All that dreaming longingly about someday seeing bike lanes along Coral Way has finally paid off. Mike Lydon of Transit Miami wrote last week: “expect to see new bicycle lanes from SW 12th Avenue to SW 15th Road in the not-too-distant-future.” The lanes will span about 16 blocks. From there, they will connect to the upcoming bike lanes on Broadway (SW 15th Road). Good so far, right?
This gets better. Since Broadway is scheduled to be painted with bike lanes in the near future, they will then provide access to the new South Miami Avenue lanes. These lanes travel southwest toward the Bayshore Drive bike path into the Grove, in addition to a corridor leading toward 12th Street in the Brickell area. Essentially, a bike lane circuit is in development that will provide clearer access for riders heading to the Brickell and Downtown areas.
These improvements will open up great opportunities for bicycle access. The Coral Way route initiating at 12th Avenue is a skip from the Vizcaya Metrorail station and the M Path. The Broadway connection is one block along the M Path from the Brickell Station. Bicyclists will then have two local points from which to access the Metrorail.
As a biking commuter, this is happy news! I’m lucky to live and work in proximity to the M Path, and I am always back and forth into downtown. While the M Path is great when I’m getting things done along US-1, it stops being convenient just short of 16th Avenue. Thoroughfares with limited signage and scant bicycle accommodations intersect the M Path from there, and the path itself is uneven and broken due to aggressive roots and shattered asphalt.
Overall, this is a major step in the process of improving accommodations for bicyclists in Miami. This extends opportunities for work commutes and could provide a nice-looking recreational route. Ideally, if we could connect the South Miami Avenue portion directly to the Bayshore Drive Path, we’d have an excellent circuit from downtown to the Grove.
-- Adam Schachner
