Rush Hour in downtown Fort Lauderdale is one big traffic jam. Drivers complain that it’s only getting worse.
To facilitate Gridlock, Fort Lauderdale is studying controversial proposals to turn Andrews Avenue and third avenue into one-way streets, featuring dedicated bus lanes from Sunrise Boulevard to Southeast 17th Avenue. Northbound traffic could take Andrews, while southbound traffic could take third avenue.
The plan gave double thumbs from residents at a recent public meeting held at Artserve on Sunrise Boulevard.
One hand wasn’t raised when a city-employed traffic engineer asked for a hand show from people supporting the proposal.
“It’s definitely going to be ruined,” Doug Eagon told the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
Eagon, a developer who retired as Vice Chairman of Stiles Corp. six years ago, was one of several people who opposed the idea known as a one-way pair.
One-way is designed to allow cars to enter and exit the downtown area. Many are just blocks separated from each other.
“These one-way pairs were a huge hit in the 1950s,” Egon told the traffic engineer. “And all the cities started to bring them back to the 1990s because it wasn’t worth it.”
Egon claimed that if Fort Lauderdale proceeds with a one-way pair plan, it will damage businesses along these two roads by ruining downtown characters, hindering the pedestrian experience and making it difficult for customers to reach them.
“This is even worse than the bridge as it divides downtown by two main roads three blocks away,” he said. “Cars become a circular mess trying to find their way. How are people going to move? You can rattle down 10 reasons we shouldn’t do that, but I’ll leave it alone.”
How one-way pair ideas emerged
Critics ask why the city spends its time and money studying the concept of one-way pairs.
Fort Lauderdale officials accepted the idea after the city’s fateful Waveway Tram Project was cancelled in May 2018.
The wave was planned on a 2.8-mile tram line with construction costs of over $200 million.
The Downtown Development Authority in Fort Lauderdale came up with the idea more than 20 years ago as a way to promote downtown growth and development. On the other side, critics argued that “trains everywhere” lost money and did little to ease crowds.
The Wave Project eventually became a child of government waste posters.
Although no single truck was laid, the project manager spent at least $33.7 million on federal, state and local tax plans for the railroad line and its overhead power.
Spend your days with Hayes
Subscribe to our free Stephenly newsletter
Columnist Stephanie Hayes shares thoughts, feelings and funny business with you every Monday.
You’re all signed up!
Want more free weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.
Check out all options
After tram plans burned, the Fort Lauderdale business and development community said it was absolutely important to find an alternative soon.
Developer Alan Hooper, then chairman of the Downtown Development Bureau in Fort Lauderdale, warned that traffic would worsen if new hotels, condos and apartment towers rose downtown.
“If we feel that traffic today is a problem, it’s going to be a big problem in the next two or three years,” he said at the time.
That’s where the idea of a one-way pair came into play, Mayor Dean Trantalis said.
“We were looking for an alternative way to provide local, bulk transport solutions without having to dig the streets and having overhead wires to operate the tram,” he said. “This would have allowed us to have a dedicated lane for the Multipathger vehicle, and there will be passenger pickups and drop-offs every 15 minutes.”
Longtime resident Mark Dickerman said he remembers hearing about the tram project after it died.
“I thought they were crazy,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “I think it’s just going to cause more crowds. I didn’t know they were going to remove one lane from the committee (for buses on each street). It makes me even more opposed. That’s a bad idea.”
“I have to do something.”
However, traffic experts say one-way pairs could lead to better traffic flows by adding bike lanes, wider sidewalks and dedicated bus lanes, while reducing the number of traffic signals at intersections.
Greg Stuart, executive director of Broward Metropolitan Planning Organization, is not a fan of the one-way pair, but he thinks it works in this case.
“When the waves were scrubbed, I told Dean about the possibility that it (one-way pair option) could be a solution to downtown traffic,” Stuart said. “I’m not usually a big one-way pair, but in Fort Lauderdale’s downtown, it would alleviate the type of gridlock we’re experiencing now.”
One-way pairs help increase traffic flow and make crossing the street more difficult, Stuart said.
“But we have to do something downtown,” Stuart said. “There’s no land to add traffic lanes. They approved many developments in downtown. You can’t dump 2,000 more cars on roads with two lanes in each direction. The lanes can only handle so much traffic. We have to find a solution.”
In 2018, after the Wave Project was murdered, Fort Lauderdale included a one-way pair project as part of Broward County’s Transportation Surtax referendum initiative.
In 2019, the city allocated $102,500 for the project, and the Downtown Development Authority agreed to provide a $25,000 grant.
In 2020, the project was awarded Transport Saltax Funding in Planning ($195,000), Design ($780,000) and Construction Phase ($5.5 million).
In February 2024, Fort Lauderdale commissioners approved a $319,760 agreement with Kim Lee Horn and his Associates, completing a feasibility study.
A public meeting was held at Holiday Park Social Centre in September 2024. The second event was held at Artserve in February. A third meeting is planned later this year.
“I only had negative feedback,” Deputy Mayor Steve Glassman told the St. Sentinel. “Many cities with one-way pairs are coming back. The track record is not good. I don’t support it and I don’t know why we continue to discuss it.”
“We’re downtown homes.”
In cities across the country, including Louisville, Denver and Austin, one-way streets have been converted into two-way streets to slow down drivers and improve walking. Conversion is also useful for businesses that rely on passbyte racing.
Charlie Ladd, a local developer and board member of the Downtown Development Authority, predicts that one-way pair research will not go anywhere.
“They paid, they did the research, and now the research is on the shelf,” Rudd said.
Many cities are removing one-way streets without adding them, Rudd pointed out.
“That doesn’t make sense,” he said. “If we built 15 new office buildings and brought 15,000 people a day, that might make sense. Now, we’re homes downtown, so it’s about making the streets more walkable. Perhaps one office building and 20 apartment towers have been built over the last 15 years. The office buildings are a big generator for inbound and outbound traffic. People are downtown because we have apartment towers.”
The mayor of Fort Lauderdale says he heard it from many people opposed to the one-way pairing plan.
“It had a lot of pushbacks,” Trantalis said. “I think it’s still a good idea. I still support it, but I don’t think the community will. I thought it was positive, but the community doesn’t support it. So we’re just going to have to move on.”
Stuart, executive director of Broward MPO, argues that cities really need to do something to improve the flow of traffic.
“If you don’t think Dean is worth pursuing, you can’t force it into the city,” Stuart said. “You guys keep making things and people need to avoid them. I don’t usually support one-way pairs, but I think it’s going to improve the functioning of the city in this case. But ultimately, that’s a city call.”
