page_title: Transportation in South Florida
section_title: Parking
hierarchical_section_title: Transportation in South Florida / Road transportation / Automobile dependency / Parking
caption_attribution_description: One thing that struck me while riding the Metromover around downtown Miami was the overabundance of parking. This at least 10-story parking garage sits across the street from Government Center Metrorail and Metromover station, which is one of the largest transit hubs in the city. This is a sad reality. The location is ideal for a transit oriented development with little or no parking that would encourage more people to use the city’s underused rail system. The availability of so much parking capacity, which I saw repeated along the Metromover’s route, creates ample supply that drives down the cost of parking and further erodes the financial incentive of transit (and let’s not kid ourselves, for some people it is a simple math equation) for those who have the choice to drive. This is not an isolated incidence of shortsighted transit- or even pedestrian-oriented planning. The 30-minute trip (according to Google trip planner) I took on Metromover, Metrorail and Metrobus ended up being far less pleasant than it could have been because of a lack of sidewalks between the bus stop and my destination in Coral Gables. In addition, the recent reports of Aaron Cohen, a father, husband and amateur triathalete, being killed while cycling over one of the city’s causeways highlights the issues that face this car oriented metropolitan region. His death sparked a discussion of what cyclists and drivers think of each other on local public radio.
context_page_description: The Greater Miami area, composed of the three counties of Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach, also known collectively as South Florida, is home to a wide variety of public and private transportation systems. These include heavy rail mass transit, commuter rail, automated guideway transit, highways, two major airports and seaports, as well as three county-wide bus networks, which cover the entire urbanized area of South Florida. Census and ridership data show that Miami has the highest public transportation usage of any city in Florida, as about 17% of Miamians use public transportation on a regular basis, compared to about 4% of commuters in the South Florida metropolitan area. The majority of public transportation in Miami is operated by Miami-Dade Transit, which is currently the largest transit system in Florida and was the 14th largest transit system in the United States in 2011.
  South Florida is one of the most densely populated urbanized areas in the United States overall, being bound by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and the South Florida Water Management District and the Everglades to the west, with a fairly strict Urban Development Boundary.
context_section_description: As with many large cities, parking in the Miami area can be expensive and scarce. Nearly all of the public parking in the county is metered, or charged by a daily flat rate, common with parking garages. Nearly all single parking meters in the region have been removed and replaced with master meters that accept both cash and credit card. The Miami Parking Authority operates 11 garages, 86 surface lots, and over 9,100 public parking spaces within the approximately 35 sq mi (91 km²) city of Miami; adding to over 30,000 parking spaces in total. They enforce the streetside and surface lot parking meters and issue parking citations for violations. Due to high demand, a system of congestion pricing similar to highways has been considered for parking facilities in the downtown area.
  Free parking at businesses for their customers is often strictly enforced, with clearly placed tow warning signs for abusing the space to go to other places, or for parking for an excessive length of time, especially in highly trafficked areas such as South Beach. Many businesses have no free parking available, or do for only limited amounts of time. Even suburban plazas and big box stores often have parking security to ensure both patron safety and designated use of parking. In many suburban residential areas, people do not have their own private garages as properties are small due to high land values. A parking pass, even for residents of a high rise residential building, often costs an additional fee over the rent or association dues.
  
  South Florida began its forays into and robotic parking in the 2000s, though the New World Tower, built in 1965, has a mechanical parking garage. Two of these garages have been high-profile failures, even going as far as destroying cars and shutting down, leading to lawsuits and bankruptcies.
  Unlike most other metropolises, underground development, including basements and below grade parking, is very rare in South Florida, even in city centres, due to the low elevation above sea level. Due to the porous geography, the inland water table is often similar to the sea level. Downtown Dadeland, built in 2005 in Dadeland, has two levels of underground parking over 7.5 acres (3.0 hectares), as does the 9-acre (3.6-hectare) Brickell City Centre, which completed major construction in 2016. In the 21st century, there was more pressure for underground parking due to zoning codes such as Miami 21. It requires above-ground garages to be lined with stores and avoid blank walls, aesthetics, pedestrian access, economics, and traffic control, among other things. Despite significantly higher engineering and construction costs, garages with 1.5 or more below grade levels are becoming more common for these reasons. The 2,600 sub-grade car park for Brickell City Centre covers 7 acres (2.8 hectares), and required installation of watertight slurry walls from the site elevation of 7 feet (2.1 m) NGVD to around -20 feet (6.1 m). Jade Signature in Sunny Isles Beach was built in 2014 with three levels of underground parking reaching up to 60 feet (18 m) below sea level right on the Atlantic coastline on barrier island.
caption: A large parking garage run by the Miami Parking Authority in the Government Center area of downtown Miami.
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