Photos: Brickell Gets Its First Pedestrian Scramble At Busy Intersection

·95 Comments

A busy Brickell intersection routinely crammed with both cars and pedestrians has been rebuilt with scramble crosswalks.

The new configuration prioritizes pedestrian traffic over cars, and stops automobile traffic in all directions to allow those on foot to cross – even diagonally.

 

(photos: Dr. Mickey Witte)

 

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Anonymous
3 months ago

Can we do that on Biscayne? I live in Park West and it’s impossible to cross the street without first signing up for a good health insurance. I mean, you wait literally 5 minutes before it’s green to cross and then you are given 10 seconds to cross. I’m 72 and can only make it half way in 10 seconds so then I have to wait another 5 minutes to finish crossing. And this is assuming drivers actually stop at the red light.

49
Anonymous
3 months ago

Soon they’ll hopefully implement Green Biscayne and reduce lanes by adding bike paths and more green sidewalks. That should help😋

29
Anonymous
3 months ago

“Bike paths and more green sidewalks?”

Haha.. that’ll only make these uncouth drivers in Miami more reckless.

-17
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

It is Scientifically proven that less lanes and narrower lanes are actually proven to be safer, as drivers are more careful.
https://www.elkhartriverdistrict.com/news/2018/9/7/why-narrow-lanes-are-safer

4
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

Narrower lanes (and less lanes) are actually proven to be safer.
https://www.elkhartriverdistrict.com/news/2018/9/7/why-narrow-lanes-are-safer

3
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

oops… I wrote it twice…

3
Anonymous
3 months ago

Haha.. you can print that all you want but in Miami, drivers are in a different class.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Haha.. I see my comment got a lot of thumb down votes.

“adding bike paths and more green sidewalks. That should help😋”

Um, yeah, sure.. train track guards that have arms that come down telling us in Miami that a train is coming and we still hear about idjuts getting killed when they don’t heed them. If some of you think that eliminating lanes on Biscayne Blvd and putting bike paths and trees on it will help some of the problems you’re talking about and won’t make these uncouth drivers in Miami more angry and reckless, then you don’t understand this city you live in.

-2
Anonymous
3 months ago

biking, greenery, sounds like you need to move to Miami Lakes. You want tennis courts and a duck pond in the middle of US1 too?

-19
Anonymous
3 months ago

Well, they will be building coffee shops in the middle of it, in front of Waldorf Astoria so why not tennis courts and a duck pond?! Sounds like a great idea. Thanks for your contribution.

18
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

Yes, great idea

1
Ahsumsawz
3 months ago

duckies!!!

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

Have you been to other major cities apart from Miami? Just curious.

5
Anonymous
3 months ago

Yes, many

-7
Peter
3 months ago

😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

-1
Peter
3 months ago

Miami Lakes wants to build a wall and have Hialeah pay for it.

4
Billy
3 months ago

Not tennis, pickle ball

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Sans the Singapore Supertree ripoffs, I hope.

1
Bandit
3 months ago

I think the turn signal on 17th and Biscayne right in front of Publix could also benefit from some major pedestrian upgrades.

23
Anonymous
3 months ago

Biscayne BLVD needs speed bumps

16
Anonymous
3 months ago

Yes! Speed bumps, a shaded median, and traffic circles. Really, Biscayne Blvd. needs to be made much, much more pedestrian friendly.

19
Anonymous
3 months ago

this is so fucking rigged, i downvote and it goes upvote on all these speedbump posts, try not to make it so obvious TNM mod, we’re on to you

-19
Anonymous
3 months ago

IKR, it’s so obvious. Guy is probably posting responses and upvoting his own posts too.

-16
Anonymous
3 months ago

I’m pretty sure you can only vote once.

12
Anonymous
3 months ago

cannot downvote once, it turns into an upvote, that is the point, don’t be insecure, accept other opinions if you are gonna have an public forum

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

I tried to vote for my own post and couldn’t.
Whatever happened to vote early, vote often.

-1
Anonymous
3 months ago

Lay yourself down across the street.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Great idea! We can use NIMBYs as speedbumps 🙂

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Biscayne should become las rambles in Barcelona

23
Anonymous
3 months ago

Or Champs-Élysées in Paris

15
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

Or Paseo de la Reforma in Mexico City

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

No need to set the bar that low.

0
Not Anonymous
3 months ago

Love it

3
Mary
3 months ago

Or EL Paseo De Prado, Habana Cuba

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

The closest we can be is Michigan Avenue in Chicago fronting Grant Park.

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

I would love to see grand monuments/plazas in place of those parking lots

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

I live in Park West also and more than once a day I get a citizenapp notification of a pedestrian involved in a hit and run. I guess we are waiting for people to actually die and their families to sue the city before we do something about it?

14
Anonymous
3 months ago

This is ‘Murica!! Lawsuits always make people wake up and take action. We are the land of the free and home of the lawyers!

4
Jerry
3 months ago

Yeah, they see the giant billboards for Schmuch &Schuck and crash into someone while they’re dialing on their cell phones.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

I think Miami should hire people from NYC to handle public transportation and pedestrian-friendly streets. We can send them, in return, some people to take care of hurricanes 🙂

14
Anonymous
3 months ago

I second that. Streets in NY are way better and more pedestrian friendly.

18
Anonymous
3 months ago

I guess if you pretend that the garbage bags seeping oooze and stench onto the sidewalk in the hot summer sun is a great pedestrian experience.

-6
Wu-Tang
3 months ago

People say that NYC streets smell like piss.
I say that my piss smells like the greatest city in the world!

3
Anonymous
3 months ago

The greatest city in the world, relapsing into its dark age of the 1970s.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Garbage bags are only put out at night (in certain nights, not all) and they get picked up within a few hours. Also Miami has like 500K people vs NYC has almost 9M people… wait that you get this big and then we’ll see how functional Miami will be. You guys can barely keep it together now with a population that 20 times smaller…imagine then. Maybe more of us need to come down and show you how it’s done! Whoever wrote that is 100% right.

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

Miami is also a city that’s almost twenty times smaller in square miles, but I get your point.

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

Please come! Let’s make Brickell and our urban core more like Manhattan please!

3
Anonymous
3 months ago

Except when waste management goes on strike every other month, usually at the behest of the mafia, and line the pockets of all the NY political darlings.

-2
Anonymous
3 months ago

I too like a good fiction novel

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

👏👏👏

1
Bandit
3 months ago

No turn on red! Amazing! I hope they implement this in more pedestrian heavy streets as well as timed delayed signals on all intersections to give drivers more visibility of pedestrians as well as pedestrian priority!

13
Anonymous
3 months ago

Needs to be paired with cameras cus you still get dickheads ignoring it and almost hitting people

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

Red light cameras are outlawed by the State because they don’t work and suck eggs.

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

Red light cameras are most certainly existent in Aventura right now…

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Better late than never…once 830 brickell comes online foot traffic will jump significantly

12
Melo is sigma and chad
3 months ago

A big problem with this intersection is Komodo. The valet and Uber backs up traffic into the intersection.

8
Anonymous
3 months ago

You don’t want to be “seen” with the Lambo you just rented for a few hours?

8
Nobleman Jack
3 months ago

Don’t mess with my favorite restaurant)

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Rather than addressing the root of issues, it’s always making everyone else suffer with more stops when it comes to traffic engineering. Where I live, it’s the same issue with a restaurant violating its valet plan with cars parked all over the place and illegal ingress and egress.

3
MiamiArchi
3 months ago

This intersection has allowed for diagonal crossings forever. At least for 8 years.
They just painted diagonal crosswalks in the street to formalize it.
The pedestrian lights here have been coordinated for pedestrian only crossings since I’ve lived in Brickell.

8
Bandit
3 months ago

I had no clue about the pedestrian-only crossing. But I think the new no turn on red now is a big improvement.

-2
Anonymous
3 months ago

What?
The no turn on red hasn’t saved any lives, or prevented any injuries.
It MOST DEMONSTRABLY backed traffic up on SW 8th Street well past S Miami Avenue and then fools block the northbound Miami Ave box to make it worse.

Perhaps I am just a gifted walker or perhaps an ultra talented street crosser, and the majority of posters here are below average on both accounts. Having lived on Miami Ave and worked on Brickell for a couple decades walking and crossing is easy, sitting in a bureaucrat imposed traffic jam is going to spew more emissions onto pedestrians, and make it less safe for people who need emergency services.

-2
Anonymous
3 months ago

^ I guess like the song says, “you want to ride your bicycle you want to ride your bike… ”

lol…

0
s.k
3 months ago

Agree. Since the no turn on red, traffic has been really bad. Live on 8th/S.Miami and it’s chaos. Now I must take the S.Miami bridge to go to Downtown/Midtown/SoBe. Plus Brickell Plaza is blocked by the 830 Brickell construction, simply a nightmare if you want to go to Coconut Grove.

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

For such a well known prominent street brickell ave is kinda embarrassing… Can the at least pave the street and fix the existing crosswalks

8
Anonymous
3 months ago

Don’t worry, some genius will propose the ugliest mural as “art” in public places, and will wear out within months and be spray painted by utility maintenance marks.

3
Jesus
3 months ago

Great thing they did. We should make it difficult to drive a car in downtown as a way to discourage cars in the area and encourage pedestrians and public transit.

6
Anonymous
3 months ago

Yeah fuck the downtown office workers, visitors, and deliverymen who don’t live downtown or next to Metrorail tracks and have to drive into downtown to earn a living. Jesus Christ.

0
Pedestrians rule
3 months ago

Yeah!

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Naah, fuck pedestrians. You can wait an extra 90 seconds to cross US1 to go home to jerk off or to Bayside to oogle women.

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

Someone’s angry.
Were you denied those activities?

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Absolutely!!

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

no, WE shouldn’t “make it more difficult”.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Better take the Metromover, and get stuck on the bridge in a 90-degree tin can full of homeless.

1
Anonymous
3 months ago

It’s better than living in a tent and walking from restaurant garbage can to restaurant garbage can looking for something to eat half the day in 90 degree weather like you do.

-2
Jerry
3 months ago

Or get mugged after dark.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

This intersection needs to get built up like Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo.

4
Anonymous
3 months ago

More of this please!! Pedestrians >>>>>>> cars

3
Anonymous
3 months ago

No.
Pedestrian people are not more important than other people. Even when those other people are in cars.

-4
Anonymous
3 months ago

Bike people are the most important it seems, because they feel entitled to flip me off when riding in the middle of a street when I overtake them with plenty of room.

3
Jerry
3 months ago

Bicyclists should be required to carry liability insurance. They cause accidents and run over people on both sidewalks and roads. Why don’t they have to get a license and training? They just hop on a bike and fail to obey traffic laws and put everyone at risk.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

The right turn only lane at SW 7th should be extended as a straight-only lane with the far LEFT lane becoming a LEFT ONLY lane at this intersection. Literally this small change would improve traffic through all of Brickell.

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

Extend the Metromover to everywhere in Miami and Miami Beach. Add more cars and make it not free! only then we can ask people to leave their cars at home! Until then, it’s hard getting around Miami without a car. They even removed scooters. Miami is so backward!

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Miami is so backward, but let’s extend a system for miles that goes half the average speed limit!

0
Jerry
3 months ago

Those scooters are DANGEROUS! People are stupid! I’ve seen people ride unicycles on city streets.

0
CARCASS
3 months ago

Pedestrians can cross that street already. Specially when the stupid bridge opens.
Make vehicle traffic flow better. Stress in drivers equal killed pedestrians.

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

It’s starting to resemble Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo!!

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Diagonal Crosswalks? Meanwhile in the big cities of Europe and Asia they are telling Miami “welcome to the mid 20th century” lol

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Stopping commerce in all directions is being celebrated?

Backing up delivery vehicles, Ambulances, Fire Trucks, and Police cars for blocks is a very very stupid solution looking for a problem.

How many pedestrians have been killed in this intersection?
How many pedestrians have been injured in this intersection?

How many dopey bureaucrats, students of dopey professors, have been inconvenienced as they cross the street?

-5
Anonymous no more
3 months ago

Scary point of view.
It shouldn’t take a death to force a change.

2
Anonymous
3 months ago

I took a few Darwin awards for Brightline to be delayed because people don’t have enough comprehension to stay off tracks, however.

1
Jerry
3 months ago

I work with food stamps office, I ask people how much they earn and they say I dont have a job. I do door dash or drive Uber. I ask about how much they pay for electricity and they tell me that it varies. Really? Like i don’t know that? I have an electric bill too. It varies but generally you have an idea of how much you pay each month. People are stupid sometimes! Railroad crossing arms, flashing red lights and signs don’t mean anything. It’s perfectly okay to stop on the tracks or go around the crossing guards! STUPID!!!

0
Anonymous
3 months ago

Probably not the right time to complain of a lack of pedestrian deaths/injuries. Some of us have friends who were literally mauled down by a car a few months ago while walking on the sidewalk by BCC. Brickell has a long way to go before it can be considered “pedestrian friendly.”

3
Anonymous
3 months ago

Are we talking about cars in Brickell or Pit Bulls in Liberty City?

3
Jerry
3 months ago

I see people step out onto the street and cross with even glancing to look for oncoming traffic. They are usually on their phones and deserve to get run over due to their stupidity!!!

0