Fort Lauderdale residents: Traffic needs to be fixed
Satisfaction drops to lowest point, according to survey
FORT LAUDERDALE – Fort Lauderdale residents have never been this aggravated with traffic, the city's latest survey showed.
But city commissioners Tuesday said they’re not ready to make an aggressive move to take over the traffic signal system in Fort Lauderdale. Instead, they’ll rest their hopes on Broward County, which passed a sales tax increase in November to ease congestion. Among the county’s promises: more work tinkering with the timing of traffic lights, so drivers aren’t fuming as they hit red light after red light.
Roadways in Fort Lauderdale are swelling with traffic, as unprecedented high-rise development continues.
And the communal road rage is growing. Satisfaction with the flow of
traffic in Fort Lauderdale dropped to it lowest point in the survey released last May. Residents also pegged traffic as the top issue Fort Lauderdale leaders should fix.
The unhappiness is beyond the norm. Satisfaction in Fort Lauderdale traffic flow is below the U.S. average, according to ETC Institute, which conducted the survey.
In 2012, 39 percent of those surveyed in Fort Lauderdale said they were pretty satisfied with the overall flow of traffic. The percentage of those satisfied plunged to 20 percent by 2016, and fell still further to a mere 15 percent in the survey released last year.
The survey was of 744 people, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.6 percent.
By comparison, more than 70 percent of those surveyed were very satisfied with police and fire services, a trend that held steady over the years.
That kind of unhappiness should be addressed, the city decided last year, hiring Kittelson & Associates, a traffic consultant. Kevin Lee, associate engineer with Kittelson, told commissioners Tuesday that they could try to get more involved in the traffic synchronization. But the price tag wasn’t within the city’s reach, officials said.
“It’s beyond our capabilities,” Mayor Dean Trantalis said after hearing the multimillion-dollar cost of operating the signals. “We’re in no position to fund millions of dollars a year for this.”
To fully take over the 280 traffic signals in the city would cost from $20 million to $60 million, Lee said. Taking limited control would cost $1 million to $3 million, he said.
City Manager Chris Lagerbloom said circumstances have changed since the survey came out. Now that voters approved the transportation tax, the county will have $15.6 billion to ease congestion, commissioners said. On January 1, the sales tax in Broward increased from 6 cents to 7 cents on the dollar.
The city is not part of the county’s signal synchronization process, city engineering design manager Christine Fanchi said. But it could be.
Lagerbloom said the city would try to get involved, possibly placing a city employee at the county’s signal center.
“We’ve started to work together very well on many things,” Lagerbloom said of the city and county. “Let me take a stab at it before we sound the alarm.”
In other action, Fort Lauderdale commissioners Tuesday:
■ WAR MEMORIAL: Declared the city’s intent to lease War Memorial Auditorium at 800 NE 8th St. to a social purpose corporation of the Florida
Panthers, for renovation into youth sports fields. The city would allow the Panthers entity to build ice rinks on an adjacent property. The vote on the lease will take place April 16. The live concert company AEG Presents objected to the lack of a competitive process, saying it is interested in renovating and operating the auditorium as well. The city kicked out Florida Gun Shows last year.
■ CLIMATE: Met with the sustainability advisory board and discussed ideas including public beekeeping at a city park, promoting home vegetable gardens, requiring businesses to recycle, and treating asphalt so it doesn’t absorb and emit as much heat, among other things.
■ BRIDGE: Informally reiterated opposition to a Florida Department of Transportation proposal to build a pedestrian walkway over the New River downtown. The state alerted commissioners Tuesday that they will hold a community meeting about it on March 14. The city announced its opposition in June.*
■ RAISES: Considered but not act on a proposal to give raises to former employees drawing city pensions, who haven’t had a cost of living raise in nearly 20 years.
■ SPRING BREAK AND SCOOTERS: Gave final approval to a law allowing the city manager to impose restrictions at the beach during high impact events. The new version of the law adds electric scooters and other dockless mobility devices to the law. Lagerbloom said he intends to ban e-scooters from the beach during Spring Break. The ban will last an estimated six weeks starting March 2, and will cover the barrier island, from Southeast 17th Street to Northeast 42nd Court.
■ REZONE: Gave final approval to a rezoning on Sistrunk Boulevard, at Northwest 9th Avenue, so that an indoor-outdoor gym and mixed use redevelopment can be built at 909 NW 6th St. by The Fuse Group.
■ BEACH DEVELOPMENT: Approved an 11-story, 21-unit residential development by Dev Motwani at 530 N. Birch Road.
■ WAVE: Voted 4-1 to terminate agreements with the Downtown Development Authority related to the now defunct plan for the Wave Streetcar rail system downtown. City attorney Alain Boileau said the move was necessary in order to process refunds of a special assessment some property owners paid. Commissioner Robert McKinzie, who supported the Wave system, voted no.
■ BUDGET: Agreed to hold the 2019-20 budget hearings on Sept. 3 and Sept 12.