The City of Miami Beach is Pressuring FDOT to Beef Up the Bike Lanes on the Julia Tuttle & MacArthur Causeways

August 2, 2016

Photo of the Julia Tuttle Causeway taken by Sean McCaughan a few years ago.

The City of Miami Beach is urging the Florida Department of Transportation to beef up the bicycle lanes on the Julia Tuttle and MacArthur Causeways before construction work resumes on the only causeway reasonably safe to bicycle across now, the Venetian. At a commission meeting on the 13th of last month they urged FDOT to paint green bicycle lanes along the entire  length of the MacArthur and put the Tuttle’s bike lanes behind protective barriers. The response so far hasn’t been very positive though.

According to City Transportation Director Jose Gonzalez, who recently met with FDOT, he basically got a lot of flack from the department about how little could be done in the short term even though FDOT does have a long term bike lane project planned for the Tuttle (and just the Tuttle). The response from commissioners was a unanimous vote to continue urging FDOT on this, as they attempted to avoid a repeat of the very limited bicycle connectivity situation that happened the last time work was underway on the Venetian.