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Transit plans stalled to ease traffic flow to new Miami Marlins ballpark

 

The status of two key transit options to help fans get to the Miami Marlins’ Little Havana ballpark is still uncertain

crabin@MiamiHerald.com

Hoping to attend games at the new Miami Marlins stadium in Little Havana, but would rather not drive to avoid traffic logjams? Good luck — your options could be slim.

Just three months before the $634 million, publicly funded stadium’s April 4 opening, city and Miami-Dade County officials have secured none of several promised transit improvements.

Those range from new city trolleys to Metrobus shuttles from nearby Metrorail stations, as well as designated pedestrian and bicycle routes to the ballpark.

After more than a year of meetings between city and county officials and a transportation planner working for the Marlins, the transit blueprint remains little more than a wish list, hampered by lack of funding and the Marlins’ apparent unwillingness to help pay for improvements.

There is one bright spot: The city commission last week approved a $20 million rubber-tire trolley system that will serve the ballpark, although it will have no direct routes from downtown, where many fans are expected to come from.

But implementation of the city’s trolley plan is being held up by the county commission’s transportation committee. Its chairman, Commissioner Bruno Barreiro, opposes the free trolley system because he believes it would “steal’’ passengers from the downtown People Mover system.

A $234,500 federal grant that would pay for Metrobus shuttles from the Culmer Metrorail station, meanwhile, has been delayed by procedural glitches. And city and county planners say there are no planned improvements for pedestrians or cyclists linked to the stadium, even though the new parking garages have racks for 250 bikes.

The transit element is critical, and not only for those wishing to avoid driving and parking.

A study commissioned by the Marlins that concluded surrounding roadways and available parking were adequate to serve the 37,000-seat stadium without producing serious traffic bottlenecks was premised on a significant percentage of fans — 10 percent — arriving on foot, by transit or by bike, minutes of the transportation-planning meetings show.

That assumes, as the Marlins do, that the stadium will sell out for most games.

Moreover, with the 5,700 spaces in the four new city-built parking garages at the ballpark reserved for season-ticket holders, that means casual fans driving to games will have to find parking in the surrounding streets or — as they did in the days of the Orange Bowl, which the Marlins stadium replaced — in residents’ yards and driveways.

Marlins executive Claude Delorme did not return several messages requesting comment.

Some transportation officials are sanguine, noting that the Orange Bowl held 80,000 seats, more than double the Marlins stadium capacity, without major traffic issues.

Charles Scurr, executive director of the Citizens Independent Transportation Trust, which oversees spending of transportation sales tax revenue, said baseball fans usually stagger in to games over several innings, diluting traffic impact.

“Given the nature of baseball as a sport, I don’t think there will be major transportation issues,” he said.

To be sure, there are also several regular Metrobus routes with stops within easy walking distance of the ballpark, including routes coming directly from downtown on Flagler Street.

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