Ultra, Critical Mass, and Miami Open: Today's Going To Be a Traffic Nightmare

Good morning, Miami — hope you're not planning on driving anywhere today! Let's review just a few of the interesting things that are happening in your city today: The Miami Open, one of the world's most popular tennis tournaments, continues with early round play in Key Biscayne. Critical Mass, the monthly group bicycle ride, rolls out of downtown at 7:15 tonight. And oh yeah, there's also that little electronic dance party called Ultra kicking off this afternoon at Bayfront Park.  

Bottom line for anyone trying to commute anywhere near the center of Miami? It's going to be an absolute traffic nightmare today. 

For Ultra, re-routed downtown traffic (as many of you surely noticed) is actually already underway. Biscayne Boulevard is northbound-only between SE First and NE Fourth Streets, and southbound Biscayne Boulevard traffic is rerouted west at NE Fourth, to NE Second Avenue.

Side streets are open, but expect a whole lot of congestion because of the reduced lanes. The rerouted roads, which started last night at 9 p.m., will be in effect until 6 a.m. on Monday. 

Critical Mass, meanwhile, which meets at Government Center downtown at 6:45 p.m., just like every last Friday of the month, will (wisely) head west today, avoiding the bulk of Ultra insanity. The ride moves through Little Havana along Flagler Street, then kicks south at NW 22nd Avenue, and continues west on Calle Ocho all the way to West Miami. From there the ride heads back north to Flagler and rides east all the way back to downtown.

The Miami Open is held across the bay, in Key Biscayne's Crandon Park. But the tournament means more cars will be heading south on I-95 and north on U.S. 1 to get to the Rickenbacker Causeway. Expect plenty of extra congestion in that area. And if you're not a tennis fan, this is probably not the best weekend for a relaxing trip to Key Biscayne.