Light Rail in Broward County?
When you imagine the built environment in Broward County, and South Florida as a whole, what do you see? Wide arterial roads with an excess of lanes, sprawling suburban sub-developments, and highways as far as the eye can see? Parking lots larger than city blocks and gas stations on every corner? The built landscape you imagine is one centered not around the people that inhabit it, but rather the cars that cover it.
Broward County as a whole, came of age during the government-subsidized era of the automobile, and as such, the built landscape of Broward County and its’ cities are built around the exclusive usage of the personal automobile as a means of transportation. Like many other post-war American metropolitan areas, Broward County prioritized expansive suburban sprawl and wide car-supporting arterials, with mass transit being an after-thought. As a result, population density is comparatively low when compared to other large metropolitan areas in the United States (the Miami metro area, ranked at 4th largest in the country ranks 7th in population density among major metropolitan areas). Additionally, there is a high reliance on cars, as evidenced by sprawling parking lots, 8 or 10 lane arterial roads, and highways seen so often in Broward County. However, the population of Broward County, along with the rest of the Miami metropolitan area is growing at a remarkable rate, with the U.S. Census Bureau estimating a population growth of 11.7% for Broward County from the 2010 Census to 2019 estimates.
With a population boom at hand and little new infrastructural work done in decades, it is clear that a drastic change is needed. Broward County was able to expand outwards continuously and rely on the car for mass transportation in past decades, but as Broward County creeps closer to its hard limits of expansion (the Everglades and Atlantic Ocean to the west and east, and Palm Beach and Miami-Dade Counties to the north and south), this is no longer the case. In order to cope with the ever-growing population of the County, Broward County must build mass transit capable of getting people off the road and onto trains and buses, efficiently, safely, and quickly.
The map within this article, entitled Broward Light Rail, puts forward a possible plan for light rail transit in Broward County, building off existing transit corridors such as SR-7/US-441 and creating new ones such as US-1. This map creates 5 light rail lines, in a grid pattern, whose primary role would consist of connecting residents, who are spread throughout the County, with major employment, retail, and entertainment centers. This map does not seek to act as a rapid streetcar service nor as a high capacity commuter rail service, but rather as a median between the two, in terms of stop distance, line length, frequency, rolling stock capacity, and trip length.
Line 1 would run from Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach to Hillsboro Square in Deerfield Beach serving the US-1 corridor, a corridor running through the densest areas of the County, in both terms of population density and employment centers. As such, the line has the highest densities of stops of all the lines, serving stops such as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, Port Everglades, Downtown Fort Lauderdale, Wilton Manors, as well as frequent stops in the northeast of the County. Line 2, running from West Park in the south to Hillsboro in the north, would serve the existing US-441 transit corridor, serving another economically and population-dense part of the County. Line 3 would run from Miramar Parkway in Miramar following I-75 and the Sawgrass Expressway through to Deerfield Beach, serving as a north-south connector for the western section of the County. Line 4 would also start at Miramar Parkway and follow I-75 and curve off at Markham Park to Broward Blvd, connecting residents in the semi-dense suburban sprawl southeast of the County to the employment and entertainment centers in the southeast of the County, in addition to providing a light rail connection to the Amtrak, Tri-Rail, and Brightline stations in Fort Lauderdale. Line 5 would serve as an east-west connector for the southern section of the County, starting at 196th Ave in Pembroke Pines and terminating at Hollywood Beach, serving the dense Pines Blvd and Hollywood Blvd corridor.
The creation of a comprehensive light rail system in Broward County would give us the once-in-a lifetime opportunity to transform the built landscape of Broward County into one that is sustainable, efficient, and livable. With the introduction of light rail, Broward County would be able to radically transform the way people live and commute, allowing for a much safer transportation experience, and one that allows land use that is more affordable, more equitable, and leads to healthier lifestyles for residents and greater economic development for business.
A light rail system on its own, however, no matter the frequency of light rail vehicles, the shininess of brand new rolling stock, or the grandiosity of big stations, would be ineffective without connecting transit systems to fill in the gap. Without regional rail to fill in the gap of inter-county travel or a system of frequent, convenient buses to satisfy the need of last-mile transit, a grand plan for mass transit would be hard-pressed to get commuters out of their cars and into trains. Overall, grand plans for a countywide mass transit system would be moot without the everyday investment and advocacy required for a great mass transit system. The first step for Broward County to get a world-class mass transit system is not shovels in the ground, but rather the everyday advocacy by everyday citizens for more transit funding and more equitable and sustainable land use.
