Why is South Florida road infrastructure so poorly designed? (Miami: condo, homes)

[MrKnight]

I have lived in various cities throughout the country including other Florida cities and never have I seen as bad of a road network as South Florida, to be frank, the road infrastructure is HORRENDOUS down here, most roads are severely undersized for the volume of traffic that they handle, major intersections with no turn lanes, no traffic signals are synchronized causing unnecessary stop and go traffic, drawbridge signals are not synchronized with surrounding traffic signals resulting in more traffic, etc... Why is this? Why is something as simple as synchronizing traffic lights not happening anywhere? What is the local government doing about it? Looking forward to some insight from more tenured South Floridians..

[ANTOANTO]

In my opinion, south florida should've never been populated as it is now. It became over-industrialized.

[Whereitwent]

The government already stated outright they have no interest in fixing the traffic issue and it will continue to worsen. A study said that a car trip that in any of the other states would average 30 minutes takes about an hour and a half in south Florida

[froglipz]

Snow birds!

[Whereitwent]

Yup. I see way to many "jet le me soviens" plates which I always get stuck behind.

[cfbs2691]

Originally Posted by MrKnight

I have lived in various cities throughout the country including other Florida cities and never have I seen as bad of a road network as South Florida, to be frank, the road infrastructure is HORRENDOUS down here, most roads are severely undersized for the volume of traffic that they handle, major intersections with no turn lanes, no traffic signals are synchronized causing unnecessary stop and go traffic, drawbridge signals are not synchronized with surrounding traffic signals resulting in more traffic, etc... Why is this? Why is something as simple as synchronizing traffic lights not happening anywhere? What is the local government doing about it? Looking forward to some insight from more tenured South Floridians..

I've been here 21 years and it's complete insanity.
But that's what government corruptions gets you.. complete insanity.


Pay attention to all the politicians that get busted getting their palms greased by developers or stealing/spending money that's supposed to fund their communities. It's constant.. so where's the money going to come from to improve the infrastructure when the money's getting stolen by the local politicians?

[MrKnight]

If the government corruption is true then this is so wrong in so many ways, how is it that every other major Florida city I have traveled to or lived in (outside of South Florida) does not have these issues? For example, Orlando while it suffers from its fair share of traffic congestion at least has very visible MAJOR upgrades being made to virtually the city's entire road network including interstate highway expansions, interchange projects, adding lanes to all major roads, new public transit options, not to mention, most of the existing roadways are spacious, synchronized, and even visually appealing with painted bridges and landscaping at interchanges. What is South Florida's excuse?

[DanielAvery]

I don't think the problem is that it's "poorly designed," as it simply wasn't "designed". Growth occurred around whatever roads and access points were available at the time people started showing up. New roads and bridges were put up only in reaction to growth, not in anticipation of it, so the size of the project was geared to the size of the problem at that time. Once an area is "bought up" (developed), your options for road-building are limited by what land is still available.

It's too late (not to mention cost-prohibitive) to tear it all out and draw up a better grid system, or to uproot large groups of people from their homes and businesses in order to organize and expand the roads. It's too over-developed to do large, pro-active road projects. All that can be done is putting lots of metaphorical Band-Aids on what's already there.

[Papillons2]

Originally Posted by MrKnight

If the government corruption is true then this is so wrong in so many ways, how is it that every other major Florida city I have traveled to or lived in (outside of South Florida) does not have these issues?

Miami-Dade and Broward remain bastions of machine-style politics, with the patronage system firmly entrenched.

A friend of mine who was a longtime political reporter always says that Miami-Dade is run like a banana republic and Broward is run like a condo board. Both atmospheres are fertile territory for ethically challenged politicians and corruption.

[danielsard]

Politicians being cheap...