Greenlink as a Remedy to Traffic

Death, Taxes and Traffic: It Doesn't Have to be This Way 

A few weeks ago I threw a dinner party at my apartment. As is the norm in Miami, everyone was late. Over the next hour, as my friends trickled in, each person had a story to tell about their parking experience– and not just any story, an epic story. Stories were even retold to those who walked in later because they were that dramatic! There was one parking warrior who risked it all by parking in a CVS parking lot eight blocks down. Or the near tragedy of a couple who, after circling the neighborhood for almost an hour, was about to retreat back to South Miami before I opened my garage and nervously offered a stranger’s parking space to them. Dismayed, I listened and watched as my friends tried to move on from their parking-induced stress and scarfed down my then lukewarm meal. 

If you live in Miami, you have probably encountered a similar situation. We all shake our fists at the Man and ask “Why can’t they do something about this traffic?!” We think if they just added more parking and more lanes and faster speeds, surely this problem would go away. And then they do. They add more lanes and more parking and guess what? The lanes get filled and the parking gets filled. It turns out that building more infrastructure for cars only invites more cars and makes our traffic and parking problems worse. The greater tragedy is that the more this cycle continues to snowball, the less walkable and bike friendly Miami becomes. A bike lane is swapped for an additional driving lane. Thin sidewalks lie unprotected, inches away from cars zipping 50 miles an hour down US1. Block-wide parking garages and parking lots make what could have been a short walk to a nearby restaurant feel like an eternity– a really hot, ugly, boring eternity. So, we get back in our cars and the cycle continues.

The only way to reduce car congestion– this is a fact, not an opinion– is to get people out of their cars.

We must make alternative transportation in Miami more abundant, convenient, and safer not just for the environment or the economy, we need it for our sanity! There is so much work to be done and it will take years before we can get to the same level as cities like New York or San Francisco, but a good place to start is the redesign of the M-Path (recently renamed the Greenlink), a 10 mile stretch of sadly underutilized space that runs below the Metrorail. Already a group of passionate citizens, the Greenlink Steering Committee, has started the crusade. This committee believes–as do I– that the Green Link has the potential to be a major mobility corridor for Miami-Dade. With creative landscaping, well designed pathways, and safer crossings– the Greenlink could become not just a place that you move through, but also a world-class destination. This vision, however, will never become a reality without the enthusiasm of the community to back it. So if you hate traffic as much as I do, please visit the Greenlink Steering Committee’s website to learn more and get involved.

2023 Update: The Greenlink was eventually renamed The Underline and the third and final phase broke ground on September 12, 2023.

Originally Published:
Miami Herald, Op-Ed
April 2014