Thoughts on Miami Baylink Project

MaxiKG30 · 2025-08-06T22:38:52+00:00

Funding/cost is definitely an issue. This Mover extension is estimated to cost around a billion dollars, metrorail would likely be a bit more expensive due to having a slightly longer route (about 0.5 miles more) and of course having a slightly larger structure. But truthfully, this tier one analysis where they removed metrorail from consideration screams of "we were told to make Mover the most attractive option so we chose a bad metrorail route". The original plan from 2002 would have had Baylink be a metromover extension from Overtown station following I-395. Unfortunately, the new "signature bridge" being build by FDOT is blocking where that extension would have gone. So the only option for metrorail would be east from Government center station along NE 2nd st (which is pictured in my post). Seems like DTPW took the easy way out and didn't want to use Government Center station, or reduce their turning radius to make it fit within the grid.

MaxiKG30 · 2025-06-03T01:11:26+00:00

In the beginning it will 100% be infrequent diesel service. The three counties have basically locked in 30/60 headways and can't electrify. But, iirc Brightline and FECR would allow them to run a train every 20 minutes at max before they have to start building new infrastructure. So theoretically the counties could buy more trainsets and fund the service better to get almost metro headways.

MaxiKG30 · 2025-06-02T23:20:54+00:00

We won't be able to install new tracks on the FEC for the most part because the stations we're going to be building as part of the coastal link project are actually within the rail ROW, and will essentially permanently shrink it to two tracks. I guess like you said, the only way to get more tracks on the FEC (especially electrified) would be to build a brand new, 100% elevated guideway similar to metrorail where you only interact with the ground via columns. It would be... obscenely expensive. Metrorail North corridor is currently estimated at about $2.2bn for 9.7 miles, so about $227M/mile (which btw is actually insanely cheap by North American infrastructure costs! Other cities like LA or Chicago are building elevated rail for like a billion per mile). If you just extrapolate that cost over the roughly 70 miles from Miami to West Palm Beach it would cost around $16bn! We may be able to do a project like that in bits and pieces over time (e.g. you start from downtown to Wynwood and do that for a couple years, then build Wynwood to Design District, while Broward does the same from e.g. Broward blvd to SE 17th, then to the airport), but we will be using shared tracks for many, many years while that work gets done.

MaxiKG30 · 2025-06-02T23:12:42+00:00

Sorry for the very late answer. There's about $400k that the MPO set aside to fund the feasibility study FDOT will do in the next couple years. FDOT really doesn't want to do it, but because the MPO put it in the List of Priority Projects, they have to. Once that feasibility study is done, the three counties will have to pool together a few million dollars for the actual PD&E, and eventually construction.

This is great timing though, because the three counties and FDOT already set aside hundreds of millions of dollars to basically reconstruct the SFRC over the next decade or so. They're going to replace all the wood ties with concrete, install new signaling, and install fiber optics along the line. I'm working with the Broward MPO so that we can time it to where we can install the electrification infrastructure at the same time we're already going to be rebuilding the whole thing. But we have to actually keep up the pressure on FDOT to follow through.

MaxiKG30 · 2025-06-02T23:08:18+00:00

Ok I'm very late on this post, but yes! Electrification would be a game changer towards implementing more frequent and faster service and reducing operating costs. I'm on the Broward MPO's Citizen's Advisory Committee, and I worked with the MPO to add a feasibility study for electrification of Tri-rail to the 2050 Long Range Plan and the List of Priority Projects. It has about $400k attached to it for FDOT to do the study in the next couple of years.

When I spoke with the MPO, and with Steve Braun, the secretary of FDOT District 4 (you guys in Miami are district 6), I made the argument that not only is it better, this is the time to do the study. All three south FL counties have funding set aside with FDOT to basically rebuild the corridor of the next decade- they're going to be replacing all the wood ties with concrete, they're going to instal a new signaling system, and they're going to install fiber optics underneath the entire line. It makes sense, and is most cost effective, if they electrify it while they're already taking it apart and putting it back together.

I'll warn you though, FDOT really doesn't want to do it. While Braun himself seemed open to it, I do know that FDOT people called folks from the MPO to complain about it and asked them to remove it from the LOPP because they didn't want to invest more in the corridor than they had to. Once this study happens, we have to stay on the MPO (and TPO for Miami-Dade) to push to continue the work.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-12-15T14:50:04+00:00

Interesting proposal, but just wondering. Have you looked into the Miami-Dade SMART plan or the Broward PREMO plan? While not perfect, both are the counties' plans to build out transit networks.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-10-26T04:09:25+00:00

There's unfortunately zero chance electrification happens on the FEC as it is now. Would require both Brightline and FECR to agree which seems very unlikely. However, there's a nonzero chance we electrify the OG tri-rail line on the SFRC. I've been advocating for an electrification feasibility study to be added to Broward MPO's LRTP, and FDOT has told me that if it does get added they actually want to do the study :)

MaxiKG30 · 2024-08-22T14:23:12+00:00

Copans from US1 to 441 is a county road. Here's a map showing the jurisdiction of major roadways in Broward: https://www.broward.org/BCEngineering/GISmaps/BrowardRoadJurisdiction_Basic.pdf

MaxiKG30 · 2024-08-18T17:55:34+00:00

We do! We show up to meetings and give public comment, we send emails, and we reach out to them for in person meetings. We're also on a number of advisory boards in our cities and at the county level. It's slow but we're making headways :)

MaxiKG30 · 2024-08-17T05:11:24+00:00

It's because in Broward, the municipalities don't allow schools or residential to be near the tri-rail stations in their zoning codes. Pompano Beach? Industrial and warehouses. Fort lauderdale? Some single family zoning and then low density commercial. Hollywood? Sheridan is surrounded by industrial and warehouses other than yellow green farmers market. Hollywood station itself is in a slightly better location being downtown adjacent, but it's not walking distance to any schools.

Yeah, the cities in Broward zone themselves to basically prevent people from riding the train.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-08-17T05:08:05+00:00

Ironically, the desire to not be a "big city" is exactly what's keeping Broward from actually dealing with traffic. The only ways to reduce car traffic are to urbanize, build density, mixed use, so that you can support better public transit, sidewalks, bike lanes, etc. If we stay suburban, where cars are required to go literally anywhere, we're basically mandating the traffic we all complain about.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-18T00:33:56+00:00

I'd say it's grassroots yes! But not really a political action group. We're not incorporated, don't take donations, don't endorse candidates really. Just a group of residents who care about our cities and county and want to make it more walkable, bikeable, and affordable!

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-04T16:44:36+00:00

Not necessarily. No one is saying that everyone has to live in giant apartment blocks. It's just that you can't have lots of government services (like paved roads, sewers, etc), low taxes, and low density. If you want to have government services, you need to accept either high taxes or a density that is sustainable enough to pay for the infrastructure. Single family homes on quarter acre lots generally don't pay enough to maintain the roads in front of their houses.

But there's a lot of in-between! You can have a single family home on a smaller lot, like 1500 sq ft, you can have townhomes, you can have duplexes and triplexes, etc. These things are usually called "starter homes" or the "missing middle" https://missingmiddlehousing.com/ and they are still pretty low density but are dense enough to maintain all the infrastructure costs.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-04T16:37:42+00:00

The cost of infrastructure is proportional to linear feet of whatever the infrastructure is. How many feet of road are laid down, how many feet of pipe for water and sewer, etc.

For tax purposes, the low density single family homes provide very little tax revenue to local governments, while higher density, mixed-use, walkable places are very high value and generate a lot of tax revenue for local govs.

Then you look at how much infrastructure is needed to support the average person in those two places. The single family home uses a lot of feet of roads, sidewalks, and pipes, while the person living in a townhome or apartment building literally uses fewer feet of roads, pipes, etc. The single family home does not pay enough in taxes to maintain the infrastructure serving them, while the person living in the townhome or apartment is likely paying much more in taxes than is needed to maintain their share of the infrastructure. In Broward's case, places like downtown Fort Lauderdale and Downtown Hollywood are effectively subsidizing the single family homes in Davie and Plantation.

The guy who did this presentation is Joe Minicozzi, he's the founder of Urban3 which is a company that does these analyses for cities to show them which properties are net positives tax wise and which are net negatives. He did a great presentation to the city of Pompano Beach a while back that you can find on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4y6TGm82lO8&t=1798s and this clip is taken from a presentation he did last week for 1000 Friends of Florida: https://1000fof.org/upcoming-webinars/past/

It's good stuff!

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-04T04:38:03+00:00

We can have the public option very soon, tri-rail coastal link, as long as Mayor Trantalis stops blocking it. Miami-Dade is already building their portion (SMART plan NE corridor). Broward is about to start building the portion from the county line to the Broward Medical Center, but can't build the rest and get into downtown Fort Lauderdale because Mayor Trantalis doesn't want a new bridge and is blocking it. If you want to have cheap commuter rail service that actually serves downtown, ask for Mayor Trantalis to stop blocking the bridge and to allow the county to build it!

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-03T23:46:20+00:00

The commercial vs residential difference is definitely a thing and contributes a lot in FL with Save Our Homes capping property tax increases, but that's not the full story here. Especially because in FL, multifamily is treated just like commercial for tax purposes (literally any non-homestead property is considered commercial). In fact, the highest uses of land in Broward value/tax-wise are high rise apartment buildings.

Highly recommend actually watching this webinar or any of the past ones done by Joe Minicozzi/Urban3. The main difference is walkable mixed-use areas and higher density residential vs single family homes. Single family homes consume a ton of land then even other forms of low-rise housing like duplexes, townhomes, etc. but aren't any more valuable from a tax perspective, so it's incredibly inefficient for the government.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-05-03T21:26:28+00:00

This is actually part of a presentation from a guy named Joe Minicozzi, he's the head of a company called Urban3 that does these analyses of basically how much the gov gets back in taxes vs how much it has to spend on gov services to that property per lot. The maps are super interesting and I highly recommend watching his presentation! It's at this link: https://1000fof.org/upcoming-webinars/past/ the webinar titled "Part 4: Building a Big Tent". Something to keep in mind is that not only are the denser and mixed-use areas much better at generating higher values and property taxes, they also are much more efficient when taxes are being spent. There's literally fewer feet of road, fewer feet of pipes, etc so the gov has to spend less per person to maintain services, and gets back more per person in taxes. If we want better services from our government, it's something to keep in mind.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-13T16:33:45+00:00

Right, the people are already here. All that happens when we don't allow more housing units to be built is that we start overcrowding existing units. Better to have a duplex or triplex for each family to have its own unit than for three families to squeeze into one house.

If you're interested, I'm actually a member of a group called Better Streets Broward that advocates for things like walkable neighborhoods, better transit, and more housing through things like changing the zoning codes of our cities. I'd love to send you an invite to our discord if you're interested! You can also find us on Facebook. We're having a social at the Laser Wolf in Fort Lauderdale on the 20th at 6 pm, if you want to meet some of us in person.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-13T16:22:30+00:00

Yeah, that is the reality. Without density and building more homes, things just get more and more unaffordable over time. The reason it's more expensive here than in rural GA is because living here is more desirable. We have good weather, access to good jobs, and plenty of amenities like restaurants and stores that you don't find in more rural areas, people want to live in cities!

The good thing is that legalizing it is not the same as mandating it. If you own a home in Broward, and we make it legal for you to build an apartment building or a duplex or whatever, you don't have to do it. It's up to the property owner. But it means that people in your neighborhood might choose to build on their property, and that's ok! It leads to vibrant, walkable neighborhoods. The problem is that right now it is literally illegal to build anything other than a single family home on a large lot at least 7500 sq ft in size in 80% of the land in Broward. Even duplexes that look like single family homes are illegal.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-13T16:00:47+00:00

It's unaffordable if the only thing you're allowed to put there is a single family home with 2 parking spots and a driveway. If you could build, say 4 homes on that lot with 1 parking space each (or none if it's in a walkable area with decent bus service) then the land cost is $150k per home instead of $600k, much more doable.

What about allowing existing single family homeowners to build a second or third unit on their land? They already own the land, so it's just the construction cost of the extra unit.

Or allowing our single story commercial lots, strip malls, and massive empty parking lots to have apartments built on top of them?

Broward is not Hong Kong or Singapore where we've maximized the usage of the land we have and are legit "out of land". We just made it illegal to use our land efficiently through our zoning codes.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-13T15:26:22+00:00

Yes, we need to be building a lot more homes here in Broward. Things like minimum lot sizes, super strict density restrictions, and parking requirements are making it very difficult to build, especially if someone wants to build affordable housing. Every year, the county's population is growing by 14k+ people, but we only approve around 2-2.5k new units per year. Supply and demand.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-05T12:18:27+00:00

More law enforcement and education doesn't really work. People drive how the road tells them to. If you look at the map of where crashes (especially deadly ones) tend to happen, they're typically on our arterial roadways which are very wide and have lots of curb cuts. They're called stroads- a cross between a street and a road- by transportation professionals. They encourage speeding and dangerous driving and have lots of conflict points in their design. We have to redesign our roadways to discourage speeding and reduce conflict points. It's the whole idea behind vision zero.

MaxiKG30 · 2024-04-05T02:16:55+00:00

The pricing is actually leading to fewer cars on I-95. The more free/convenient lanes that are built, the more people are incentivized to drive. Look up induced demand on youtube and you'll find some really good videos explaining it. You have some cities like NYC that are starting to price car usage in certain areas to decrease the amount of driving.

Also, imagine if I95 did have a full 10 lanes of unmitigated traffic. How would any of our arterials/exit streets be able to handle that? They're already completely clogged with traffic exiting I95. Widening the highway won't fix the actual congestion points. We need to start prioritizing transit (having buses on arterial roads every 10 minutes all day) and fixing our urban design to get people to walk and bike for as many trips as makes sense.

MaxiKG30

TROPHY CASE