Commuting from South Dade to Ft. Lauderdale (Miami, Doral: home, live in)

[grandcentraluk]

I've been asked by my employer to temporarily work out of our Ft. Lauderdale office. I live in Palmetto Bay. I know the commute will be tough - I'm a native Miamian - but I'm trying to figure out the best route to make it as bearable as possible. Given where I live, I could take the Palmetto or Turnpike with relative ease. Anyone out there do this commute and have thoughts on which option is better? I would assume the Turnpike would be a quicker ride but the last time I drove from Ft. Lauderdale home during the evening commute it took me nearly 2 hours on the Turnpike, with no accidents or anything from what I could tell, just tons of back up starting in Doral. I welcome any and all suggestions, except for the one telling me not to do it. That isn't an option, unfortunately . Thank you.

[FlyMIA]

The only thing is can think of is start early. If possible get into work early and then leave early or get into work late and leave late. If you get on the road at 7am traffic won't be too bad and if you go home and get on the road by 4pm traffic may not be that bad. Hpbut 4:30pm and it will be.

It can work the other way too but probably not as good. Leave T 9:30am and then leave work at6:30pm.

[hurricaneMan1992]

I wouldn't rule out good old US1 and I-95 since it's more direct and there will be traffic congestion and occasional accidents no matter which route you take. It's really the US1 stretch that will be painful, the rest is pretty much a reverse commute. Well, except that coming south across the County Line in the evening can be slow, you can check the traffic reports and decide if it's worth it to get the Turnpike instead.

We should all be writing to our public officials and the FEC, since it would be so much easier and less stressful for the OP to drive to Metrorail or Busway, watch all the traffic stuck on US1 from the window for 17 minutes, then take the FEC commuter train from downtown Miami to FLL in about 40 minutes. Imagine how many books you'd get through! If you have patience for it, the existing Tri-rail does have a station near downtown FLL, but you would have to go so far out of the way on Metrorail to use it Although there are 95 Express busses that do a few "reverse commute" trips between downtown Miami and FLL.

[grandcentraluk]

Thanks to you both. I think I will try to leave early and take US1 to 95 since I can use the express lanes if necessary. And hurricaneMan1992, I totally agree about public transportation though even if we had a decent system, I would still need my car since I need to drive around to different places for my job during the day. Still, if we had a good public transportation system, maybe less people would drive and we'd have less congestion on our roads. Oh well.

Also, agree with the tip to check traffic in the afternoon before I leave the office to see what highways are flowing best. I do that now for my evening commute from downtown as it gives me the option to take the Dolphin or 95 South depending on what's going on.