By Coral Gables Gazette staff
On Miracle Mile and throughout the Central Business District, Uber Eats, DoorDash, Grubhub and other delivery services are increasingly picking up orders for hungry Gables residents. They’re also increasingly blocking traffic.
Farther south, where LeJeune Road turns into Old Cutler Road, enormous Uber and Lyft SUVs—mostly black, mostly idle—often occupy nearly every limited parking space around Cartagena Plaza, better known as Cocoplum Circle, for much of the day.
Rideshare services, whether for food delivery or transporting passengers, provide undeniable convenience to Coral Gables residents. They’re here to stay. And while they can help reduce overall congestion and ease pressure on limited parking, they also become a nuisance when drivers park illegally on Miracle Mile to grab orders or “stage” for hours at a time in upscale residential neighborhoods.
Rideshare activity strains order on The Mile
The situation, now the subject of frequent resident complaints, prompted the Transportation Advisory Board (TAB) to dedicate part of its November 17 meeting to discussing rideshare enforcement and possible solutions.
“We see them stopping right on Miracle Mile,” said TAB Chair Roland Rodriguez, who first raised the issue. “Cars flashing their lights, blocking traffic because they don’t want to go half a block to find parking.” Rodriguez said he doesn’t like to bring up enforcement matters but felt compelled. “Is there something police enforcement can do? Is there some possible area we can designate so they’re not stopping in the roadway?”
Vice Chair Christophe DiFalco said the problem extends deeper into the district. “They end up loitering in all the alleys behind Hillstone and other areas,” he said. “They’re just hanging out there.”
Rodriguez added that the concerns go beyond traffic flow. He has seen women walking from parking garages who “don’t feel comfortable” passing groups of drivers waiting in secluded areas. “Safety is part of this too,” he said.
Long-standing staging at Cocoplum fuels complaints
Board member Ed Santamaria noted the problem isn’t new. “The Uber staging on Cocoplum Circle has been an issue for a long time,” he said, adding that enforcement is complicated because the circle’s parking spaces are legal to use. “I’m not sure you can actually prevent Uber drivers from parking there.”
Santamaria suggested exploring cooperation with the rideshare companies themselves. “In the past, Google Waze has been cooperative on traffic routing,” he said. “Perhaps Uber would be cooperative in terms of not having their drivers stage there.”
When it comes to Miracle Mile, Santamaria said one option might be directing delivery drivers to the alley entrances used by many restaurants. “Maybe scooters and cars doing Uber Eats activity should pick up in the back, not on the Mile,” he said.
Debate grows over carve-outs and curbside rules
Several members raised the idea of designated curbside “carve-outs,” though Rodriguez acknowledged the political difficulty. “Businesses on the Mile are very sensitive to losing on-street parking,” he said. “The curb space is highly valuable.”
Board member Henry Pinera suggested that any push for set-aside areas might be more effective coming from the Chamber of Commerce. “They’re more in touch with the restaurants,” he said. “They’ll know whether businesses value parking more than the convenience of Uber Eats in-and-out traffic.”
Ultimately, the board agreed that stronger enforcement—and guidance from the Police Department—would be needed before taking any further steps. Assistant Transportation Director Melissa De Zayas confirmed the city has received resident complaints about loitering in Cocoplum but noted that the city cannot legally prohibit services like Uber or Lyft by name.
“These are all questions we can continue to ask,” Rodriguez concluded, as the board agreed to revisit the topic with police officials at a future meeting.
Scramble over Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon intersection
During a separate discussion, the board turned its attention to the city’s premier intersection – Miracle Mile and Ponce de Leon Boulevard – where Rodriguez floated the possibility of implementing a scramble crosswalk.
Scramble crosswalks allow pedestrians to cross in all directions, including diagonally, during a dedicated signal phase when all vehicle traffic comes to a complete stop. Versions already exist at Red Road and Sunset Drive near South Miami, and at Brickell Avenue and SW 8th Street downtown.
Rodriguez asked whether such a design “would work at that intersection,” noting that scrambles “allow 100% unimpeded crossings for pedestrians.”
De Zayas surprised several board members when she explained that the city had already asked Miami-Dade County to consider the idea several times. “We have brought this to the county before,” she said. “Their response was, ‘That’s not something we typically do.’” She added that she recently submitted another request, noting TAB interest and support from Vice Mayor Rhonda Anderson.
Pinera said he was unaware the board had ever backed the idea. “I don’t recall ever taking a vote,” he said, adding, “I have a visceral reaction against it.” He argued the scramble at Red Road and Sunset “has slowed down traffic, caused confusion, and created more congestion than it’s worth.”
“So, I would be very strongly against the scramble crosswalk.”
De Zayas clarified that earlier discussions were initiated by former members.
Santamaria said he was “agnostic,” but wanted to see data. “I’d like to see studies,” he said. “I don’t know whether the juice is worth the squeeze there.”
As the debate grew, Rodriguez suggested pausing until staff could provide historical documentation. “Let’s get the history,” he said. “We don’t have to vote today. We’ll continue the discussion at the next meeting.”
Debate pauses as staff prepares historical context
De Zayas confirmed she would compile the background, including any prior requests or actions.
With divided views – and no consensus reached – the board shelved the matter until its next session, ensuring that the question of whether Coral Gables should pursue a scramble crosswalk at its signature intersection remains very much unresolved.
This Post Has 10 Comments
Ride share really doesn’t reduce congestion.
Shared rides or rideshare that replaces a personal car reduce congestion, but this is not the dominant pattern in practice and definitely not in South Florida.
Set time limits? Especially on weekends, when leisure seekers would attempt to access on foot the pathway lining the Waterway. Residents need to park there to access pathway and public park across. Jaycee Park limits adjacent public parking to those attending the park, for example.
How does my trading a personal car for a rideshare car reduce congestion???
Totally against a scramble crosswalk; the one in South Miami only increases congestion for the periodic pedestrian who crosses diagonally.
The scramble at Red & Sunset is wonderful for pedestrians. I’ve been crossing this intersection for over 60 years, and finally, I feel safe doing so. The only time traffic backs up is at rush hour, and that happens all over the county. A short delay is a small price to pay for safety.
I am 100 percent in favor of a scramble at Ponce & Miracle Mile. The Gables needs to encourage foot traffic, and this is one step in the process.
100% w/ Roberta on Sunset-Red scramble. If you want pedestrian traffic instead of vehicle traffic (often times circling mindlessly for surface parking spaces), this is the way to go. My only issue is they didn’t eliminate the slip lanes. Vehicles that ignore the no-turn-on-red blow thru that intersection at dangerous speeds. Gables needs to get Metro to allow it to eliminate ALL slip lanes in South biz district. They finally did it at Red and Vanera in front of Whole Foods — which, along w/ Riviera Health Resort, is a textbook example of poor street-level design. My only other issue is it’s comical that there are six (6) beg buttons at Red-Sunset — and most pedestrians still don’t use them. So yeah, Gables should explore this at Ponce-Miracle Mile, which has tons more pedestrian traffic than Red-Sunset.
I have to disagree. It has made a mess of the traffic in all 4 directions and the wait for the light to change has doubled. It has added congestion to the back roads for people trying to avoid that corner. It also has made it impossible to turn right or left onto Red with traffic backed up down towards Davis roads.
The Cocoplum staging parking problem can readily be solved by that old Gables technique that solves all of these sorts of problems: plop a bunch of signs saying “NO . . . WHATEVER”.
Heck, didn’t we solve the crime problem with the CRIME WATCH signs and the dumping problem with the NO DUMPING signs plopped all over town? This one will be a no-brainer.
The difference between Uber drivers and driving your own car is that “some” Uber drivers stop in a travel lane to allow boarding (or worse, wait for a rider). You would not stop your car in a travel lane – you would park it in a parking space. An example is a SUV Uber driver that parked his car on Ponce heading north in a travel lane at @ 12:45 pm today. The trolley that I was riding on had to change to the interior west lane to get around the parked Uber car. We also have this problem with Amazon delivery drivers. If we were more aggressive with issuing tickets and provided designated ride share pick-up areas, traffic would move better and there would be less risk of accidents that also slow traffic.
I would like to comment on scramble crosswalks. The idea is great but it is a mess for commuters. The wait between lights is incredibly long, appearing to be double time. Traffic backs up and makes a mess of the intersection. On Red Road traffic can back up down to 78th Street from 72. It takes 2 lights to go through so you lose almost 10 minutes or more. It is a mess and cars can not turn left on the cross streets. On 72nd it backs up past the street where Daniel’s is on. DO NOT USE THIS SYSTEM. It has people avoiding the intersection and taking the back roads that is destroying the residential roads with their speeding and congestion. You have to live it to see it is a mess.
There is no place to park anymore For the taxes we pay and cannot frequent stores or restaurants. The Gables has been ruined by over building