Bike lanes rejected

Re the Nov. 8 article A triumph over traffic?: I was excited to see visionaries finally doing something about the worst problem we share in South Florida: traffic.

Some finally are taking the lead and starting the process of moving Miami into a pedestrian- and bicycle-possible city.

I live in Pinecrest, a city that was recently awarded a million-dollar grant to add bike lanes and sidewalks to our mostly car-only streets. Plans were to start on Southwest 104th Street. The residents made sure the plans were nixed.

They didn’t want a bike path up against their private walls or on “their” swale. They clearly demanded that public spaces be used for their own landscaping and use.

One of their excuses was that it would be unsafe for them to back out of their driveways into bike paths. Unsafe, as if the most unsafe thing outside our homes isn’t the car itself.

There has been and still exists a misguided desire to keep all streets dominated by cars. South Florida needs options to plunging into the nightmare traffic has become. Bike paths and sidewalks are the solutions.

I thank all who are supporting this effort.

This story was originally published November 10, 2015 at 9:17 PM with the headline "Bike lanes rejected."