There will be speed bumps

Improving Broward’s mass transit system

If you’re a Broward County resident looking for mass transit improvements, get ready for a bumpy ride.

The county’s ability to win voter approval of a $15.6 billion, 30-year transportation sales tax in November may turn out to have been the easy part — and that’s a tax that was defeated twice before by voters.

County officials have already seen Fort Lauderdale’s Wave streetcar project derailed last year after more than a decade of planning. They heard opposition from Plantation and Davie to proposed light-rail lines to be paid for by sales tax dollars even before the election was held, forcing them to assure voters that any plan would be fully vetted before the public.

But just how hard the going will be can be seen in a transportation issue that isn’t even dealing with sales tax dollars: Plans by the Florida Department of Transportation to put a 170-space park-and-ride lot in Weston at the city’s Interstate 75 interchange on Royal Palm Boulevard.

The lot would also include express bus service to the Miami Intermodal Center next to Miami International Airport, where commuters will be able to make connections using mass transit to other destinations, including downtown Miami.

Southwest Ranches and Davie residents already successfully objected a few years ago to a similar

park-and-ride lot that was to be placed at I-75’s Griffin Road interchange. Right now, the state plans parkand-ride lots at the Weston site and along I-75 at Pines Boulevard, with both offering express bus service and a place for commuters to carpool, county transit officials said.

“We’re just trying to make it as convenient as we can for the largest number of people,” County Transportation Director Chris Walton said.

But the park-and-ride proposal has stirred up controversy in the city from people who say its more affluent residents won’t use the lot or bus service, who fear it will make traffic congestion at the interchange worse, and who don’t want the city having to pay for patrolling the lot as part of its contract with the Broward Sheriff ’s Office.

“I don’t see the people leaving their Maseratis in that parking lot and going to Miami. We are not that type of city,” said Grace Sigal, an 11-year Weston resident opposed to the parkand-ride.

Resident Jennifer Adler said the city shouldn’t have to pick up the cost of patrolling the park-and-ride lot.

“We weren’t offered money to offset the costs,” Adler said. “I don’t know that I want to see [the city’s Sheriff’s Office dollars] diverted from our schools.”

Opponents say the state would be putting the parkand-ride lot in the middle of a traffic nightmare, where congestion routinely creates major tie-ups for vehicles exiting I-75, while Royal Palm Boulevard commuters trying to get to the interchange can be backed up to Bonaventure Boulevard.

The state and city already have plans for road improvements to relieve the congestion — and the city will advance the state $13.8 million so the interchange improvements can start four years earlier than when state funding would be available — but many residents fear the city money will be diverted to the separate $11.4 million parkand-ride construction project.

City Manager John Flint says that’s not the case. The city money for the interchange project will be paid back by the state when the interchange work is completed and the city is spending another $1.5 million for improvements at the nearby Weston Road intersection.

The interchange improvements will add a third right-turn lane on the exit ramp for southbound I-75. The city project will put in a third turn lane for westbound Royal Palm Boulevard traffic heading south on Weston Road.

As for the express bus service, it would take advantage of the new express lanes being built on I-75 to make for faster trips.

But Adler said her husband, who works in downtown Miami, sees no benefit to the express service.

“I guess it’s just if you don’t want to drive. They’re going to be using the same roads that my husband would be taking,” not a time-saver, she said.

There’s also concern about the bus schedule times, with state officials saying there would be four morning buses between 5 and 7 a.m., and four returning buses leaving the airport center between 2:30 and 4 p.m. Those hours would serve non-traditional peak hours, helping health care and airport workers, state officials said.

“Nobody is going to be able to leave their jobs at these particular times,” Adler said.

County officials said the hours are different from the ones they proposed. They’ve requested five buses leaving between 5 and 9:30 a.m., with return trips between 3:30 and 9 p.m., said Barney McCoy, the county transportation department’s director for service and capital planning.

McCoy said a market analysis done for the state showed a need for service between southwest Broward and the airport. The I-75 service from Broward to the Miami airport center will begin in the fall from the BB&T Center in Sunrise, McCoy said. That is only temporary until the Weston and Pembroke Pines park-and-ride lots are built, he said.

Weston commissioners will hold an April 1 workshop on the park-and-ride plans.