Brief recap of the FDOT SR-A1A (5th Street) public information meeting I attended on Wednesday afternoon. To my surprise the meeting was poorly attended, I counted 4 or 5 residents during my time there. The overall atmosphere though was much more pleasant than that of the meeting on Sunset Drive last month, maybe it's because FDOT actually had a good plan to share.

The plan is for all lanes of traffic to be reduced to 11' from Lennox Ave to Washington Ave and a 4' bike lane to be striped on both sides of the road. The bike lanes will not continue onto Collins or Ocean because there are only two lanes available, same with the west bound lanes going to Alton or West. Pedestrians will benefit greatly from added pattern textured crosswalks and sidewalk repairs. Construction begins April 2011.

Gary from Green Mobility Network and I had the opportunity to speak briefly with City of Miami Beach Transportation Manager, Xavier Falconi. He informed us about a few upcoming bike lane/path projects in the city, one which stood out involves a current study being conducted for the placement of sharrows on Washington Avenue from 17th St to South Pointe Park. If all goes as planned Miami Beach will be the first city in the county to implement sharrows. This is very exciting news, it's about time someone took the initiative to utilize sharrows. According to Mr. Falconi the sharrows could go up in as soon as 6 months.

Other future projects for Miami Beach:

Bike lanes on 71st St/Normandy Dr from Collins Ave to Bay Dr
Bike path on Dade Blvd from Purdy Ave to Washington Ave