Thursday, May 16, 2013

Good government: can we conquer traffic ... by gimleteye

The Belle Isle blog has some great old postcard views of what the former Miami Herald property looked like, in the kindler, gentler (unless you were Jewish or African American) 1930's.

What is striking is that the views illustrate traffic access along Biscayne Boulevard and to the Venetian Causeway that has not changed in the intervening eighty years except for road widening. The same design built to serve a few thousand people in the 1930's now accommodates a multitude. Very poorly.

Interstate 95 changed, of course. It provided access to the south, sacrificing traditional African American neighborhoods to open the way to development much the same way the MDX is planning to stretch 836 to farmland and open space controlled by powerful campaign contributors.

The key point is that traffic today is fed into several billion dollars of urban landscape recently added -- from the museum to the Heat arena and Performing Arsht Center -- with 1930's era street planning.

If Miami wants to be a better city, the entire traffic circulation system needs to be revised. The port tunnel, costing over $1 billion, will solve a portion of the problem. We excel, putting the cart before the proverbial horse.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the hell has been going on for the past four years at the junction of 836 and 826, have you seen the one mile long bridge that has been sitting almost unused and unfinished on 826 and NW 25 Street leading to the Airport. It is ridiculous and a waste.

Anonymous said...

no one seems to understand transportation. people complain that more needs to be done, but not in my back yard, and then when it is, they complain about the construction, and when that's done, they complain about the tolls required to pay the build out. so, the politically popular move is to do nothing. ultimately relieving traffic congestion means tolls and construction disruptions. it is the price we need to pay. anyone that tells you differently is lying to you. you can certainly argue about where to build, but if you want to build, people need to realize it means sacrifices to the status quo.

Anonymous said...

We need a real public transportation system, New York got it, San Fransisco got it, Atlanta got it....

Biscayne Bystanderp said...

Areed that our public transportation system is a joke. The recent expansion for the metrorail to the airport was finally a step in the right direction. Miami Today just reported that material use just broke an all-time record. Are the two related? I don't know