2 min read March 2023 — Invest: Miami spoke with Aileen Bouclé, executive director of the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization (TPO), about the region’s funding wins and its appetite for innovation to transform the region’s transportation system, with an emphasis on mobility and access. “We all agree that technology expands mobility options,” she said.
What have been your key takeaways over the past year?
2022 was a critical year as we transitioned the Strategic Miami Area Rapid Transit (SMART) Plan to the SMART Program and implementation phase. Another key highlight is that SMART versions 2.0 and 3.0 are being advanced into Miami-Dade’s 2050 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP), which is dubbed SMART MAP (Mobility, Accessibility, and Prosperity) 2050. In this plan, we project and model the future transportation needs of the county. Miami-Dade TPO is also leading the Miami Urbanized Area in the development of the 2050 Regional Transportation Plan, in collaboration with Broward MPO and Palm Beach TPA. Our role is the technical and administrative lead in the development of the regional plan.
How is TPO innovating approaches to mobility and transit access?
The Miami-Dade TPO Governing Board was directed to lead a delegation of elected officials, private sector business, and community partners to conduct a peer exchange with European counterparts for urban air mobility. Miami-Dade TPO is positioning the region as a leader in Florida, focused on advances in the investment, development, and rollout of this technology in our transportation network. We are always seeking to integrate new technology into existing infrastructure in order to re-utilize infrastructure that has already been invested by the taxpayers. We want our roads to be smarter and more efficient.
The Miami-Dade TPO Urban Mobility Task Force & Non-Urban Core Task Forces were created to focus on addressing bicycle and pedestrian mobility challenges in Miami-Dade County. As a result, the SMART STEP (Street Transportation Enhancements Program) was created to facilitate interagency coordination, innovation, and accelerated implementation of pedestrian and bicycle improvement projects that increase connectivity and enhance safety. The Miami-Dade TPO is working collaboratively with the Miami-Dade County Department of Transportation and Public Works (DTPW), Florida Department of Transportation District Six (FDOT D6), Miami-Dade County Parks, Recreation and Open Spaces (PROS), and municipalities to implement these SMART STEP projects countywide.
One SMART STEP project focused on collaborating with the Miami-Dade County DTPW to increase resources for the visually and hearing impaired. The enhancements include the installation of the Polar Ped App to assist those who are visually and hearing impaired safely navigate through the intersection. Another project opened a pedestrian gate to a new trail path within Amelia Earhart Park for an adjacent senior housing community. Finally, another project showcased is a scramble (five-legged) pedestrian crosswalk so pedestrians can cross safely in a high traffic intersection, including diagonally, with more space and flexibility.
What is your assessment of the challenges facing Miami-Dade transportation?
This is an environment with multiple stakeholders, municipalities, counties, state, and federal entities so it can be tricky to find total consensus all the time. But if everyone is committed to solving the problem, even if there are different ideas for the solutions, we still agree on the need to expand mobility in Miami-Dade in all its forms. We all agree that technology expands mobility options.
Miami-Dade TPO is committed to the fact that the County’s infrastructure needs to be ready for population growth and new technologies, so we are choosing to plan accordingly. A key legislation that occurred this year is that TPO led an effort to modify planning to provide more growth approaches to these transit-invested corridors so we can align residential needs, from affordable workforce housing to single family dwellings, in what we call transit-oriented communities. This integrates not just all levels of residential density but also the livable community aspects, such as trails, parks and special needs transportation.
What are the projects you are most excited about moving forward?
The Miami-Dade TPO Governing Board produces an annual list of Miami-Dade’s transportation funding needs and we always prioritize the SMART Program on top of the list. We are thrilled to have been awarded funding for the SMART Northeast Corridor, which is a huge win. That is the parallel corridor to I-95 that constitutes a regional project because rail service is provided regionally, including Broward and Palm Beach counties. We have very strong regional transportation demand and have received state funds to develop this corridor. We are also excited about the funding for the reconstruction of the Golden Glades Interchange and Multimodal Transportation Facility (GGMTF) that will increase the safety and capacity of our transportation network at what is arguably one of the highest demand interchanges in the state of Florida. These are game-changing projects for Miami-Dade County and the region.
For more information, visit:
