
The traffic lights along the MacArthur Causeway create a massive traffic issue. If you look at the way traffic funnels off Miami Beach, it comes from local streets traveling at slow speeds. It spills into a three-lane highway. There is no reason that traffic should get that backed up.
The problem is the lights to the islands. While I appreciate that people want to get off their island, there needs to be much better management of those lights. There are always times where the lights are green on the cross-streets for far too long, with no traffic coming or going. Especially during high traffic times, the lights along the MacArthur should be green for longer and red for shorter.
In addition, one of the big culprits is that light on Bayshore just as you exit to Biscayne. That first light just as you come off the highway. It causes massive backup. I sat in the exit lane for at least 15 minutes. That was to move less than a mile. When I got to the light, I noticed it stayed red for way way too long while no traffic was on the cross-street. Again, this light needs to give the main traffic-way priority. The cross-traffic along Bayshore is very light, even at rush hour.
This is true of so many intersections in Miami, they are completely mismanaged. Traffic wastes millions of gallons of gasoline, adds massively to pollution and has a large deleterious effect on resident happiness. There is no call for this kind of nonsense when just adjusting the lights during rush hour would fix it. Even better, of course, would be to install sensors to manage the lights.
Of course, better mass transit, more bicycles, more walking neighborhoods and such would all help, but those take a lot of time and money. Properly managing the traffic lights costs very little and has immediate impact. via Facebook