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Updated: June 6, 2024 @ 4:39 am
Traffic jam out of Rickenbacker Causeway on April 14, 2024.
The road view after getting off Rickenbacker Causeway.
Cars in traffic during a recent jam.
Traffic jam out of Rickenbacker Causeway on April 14, 2024.
Nearly 24,000 vehicles traveled eastbound on the Rickenbacker Causeway on that fateful April 14 evening, when outbound cars were lined up for some four hours waiting to get through detours from the start of a Florida Department of Transportation project that closed the I-95/US 1 flyover network.
However, no report of westbound traffic data was available. That might soon change.
“The good news is we are working with them (and Miami-Dade County) to get a better traffic count,” Key Biscayne Village Manager Steve Williamson said.
That data would come from a Telemetered Traffic Monitoring Site (TTMS), an FDOT feature that shows the location of specific sites monitoring traffic counts and characteristics. Such a device would be placed outbound on the causeway, nearly adjacent to the toll booth area.
“It’s pretty much real-time data in 15-minute acts, such as how many vehicles came out at 3 p.m., or 3:15, or 3:45,” Williamson said. “It will give us better information on outbound traffic on high-peak weekends.”
The road view after getting off Rickenbacker Causeway.
That data, accurate enough to forewarn or predict the traffic impact by the hour, would be accumulated to notify drivers coming into Key Biscayne that a high-peak weekend means just that. It could also be used by the City of Miami and Miami-Dade County officials to carefully monitor traffic during large events on Virginia Key, for example, and curtail it during those high-peak afternoons.
“Information is powerful,” Williamson said.
“Three things that this will do is 1) help us better communicate traffic; 2) help us coordinate events and venues; and 3) help us be informed of infrastructure solutions.”
He said Stacy Miller, FDOT’s District 6 Transportation Secretary, “has been helpful” in supporting Key Biscayne’s endeavor.
In the meantime, more good news will come during June, when Miami-Dade County’s transportation team re-lines the worn-out road markings between the William Powell Bridge and Bear Cut Bridge (the causeway along Virginia Key). Work will be done from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
“All for the importance of safety,” Williamson said. “We’re excited.”
Much of FDOT’s current work on the causeway and around and below the ramps is being done at night and overnight. After the July 4 holiday, the actual flyovers will be worked on separately, each for 12 days.
Traffic along the Rickenbacker Causeway and on Key Biscayne has been studied in the past.
In fact, a comprehensive 2015 Village Transit Mobility Study done by the Corradino Group, concluded: “Over the last 11 years there have been 15 similar efforts to study traffic and transportation. In each, their conclusion has been … that there is a lot of traffic.”
At that point, the study indicated that “18,000 cars would tour Rickenbacker” on “event” days, a 44% increase than on “non-event” days.
The study also noted that “Key Biscayne is a compact area, of about 1.5 square miles, and has a density of about 6,600 people per square mile. This is roughly the density of Los Angeles, San Francisco, or some larger college campuses.”
That 2015 report included a long list of possible solutions, including water taxis, air taxis and even an aerial cable transit system.
Cars in traffic during a recent jam.
In addition to noting the intersections being jammed, especially at Harbor Drive and Crandon Boulevard, the report said: “Congestion in much of the Village is exacerbated by people searching for parking. Within the Village center area, there is a parking deficit of up to 124 spaces. To mitigate this, there have been discussions regarding the construction of a parking garage.
“The heavy reliance on automobiles creates additional issues with congestion, location circulation, and parking. … Vehicles are not in short supply on Key Biscayne. Of the 4,347 households, all but 166 of them have cars, (and) 2,189 households, or 50.3% of all households, have more than 2 cars …”
That report indicated that even in 2015 (with 13,000 residents), it equated to “at a minimum, at least one car for each resident aged 18-64 within the Village.”
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