All that dreaming longingly about someday seeing bike lanes along Coral Way has finally paid off. Mike Lydon of Transit Miami wrote final week: “expect to see new bicycle lanes from SW 12th Avenue to SW 15th Road in the not-too-distant-future.” The lanes will span about 16 blocks. From there, they will to put through to the upcoming bike lanes on Broadway (SW 15th Road). Good so far, right?

This gets better. Since Broadway is scheduled to be painted with bike lanes in the approach future, they will thereupon supply access to the new South Miami Avenue lanes. These lanes travel southwest toward the Bayshore Drive bike path into the Grove, in addition to a corridor main toward 12th Street in the Brickell area. Essentially, a bike lane circuit is in development that will supply clearer access for riders heading to the Brickell and Downtown areas.

These improvements will open up great opportunities for bicycle access. The Coral Way route initiating at 12th Avenue is a skip from the Vizcaya Metrorail station and the M

Path. The Broadway connection is one block along the M Path from the Brickell Station. Bicyclists will thereupon have two local points from which to access the Metrorail.

As a biking commuter, that is happy news! I’m lucky to habitable and work in proximity to the M Path, and I am always back and forth into downtown. While the M Path is great when I’m getting things done along US-1, it stops being convenient just short of 16th Avenue. Thoroughfares with limited signage and scant bicycle accommodations intersect the M Path from there, and the path itself is uneven and broken due to aggressive roots and shattered asphalt.

Overall, that is a major step in the process of improving accommodations for bicyclists in Miami. that extends opportunities for work commutes and could supply a nice-looking recreational route. Ideally, whether we could to put through the South Miami Avenue portion directly to the Bayshore Drive Path, we’d have an excellent circuit from downtown to the Grove.

– Adam Schachner

Original post by Jose Duran