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TRAFFIC AND TRANSPORTATION
The time and cost of congestion, increased commute times, and lost productivity due to travel delays are tangible economic concerns for today’s employers, and play an increasingly important role in business location and expansion decisions. According to 2015 ACS estimates, 83.7 percent of the City of Doral’s employed population 16+ years of age commute to work each day by truck, car, van and drive alone compared to 79.2 in Miami-Dade County, as a whole. An estimated 8.7 percent of the City’s workers carpool and 0.9 percent use public transportation. The mean travel time to work (one-way) is 26.4 minutes which is slightly less than the County (29.9 minutes).
According to the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT), all of the City’s main east-west roadways —
NW 58 th St., NW 36 th St., NW 25 th St., and NW 12 th St. —
are congested at rush hour, operating at Level of Service (LOS) D or worse. Mean travel time to work for Doral residents, at 26.4 minutes, is less than the County average of 29 minutes, but note that almost 42 percent of Doral residents travel 30 minutes or more to work.
Doral is in many ways a victim of its own success. This study has noted that the significant mismatch between worker inflow and resident worker outflow, in addition to increasing truck traffic, is driving Doral’s congestion problems. Doral’s transportation issues are a function of land use, employment location, and limited roadway capacity. Doral’s wildly successful economic growth has created traffic
congestion problems that, if not addressed, may grind the City’s transportation to a halt, and threaten its future economic growth. Failure to significantly reduce increasing traffic congestion will also threaten the quality of life it offers to its residents.
The mismatch between Doral’s workforce and employment opportunities has resulted in a significant daily commute trip flow entering and leaving Doral: an estimated 73,000 non-resident workers stream into Doral every day and about 15,000 Doral residents commute to other places. This huge demand has been a significant contributor to the congestion problems in and around Doral.
If the current trend continues, traffic gridlock will get much worse in the future. According to the Southeast Regional Planning Model (SERPM), by the year 2040 about 29,000 Doral workers would need to leave Doral for job opportunities with another 76,700 non-resident workers commuting into Doral every day (see table below).
Doral Households Residents Employment Resident workers
Inside Doral Outside Doral
Non-resident workers Census LEHD 2014
77,612 19,621 4,678 14,943 72,934
ACS 2015
15,038 51,382
23,446 7,620 15,826
Model Year 2040
27,193 80,161 103,836 37,270 8,160 29,110 76,710
City of Doral
Much of the regional focus on alleviating commuter transportation congestion has focused on building new road and rail capacity serving East-West travel. However, a significant portion of Doral’s commuter
traffic is generated by workers who live to the north and south of Doral. The following table and maps shows the top cities where Doral residents work and where Doral workers live.
Where Doral Residents Work Doral Miami MIA Hialeah Miami Beach Medley Sweetwater Coral Gables Kendall Miami Lakes University Park Hialeah Gardens All Other Locations Total
8,160 5,560 4,320 2,970 2,240 1,270 1,240 950 930 750 680 510 7,690 37,270
22% 15% 12% 8% 6% 3% 3% 3% 2% 2% 2% 1% 21% 100%
Where Doral Workers Live
Miami 12,750 15% Hialeah 8,300 10% Doral 8,160 10% Fountainebleau 4,470 5% Tamiami 3,530 4% Miami Beach 3,210 4% Kendall 3,140 4% Kendale Lakes 2,630 3% Miami Gardens 2,060 2% Westchester 1,660 2% The Hammocks 1,640 2% Sweetwater 1,620 2% All Other Locations 31,700 37% Total 84870 100% Source: Southeast Regional Planning Model 2040 output.
City of Doral The City’s update to the Transportation Element of the City’s Comprehensive Plan proposes the addition of new road lanes. Unfortunately, Doral has almost no space for new road lanes and will find large-scale transportation infrastructure investments challenging to finance with reduced transportation funding from the state and federal governments. Notably, the update to the City’s Transportation Element found:
Increasing multimodal capacity has been the goal of the City to achieve a balance in the community. Notably, a 5% modal shift towards alternative modes will reduce most of the need for roadway widening on all but one roadway segment in 2025 projects, and a 30% modal shift will reduce the need to widen 80% of the projected roadways requiring additional capacity.
