More, on road rage by gimleteye

Some interesting comments to yesterday's post... so here's more rubber for the road.

I don't think road rage correlates with culture, per se. The more time people spend stuck in cars in traffic, the less tolerant they become. The less tolerant, the more prone to sparks and road rage.

Why should our lives be dictated by traffic patterns in cars? You think traffic can't get any worse in Miami, and it does. Have you seen how traffic jams out of the city, north and south, keep edging earlier into the afternoon? Leaving Miami, going northbound on 95, has turned into a nightmare at 3:30 in the afternoon.

It's the feeling of being hostage to traffic that drives people to road rage. A high percentage of people in Miami-Dade want to organize their lives around avoiding traffic. The responses vary, from choosing where to work (the lucky ones), to taking every short cut imaginable, and a few--to taking mass transit.

I know someone who lives in West Kendall and works in South Miami, less than fifteen miles away. She told me, she usually leaves her house around 7 AM and arrives at work half an hour later, then waits for an hour before the doors open. She waits, because when she leaves her house at 7:30 AM, it takes her at least an hour to travel the same distance and, often, even longer. But she'd rather leave earlier, because she hates the anxiety of not getting to work on time.

Think of the stress this puts on families. I love how conservatives love to talk about "family values", but you never hear any talk about limiting development--no, that would restrict property rights-- or investing in mass transit--no, that means increasing taxes-- so people can actually spend time with their families instead of stuck in traffic.

Remember how demographics used to talk about the 2 car family? Now, EVERY family member has to have a car, because not only is mass transit miserable, but there are very few places you can safely travel in the course of daily chores by bicycle.

So Miamians are literally stuck on the Palmetto. It's the feeling of being helpless, especially during commutes that can be hellish, that sets some people off at the slightest provocation.

Our region has poorly adapted to growth, and we're paying for it.

Take Miami International Airport as an example. It was built for a small city, and now it is costing billions (not to mention the opportunistic public corruption) to expand the facilities while operating an ongoing business. Because of the inefficiencies, Miami has lost significant business to other airports in the region like Fort Lauderdale.

By postponing infrastructure investment instead of investing as we go along (which involves accounting for the costs of development as they are incurred: cf. Miami Dade Water and Sewer Department, not), Miami was a cheap place for development. It's no longer cheap, but it's also no longer livable: bad transportation infrastructure, pathetic public parks and recreational facilities, inadequate wastewater treatment, and a power elite constantly scrambling around the conversion of farmland to zero lot line development, or more condos in level of service "F" transit corridors through manipulation of local legislatures.

This is costing Miami in terms of economic potential, which should be setting alarm bells off at the chamber of commerce but apparently it's mainly resulting in a lot of hand-wringing. "Oh we can't criticize builders." "Oh we can't do anything about protecting more open space, or, advocating more taxes to protect our water quality." Add traffic circles!

In many cases, businesses can't attract high skilled workers because they come to Miami and get stuck in traffic. There are some bright spots: the University of Miami is building housing for scientists and doctors associated with its ambitious medical and science technology programs, but still: the new arrivals will be stuck in traffic.

The growth machine in Miami is sputtering. Road rage is only one of the symptoms.