Where's The Help? (UPDATE)

The construction going on around downtown Miami these days is choking traffic to the point where tempers are actually reaching the boiling point. This is one of the reasons I'm thankful I don't live east of the Palmetto.

This story in today's Herald gets into details about this traffic nightmare.

After reading the article, particularly this section:

A Miami police officer sits in his marked patrol car at the southwest corner of Biscayne and 36th, working an extra overtime shift to help pay the bills for his young family. He's spent the better part of the past four hours on his feet, shepherding the morning-to-midday rush.

The cop knows that he's there because too many newspaper articles and too many TV reports led to too many calls from distressed politicians who forced the Florida Department of Transportation to dole out a little more money to keep the traffic moving.

''You know, the construction is bad. And some things can't be fixed. But the biggest problem, to me, it's the motorists,'' said the officer, who doesn't want to publish his name because he didn't clear the interview with his supervisors. ``There is no courtesy out there. There is no patience. Just look at it out there. . . .''

(ed: PATIENCE FOLKS...PATIENCE! It's not easy, but try it. Trying to beat that light up ahead will only get you to the next tie-up that much faster).

Almost on cue, a woman in a beat-up blue Pontiac makes the illegal left turn from Biscayne northbound to westbound 36th Street, right in front of the cop.

His extra shift will end at 3 p.m. Nobody is hired to relieve him (FDOT officials are under the impression that their construction consultants have made arrangements for a second-shift officer who is supposed to be posted at Biscayne and 36th through the evening rush hour).

I remembered the big gimmick by FHP to slow down speeders in construction zones several days back? Officers disguised themselves as construction workers and pulled over many drivers in a one-day effort to get people to slow down.

If local police districts used even 1/10th of that initiative, and applied it on a daily basis, not just every once in a while as a publicity stunt, then maybe....just maybe....our traffic woes wouldn't be as bad.

UPDATE: Speaking of help, a new Miami blog by Gabriel Lopez-Bernal hopes to address many of our public transportation issues. It's called - appropriately enough - Miami Transit. Go visit Gabriel's site and drop him a note of support.