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Mayor’s Message

he weather is finally beginning to cool and the Northeast and Midwest have
received their first blast of Artic temperatures. Soon, we welcome the annual
Tarrival of snowbirds and tourists fleeing the cold.

That, of course, will bring more traffic on our streets. Congestion on our roadways
has been a major issue facing our city. The City Commission recently signed an
agreement that we hope will herald some relief.
We’ve decided to partner directly with the Broward Metropolitan Planning
Organization. This high-level collaboration should allow us to better plan major
projects to relieve congestion, expedite them to completion and better leverage
local, state and federal assistance.

For those who don’t know, the MPO is the regional transportation planning
organization. Fort Lauderdale already has seats at the table on making regional
policy decisions on transportation. However, this partnership takes it to another
level – linking the MPO directly into the city’s transportation planning.
The fact of the matter is that Broward County’s transportation network is extremely
Dean Trantalis complex. Fort Lauderdale’s traffic is heavily influenced by the daytime influx of
Mayor, commuters from the western suburbs. Then, there is our tourist traffic and the traffic
City of Fort Lauderdale
from our own growing population.

Issues that should be simple fixes are not. For instance, everyone favors
synchronizing traffic lights, yet that is under the control of the county government.
Also, most major roads are under the jurisdiction of the county or state.
So, the city is left to lobby as hard as possible for the interests of our residents. As
the city manager has acknowledged, Fort Lauderdale has struggled with balancing
resources, fulfilling priorities, maximizing funding and communicating with other
governments when it comes to transportation.

We believe the MPO deal will bring their expert knowledge to help us find the best
solutions for our city. At the same time, we will not lose the local services of the
city’s Transportation & Mobility Department that neighborhoods expect.
Traffic engineering will be handled by the city. Review of development plans and
parking requirements will also continue to be done by the city. City staff will also
prioritize projects and act as the neighborhood liaison.
Office Contact: Under the agreement, the MPO will dedicate a transportation planner for each
Scott Wyman commission district. Their unique expertise in planning, programming and
Assistant to the Mayor coordination will help ensure our decisions regarding transportation are as effective
Email: swyman@fortlauderdale.gov
Phone: 954.828.5004 and efficient as possible. One example is that they can help us leverage the new
county transportation surtax as much as possible.
We have already seen the creativity of the MPO. When the city canceled the
Wave streetcar project, it was the MPO that suggested creating a transit loop
around downtown with a dedicated lane for rapid-transit vehicles through a one-
way pairing of North Andrews Avenue and Northeast 3rd Avenue.

The MPO arrangement has worked well in other parts of the country, but it is rather
novel locally. We anticipate great results, but we also can back out of the contract
at any time if we find it is not working.

12 The Landings & Bay Colony