If I were mayor of my town, I would try to decrease traffic in and around my city. I live in a very dense, urban area in downtown Miami.  There are many skyscrapers and tall buildings.  There is a mixture of residential areas and office space, so there are many people going in and out of my part of town.  In addition, Miami is a very popular tourist destination, and we get many visitors from all over the world. To put it blatantly, the traffic, not just in the industrial areas - but everywhere in Miami - is atrocious. The traffic here is so difficult, that even at non rush hour times, the road where I live is always flooded with cars.

There are many problems associated with traffic jams.  Traffic creates greater pollution, because more cars are stuck in the same space, with their engines idling.  The environmental implications of traffic can be quite large. Traffic also can be dangerous to the public health.. Many times, when drivers are frustrated they can make unsafe actions, such as driving in a breakdown lane or running a red light.  Traffic also costs commuters time and money.  Traffic can delay getting people to their offices, and can make children late for school.  Drivers waste money for gas when sitting in traffic.  Businesses lose money when they can not make deliveries or people can’t get to restaurants and stores due to traffic.  Traffic can also impact tourism-people don’t want to go to cities where they can’t move freely around.

There are several ways I could make traffic better as the Mayor of Miami.  For the highways, I would  create more lanes on the highway.  This would increase flow during rush hour and would get people to their destination more quickly.  If there is not enough room to spread out, additional lanes could be built on roads above the existing highway.  Some of these could even be express lanes with fewer exits, to make traffic move even more efficiently.

Another way to make traffic better would be to create more reliable  public transportation.  There are some options for public transportation in Miami, such as trolleys, buses, people movers, and Metro Movers.  However, none of these systems are great.  For example, to get to some places, a commuter must take some combination of vehicles.  This adds a lot of time to the commute.  Also, the public transportation is not reliable.  Often you can wait a very long time to get a bus.  As Mayor, I would use technology to help this by tracking public vehicles and also by creating more routes for people.

Another idea to get rid of traffic jams, is to get people to carpool together,l rather than take separate cars. I think that the government of Miami could install stations at set distances where drivers could collect extra passengers who also work in your neighborhood. These people could be awarded by getting a certain amount of money given to them based on how often they take people and the amount of people they take. They could also get tax reductions for providing a necessary service.  This concept would be like an Uber for work.