Poll: What Miami road or highway has the worst traffic? I-95? Palmetto? Golden Glades?
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What’s the most maddening stretch of road in South Florida?
With so many, it’s just so hard to choose. You will get a chance in the survey below.
▪ Is it the Palmetto Expressway in Doral at rush hour, an “hour” that seems to run all the time?
▪ Is it the stretch of I-95 from Ives Dairy Road to downtown Miami, where even the express lanes seem to be standing still for a morning peak toll price of 9 bucks?
▪ Perhaps it’s State Road 836 in West Miami-Dade or in the eastern construction corridor between the airport and downtown.
▪ Maybe your gridlock nightmares are on city streets like West 49th in Hialeah or U.S. 1 in Aventura. Or perhaps it’s West Flagler Street at school dismissal and early afternoon rush that has you gripping the steering wheel tight.
What about the Golden Glades and other choke points?
Or is the winner in the traffic frustration sweepstakes the Golden Glades Interchange, a root of all gridlock in all directions? The Golden Glades is known as the spaghetti bowl in North Miami-Dade, where I-95, Florida’s Turnpike, U.S. 441 and State Road 826 converge in one clump of immobility.
Oh, and let’s not forget road construction through South Florida, turning our routes into an obstacle course of traffic barrels and nightly lane shutdowns.
Wherever the clog in the artery, it comes down to this: No matter how much road-widening, the lanes just can’t keep up with the number of cars. Among the reasons:
▪ School is back in session.
▪ More people are commuting again.
▪ Gleaming new buildings are all filled with drivers.
▪ More package and food delivery and ride shares.
▪ Add in all the newcomers to South Florida as well as the region’s status as a tourist and nightlife destination. Then throw in some rain on the asphalt or a crash or a break-down.
And these backups aren’t just during rush hour. South Florida runs 24/7, with its tourist and healthcare economies humming around the clock.
There you have it: gridlock every which way.
It makes a 15-minute trip turn into an hour, like getting from the Golden Glades to downtown Miami, or 45 minutes to from the eastern end of Doral to Florida’s Turnpike.
Mass transit?
That can be slow or just not as convenient as you need. It takes two buses and two hours, for instance, to get from South Beach to the Miami airport area business district. And trains can only take you so close to your destination without having to hop into a ride-share for a slow-motion last leg.
And it’s not just you.
READ MORE: You’re not wrong, Miami: Study says we have some of the worst traffic in the world
Why Miami is among the most traffic-choked places in world
A report released earlier this year ranks Greater Miami one of the worst metro area for traffic in the country and world.
Just think of all that lost work productivity and personal time.
“One of the big drivers is people going back to work” after the pandemic, said Bob Pishue, who wrote the report for INRIX.
“It’s a global phenomenon,” he said. “We’re starting to see telecommuting decrease and hybrid work increase. Even full-time telecommuters in 2021 were back to the office in some capacity this year, though it differs from area to area and industry to industry.”
Let us know your worst traffic spot
We want to know the stretch of road or highway that ties you in knots. Let us know in the survey below. It’s not scientific, but it might give an idea of our biggest choke points in South Florida. If you can’t see it, turn off your ad blocker.
The survey
This story was originally published September 27, 2023 at 9:39 AM.
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