What do we want South Bayshore Drive to be: a safer street for bicyclists, pedestrians and runners, or a faster street for cars?
By Mary Munroe Seabrook
Mary Munroe Seabrook is the co-founder of Friends of the Commodore Trail. She wrote this opinion piece for the Spotlight.
It’s been obvious for at least two decades that South Bayshore Drive needs to be fixed. Flooding is a major problem. So are traffic bottlenecks. Worse, the South Bayshore corridor is a magnet for bicyclists, runners, and walkers; and for all of them, it’s one of Miami’s most dangerous roadways.
About 17 years ago, Miami-Dade County, which has control of the road, delegated the work of fixing it to the City of Miami and allocated funding for the project. That didn’t go well. With rotating commissioners and staff, the city moved slowly.
About four years ago, the county took back the project. Project plans were developed, and two public meetings were held – one in 2022 and another in 2023. Then nothing was heard until the county presented its plans at a public meeting on July 29.
That didn’t go well, either.
The South Bayshore project is a central element in the five-mile Commodore Trail, which parallels South Bayshore Drive as it heads south. Next to the Rickenbacker Trail, the Commodore is the most popular trail in the county.
Although thousands use it every weekend for biking, walking, and running – and hundreds every weekday to get to local parks and schools – the trail is extremely dangerous.
The biggest problem with the county’s plan, critics say, is that it prioritizes the fast movement of cars over the safety of all other users – the runners, pedestrians, and cyclists who, for the past five years, have been begging the county to improve the Commodore Trail and make it safe.
I like the 8-88 rule: Make the Trail safe for someone who is age 8 and someone who is 88; someone who is visually impaired and someone who uses a wheelchair; not just the agile young adult.
The majority of those who spoke at the July 29 meeting advocated for the conditions they felt advanced safety and access. Many called for separate pathways for cyclists and pedestrians, slower vehicular speed and well-designed crosswalks. They argued that the county’s standardized shared-use path that combines cyclists and e-bikes with wheelchairs and dog-walkers is downright dangerous.
County planners argue that if they make any changes in the current plan, it will slow traffic and could impede buses and trolleys. The Friends of the Commodore Trail say that’s not necessarily so, and they have hired an urban design firm and traffic engineers who have proved it. But convincing the county to change roadway plans is no easier than getting a battleship to make a U-turn.
We refuse to accept that South Bayshore can’t be made safer. With other concerned citizens who care about Miami’s future livability, Friends of the Commodore Trail is building a movement for safer streets.
“Complete Streets” that are safe for all users, not just motorists, are a reality in many other cities and even some parts of Miami. Vision Zero, a county program to reduce roadway deaths and injuries, is an important component of Mayor Levine Cava’s administration.
The time has come to change course. Maintaining South Bayshore Drive as an alternative to U.S. 1 is a bad idea. South Bayshore Drive is a neighborhood road with homes, apartments, multiple parks and schools. The impatience of honking drivers should not push a design that fails to see the corridor through the lens of nature, neighbors, history and health.
What’s needed now is political pressure and public will to rebuild South Bayshore Drive in a way that will benefit all its users, not just motorists. Miami deserves safe streets.
