South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
Las Olas Boulevard an assortment of parts
Transportation experts test safety methods for pedestrians, bicyclists
A confounding mish-mash of colored stripes, potted plants and plastic attachments on Fort Lauderdale’s premier boulevard will remain in place — at least for now.
All sorts of experimentation is going on in a short section of Las Olas from Southeast 11th Avenue to Southeast 15th Avenue, as city transportation experts seek to make it safer for people on foot or bicycles. The city’s transportation experts deemed the experiment a success.
But there’s no shortage of opinions from others.
“It’s the spine of the city,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said, asking that the trial that began in March continue while more opinions are heard. City commissioners agreed with him, saying it was too early to rip out the changes,
or to make them permanent.
The hodge-podge assortment includes painted bike lanes, a lit-up crosswalk, a bicycle-delivery program for UPS and a designated pickup spot for Uber and Lyft passengers. That’s not all: There are plastic poles, and small plastic barriers that keep drivers from straying into bike lanes. Some of the street paint is green; some is blue. And the two outer lanes are no longer open to car drivers.
The east-west roadway is lined with offices, restaurants and high-end housing, stretching from Andrews Avenue to the beach. But it has “multiple personalities,” Trantalis said, with very different segments.
From Andrews Avenue to Federal Highway is a wide stretch with highrises on either side. Starting at Federal Highway is the shaded section of small boutiques and restaurants, where the city recently agreed that a dramatic remake should be studied.
The portion with the safety experiments is next, a zone where drivers often hit the gas. And to the east of that is the unimpeded zip to the barrier island, with finger islands of multimillion-dollar homes jutting off it.
City Manager Lee Feldman said the city will spruce up the experimental section “until the entire Las Olas corridor has a final direction.”
That could be a while. During a recent debate in City Hall about the future of these several blocks of Las Olas, no one could agree which way to go.
Bike riders and those on foot don’t want the outside lanes returned to people behind the wheel, cyclist Eric Barton said.
“Everyone in this room probably has had a car pass by them within inches when we had a four-lane road there,” he said. “You can now walk on Las Olas safely.”
Surrounding neighbors aren’t all enamored with the new look.
“You have a bunch of angry people,” said Colee Hammock neighborhood resident Jackie Scott. “You have a street that’s ugly as sin.”
Activist Mary Fertig said the approach is too disjointed.
“We ask for one consistent plan,” said Fertig, who lives in the Idlewyld neighborhood off Las Olas.
And people from all over feel a sense of ownership and want their say.
“I’m on Las Olas three times a week,” said Commissioner Robert McKinzie, who lives in northwest Fort Lauderdale. “I walk there, I shop there, I play there, I eat there. … We just took these groups who think this 2-mile stretch of road belongs to them. It belongs to the city.”
Though the picturesque, tree-shaded roadway is a source of pride for the city, it’s also one of the most dangerous. City officials said it’s a high-crash corridor .
Business interests along the boulevard want to pay a consultant to redesign the entire stretch.
“It’s the city’s premier boulevard,” said Commissioner Steve Glassman, “but many people think it needs some help.”