Interstate 95 stretches from the Canadian border to US1 in Miami. The highway has a history of toll collections at various intervals that eventually changed over time. Now the anticipated, but perhaps unwelcome, beginning of toll collection in Miami-Dade begins that is supposed to "manage" and improve the transit between Miami and the Golden Glades interchange, one of the most congested spots on I-95.
The tolls will vary according to time of day,traffic flow, and, according to this report, vehicle type:
To make that happen, tolls will vary: $2.50 or more when traffic in the regular lanes is crawling during rush hours, and as low as 25 cents when few cars are on the highway. The express lanes will be free for motorcyclists, registered car-poolers and owners of hybrid vehicles.Electronic equipment will monitor conditions, and adjust prices every few minutes if necessary. Big overhead signs will let drivers know what the toll is before they enter the express lanes.
Be aware that the Florida Highway Patrol will be out in force "like a SWAT team," to assess and respond to problems on the newly-configured roadway that carries 226,000 to 280,000 vehicles on a typical weekday.
This is how the lane configuration is changed:
To create a consistent sixth lane throughout the corridor, most of the original queues were narrowed from 12 feet to 11 feet. The rest of the space was shaved from the right shoulder and center median, leaving less space for breakdowns and places for police to pull over speeders and scofflaws.Plastic candlesticks were erected to separate the two express toll lanes on the left from the four free local lanes on the right. That barrier -- and the inability to dodge in and out of the express area -- has commuters like Miami native Michael Svaldi concerned about accidents leading to traffic jams.
I know from personal experience how slow and frustrating traffic can be. This is part of the planned fix:
FHP will be adding two troopers and a supervisor between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., their salaries subsidized by tolls. The state will underwrite more troopers in January or February -- when the northbound on-ramp signals are finally illuminated between NW 62nd Street and the Golden Glades.A private contractor will be monitoring closed-circuit cameras on the I-95 corridor in Miami-Dade to better coordinate response to breakdowns and accidents by troopers and Road Rangers, said Javier Rodriguez, who manages the SunGuide traffic management center in Doral.
A new flatbed tow truck that has been added to the Road Ranger fleet will be stationed near the State Road 112 toll plaza so it can zip directly into the express lanes.
Santangelo said express lane drivers who need assistance should move their vehicles as close to the center wall as possible, dial the FHP -- *3-4-7 -- and wait inside.
The flatbed will haul most disabled vehicles to a designated staging area at the Golden Glades park-and-ride lot where drivers can contact a private tow or the American Automobile Association for further assistance.
The state is also adding another heavy-duty truck with a big new acronym equipped with basic tools, high-intensity lighting, cones, replacement candlesticks and some of the ''kitty litter'' used to mop up small spills. Modeled on a similar program that has had some success in Broward since 2004, this new Incident Response Vehicle or IRV will be available between noon and 8 p.m. weekdays.
In the event of a major accident, the IRV operator will cut out enough candlesticks and then set up cones to get all trapped vehicles out of the area while firefighters and paramedics respond, said Rory Santana, a DOT traffic operations supervisor.
Other vehicles will be dispatched to physically block off the entry points to the toll area until the major incident is cleared. Firefighters and paramedics have been trained to drive directly over the candlesticks. The IRV operator will replace them before the toll area reopens.
''People need to heed the signs, especially when it says the toll area is closed,'' said Charlie Robbins, a private contractor who oversees the staff assigned to monitor the I-95 cameras and the new response vehicle.
``We don't want a minor fender-bender turning into a major incident because somebody isn't paying attention and the responders can't safely do their jobs.''
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Eleanor: You are probably wondering why I would post about traffic problems in South Florida.
Miami is a major destination for tourists and business interests. All care about rapid and safe transit that is increasingly slow and frustrating.
We avoid driving to Miami during rush hour. You are likely to encounter bumper-to-bumper traffic and road rage. It's best to avoid cutting off or challenging tired, disgruntled, and VOLATILE motorists.
UPDATE: Fred Grimm, Miami Herald, Drivers won't need their "blow-up" dolls or their cardboard cutouts which were used to provide a "body" in the passenger seat so that they could use the fast lane on I-95. Now they will only need a transponder for toll payment:
The region's collection of life-sized dolls will be relegated to some subsidiary purpose. And no small piece of South Florida's cultural history will vanish.
For years, commuters too socially inept to find companionship for the carpool lanes faked it...
Over the years, in a strong indication that carpool lanes weren't working out so well, police in South Florida and other traffic-clogged regions found commuters cheating their way into the fast lane with all kinds of ersatz passengers. Drivers were accompanied by life-sized cardboard cut-outs of famous movie characters (as if a state trooper wouldn't think twice about Han Solo ($29.95) riding shotgun down I-95 in a 1988 Civic), by faceless store mannequins, by wigs strapped onto passenger-seat head restraints, by baby dolls in infant seats, even by balloons decorated with face drawings.
Troopers reported that pregnant women would argue that they should be counted as both driver and passenger. In Miami, police said a funeral home worker claimed a body in back should have qualified his hearse as a high occupancy vehicle.
In 2005, a 28-year-old driver was nabbed in an HOV lane with a kickboxing dummy dressed in a Miami Dolphins wind breaker and a baseball cap. It might have worked in South Florida. Unhappily, he was nabbed in San Rafael, Calif.
In the 1990s, the undisputed favorite among fake passengers was Safe-T-Man, a very life-like fellow sold ostensibly as a deterrent to car jacking: ''Now you can have the security of a companion when you are alone in the car.'' Of course, the real purpose of Safe-T-Man was to enable HOV lane scofflaws.
Safe-T-Man ($119.95 plus another $19.95 if you wanted legs) became such a celebrity that in 1994 The Miami Herald's own celebrity reporter Lydia Martin took him on a jaunt around town. Martin got right to the point. ``Our first outing was the carpool lane on I-95.''
The proliferation of Safe-T-Men and blow-up dolls was the canary in the transportation bureaucracy's coal mine. Civic-minded citizens were not filling up their cars with passengers and taking to the HOV lanes. Not with real passengers. Among highway commuters, only 12 percent (and falling) carpooled.
But maybe SunPass transponders will finally supplant the dummies (the ones on the passenger side).
Meanwhile, an original Safe-T-Man now brings a nice sum on eBay. Perhaps there will be life after the fast lane for that lovely girl from Aspen.
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