5 Reasons for a Pedestrian Friendly Brickell Avenue

It seems that the years of Biscayne Blvd (US1) road construction which began years ago in North Miami Beach are finally coming to Brickell Avenue next year.

Ever since this news came to light, our friends over at the popular blog Transit Miami have been pushing for a more pedestrian friendly Brickell Avenue.  According the the website, Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) plans call for improved crosswalks, the same 11 foot travel lanes, and no bicycle facilities -- far short of what is needed.

As editor / writer at Urban City Architecture (currently in hiatus), I have always pushed for more pedestrian friendly and sustainable streets in downtown Miami and Brickell.  As the region's growing urban and cultural center, the city offers an urban lifestyle not common in Florida.   Unlike many of the autocentric and suburban streets of Miami, downtown offers urbanites and pedestrians a relief from car-crowded streets, dizzying traffic, and solitary confiment behind the wheel.  

After decades of autocentric planning and design, Brickell Avenue and its tens of thousands of new residents and office workers are ready to support more sustainable, friendly, and safe streets. While there are many reasons why this is an important step forward, here are 5 that stand out:

1. Large and Growing Urban Area - With over 22,000 new residential units within a few blocks of each other, several new commerical buildings, and millions of square feet of existing retail, residential, and office space, Brickell Avenue is a dense urban environment ripe for pedestrian traffic that has been rapidly growing for years.  

While the auto-centric planning of downtown may have been appropriate in  the 1980's and 1990's, outdated and suburbanized autocentric planning has no place in today's Brickell.  With dozens of skyscrapers and tens of thousands of office workers and residents all in close proximity to each other, the Brickell Avenue of yesterday is not the Brickell Avenue of today.

2. Brickell Avenue is a Primary Pedestrian Crossing - The majority (not all) of new and exisiting residences in Brickell are on the east side of Brickell Avenue while most of the commercial, retail, public transit, and entertainment in the area is on the west side of the street.

This makes Brickell Avenue a primary and mandatory pedestrian crossing street -- whether one is on the south or north end of the neighborhood, going home, to the market, or out for a drink.  There is no way around this: Brickell Avenue divides the entire neighborhood in half.

As it stands, residents dart across the street, jaywalk, and trudge through the bushes in the median as a result of the distance between the scarce crosswalks. 

3.  Take I-95 to cut through the City - Let's encourage the use of Interstate 95 for those just cutting through the city by making downtown streets slower and safer for pedestrians.  Passing traffic should avoid the area and local traffic must learn to navigate downtown streets carefully for the benefit of pedestrians. 

Interstate 95 has already inflicted tremendous damage to the urban structure of the city as a primary vehicular artery going north and south.  Brickell Avenue, only a few blocks away, does not need to be a primary vehicular artery as well. Is that not that why we built I-95?

4. Brickell is Urban - Brickell is not the suburbs and the suburbs are not Brickell.  Street planning on US1 and suburban Kendall is and should be very different than street planning in urban Brickell.  Streets in urban areas must be slower, safer, and more pedestrian / biker friendly.  

While it is true that you can drive for hours in parts of Miami and not see a living soul walking on the street, nothing could be farther from the truth in Brickell.

5. Respect the Wishes of Residents and Workers - This is what the local residents and office workers want.  I have talked to dozens of people on the street who all say the same thing.  More crosswalks, slower vehicular traffic, more benches, more trash cans, and shorter waits at crossing lights.

Many of the new Brickell residents moved here to live a more pedestrian and sustainable lifestyle, with the ability to walk to a restaurant, the market, or to work.  Let's continue the progress and give downtown residents a true and safe urban paradise.  Anybody listening out there?