We’re tired of Miami drivers’ ‘Mad Max’ attitude. Crossing the street shouldn’t be a death-defying act | Editorial

It’s not your imagination. You really do take your life in your hands when you cross the street around here.

According to a report by Smart Growth America and the National Complete Streets Coalition, the Miami-Fort Lauderdale-Pompano Beach area is among the top 20 most dangerous metropolitan areas for pedestrians in the country, ranking No. 14. (The Daytona Beach area is No. 1, though that’s not much comfort.)

And the state of Florida, overall, is considered the second most dangerous state for pedestrians in the nation, after New Mexico.

It’s not hard to believe this study makes a valid point. Anyone who’s recently tried to cross Biscayne Boulevard or any other major thoroughfare in Greater Miami can tell you about drivers gunning through red lights and a cars-are-king mentality.

But what do we do about it? As the Miami Herald reported, the authors of Dangerous By Design 2022 have some ideas, focused on road design. The report says much of the blame for our perilous state of affairs is that many of the nation’s streets were built “primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe.”

More sidewalks, protected bike lanes, clearly marked crosswalks and a transportation system that allows non-drivers to get from place to place easily would all help. So would slowing down traffic.

We need walkability

That may be considered heresy in this traffic-choked area — Slow it down even more? Is that possible? — but we’re not talking about changing the speed limit on Interstate 95.

A sustainable downtown, though, needs to be walkable. Also, it needs to be enjoyable to walk — we don’t think that’s too much to ask. We’re glad to note that there are measures under way in Miami-Dade County to address some of these issues.

When it comes to car-first road design, being a Sun Belt state hasn’t helped. Places like Florida grew after World War II, in the age of the car. Many cities didn’t have established, walkable centers, so highways took precedence. And we never looked back.

The pandemic also is playing a role. Examining five years of data, the report found that more people were hit and killed in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic than in previous years. Despite less traffic on the roads, people drove faster.

As anyone who drove the Palmetto during that first year of the pandemic can attest, when Miamians spot an open roadway, they see it as permission to make their “Fast & Furious” dreams come true.

Here’s the main point, though. These are, for the most part, preventable deaths. European nations, with affluence comparable to this country, reduced pedestrian and cyclist fatality rates in the past 10 years, while U.S. rates are up, the Herald story notes.

Quick action

Kurt Kaminer, a spokesman for the University of Miami’s UHealth WalkSafe and BikeSafe programs, told the Herald that South Florida’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” approach to driving may be starting to wane.

He said that after two cyclists were struck and killed in the drop lane of the Rickenbacker Causeway on May 15, “The county, Mayor [Daniella] Levine Cava and transportation and public works director [Eulois] Cleckley fixed that drop-lane problem in one day, and I’m optimistic they’re committed to the transformation that’s overdue.”

Levine Cava, whose husband was injured in a bicycle accident on the causeway in 2018, has long pushed for safer roadways, starting back when she was a commissioner. The county’s Vision Zero plan is continuing to tackle the issue by identifying dangerous intersections and improving them with signals, barriers and adjusting the timing of lights, for example.

Cause for optimism

The county is also developing a transportation master plan that will include pedestrians, and bikes and other transit modes. And it is building a “micromobility network” — with the first one located downtown — essentially adding protected bike lanes to help with short commutes but with the added bonus of narrowing and slowing roads a little, so pedestrians are safer.

Kaminer sounded an optimistic note. People now see “the necessity and the appeal of safe streets, safe mobility options, safe commutes and safe recreation, and they are asking for change,” he said” “They want pedestrians, cyclists, public transportation users — human beings — prioritized over cars.”

Prioritize people over cars — or at least put them on equal footing. It’s time.