At first glance this picture may not excite you. It excites me. I'll tell you why.
This is a brand new traffic light at the corner of SW 200 Street and 137 Avenue. It was sorely needed! It was fully functional sometime in May. There was only one STOP sign there before. The traffic on 200th had the right of way. I felt bad for everyone on 137th avenue trying to join the crowd.
When I first moved to Miami, I lived a little north of the Redlands, where I live now. I used this particular intersection every single day to drive my kids to school and get to work.
I quickly discovered that if you didn't have an extra 20 minutes to spare and had to stop at this intersection, you were going to be late! It was impossible to get onto 200th Street from 137th Avenue during rush hour. They say necessity is the mother of invention. Well, I needed to get where I was going on time and I invented a new route for myself. I had it down to a science. As I approached 200th street if I saw the cars were backed up I would turn before I got there and do a series of turns until I got to 200th street but at another avenue. This required that I go through a residential area. I wasn't the only one doing it. I am sure those homeowners would have preferred the extra traffic stayed off their streets.
Where I used to make the turn onto 200th it got a little "hairy" sometimes to zoom onto the street. I even had a little cartoon car racing sound I made as I made the turn. The kids knew to be quiet when I did this. I needed to focus and make sure I zoomed out there at just the right moment. There was traffic going both ways on 200th and I did not want to become another accident statistic. Nobody should have to do this to get to work on time. I'm glad the powers that be realized this and did something about it. That turning lane wasn't even there back then. It was one lane, one stop sign and every man (and woman) fending for himself!
It's funny, I still use this intersection all the time but not from the avenue. So in essence the addition of the traffic light has slowed me down as I head east on 200th street. It's still a good thing. I'm sure to the commuters trying to get onto the busy 200th street it is a very big and welcome deal.
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