The Miami Springs Circle is a dangerous mess and a complete safety failure.
Don’t believe me? Take a guess. How many accidents do you think we have on the Circle each year? 6 accidents per year? 12 accidents per year?
How about a car accident once every 10 days on average? That’s right. According to the City of Miami Springs, there were 37 accidents on the Circle in 2024. That’s a car accident on the Circle once every 10 days or roughly 3.1 accidents every month.
That’s also up 37% from 2023 where the City of Miami Springs recorded 27 accidents on the Circle or one accident every 13.5 days.
UNACCEPTABLE NEGLIGENCE!
Simply put, twelve accidents per year on the Circle is unacceptable. Thirty seven accidents per year is government negligence and prima facie evidence of a poorly designed Circle that invites and creates accidents.
What do we have to do? Wait for the Mayor to get into a car accident before real changes come to the Circle?
I’m not joking. When Mayor Mitchell was hit by a car that didn’t see her riding her bicycle on the sidewalk due to overgrown hedges, there was an immediate crackdown by the City of Miami Springs on hedges and even legal changes were made to our hedge ordinances. (To be very clear, we want the mayor to stay safe and hope she’s never in an accident anywhere.)
That being said, I’m certain if the City of Miami Springs had full authority over the Circle’s design, it would have been fixed years ago. The biggest problem is that the Circle (and all of Curtiss Parkway) is controlled by the County. In other words, we need our city officials to convince the county officials to fix this problem.
It’s not easy, but it can be done.
Look no further than Mayor Deno from the Village of Virginia Gardens. He singlehandedly pushed Miami-Dade County and the Florida Department of Transportation to reduce the number of accidents that were occurring at NW 36th Street and Curtiss Parkway (aka NW 57th Avenue).
We need some champions from Miami Springs to push the Miami-Dade County bureaucracy to fix the Circle and reduce the number of accidents that are happening on the Circle each month. And with the elections coming up in a April, it’s a great time to push the candidates to get results on the Circle.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
ISSUE 1: Fix the north side entrance to the Circle from Hialeah.
Problem: Cars entering from Hialeah do not yield to cars already on the Circle.
Causes: Poor sign placement and a lack of respect for yield signs.
Video example of problem:
Solution:
- Switch from yield signs to stop signs (addresses the lack of respect for yield signs)
- Add overhead signage ahead of the Circle indicating STOP AHEAD
- Move the now switched stop signs to an area BEFORE the car needs to stop instead of the sign being placed AFTER the spot the car needs to stop.
ISSUE 2: South side of the Circle near Papa John’s Pizza.
Problem: Cars making a right hand turn towards Southbound Curtiss Parkway from the left lane of the Circle.
Causes: Poor design invites drivers to make an unlawful right hand turn from the left lane.
Video example of problem:
Solution:
- The solution already exists at the entrance to Westward Drive from the Circle.
- Only allow a single lane to enter southbound Curtiss Parkway from the Circle just like Westward.
- The left lane of southbound Curtiss will accept traffic from the Circle.
- The right lane of southbound Curtiss will only accept traffic from eastbound Westward Drive.
- This will improve traffic flow from Westward Drive to southbound Curtiss Parkway.
- This will discourage vehicles from the left lane of the Circle jump to southbound Curtiss Parkway
More examples of accidents at the Westward Drive / Circle / Curtiss Parkway intersection:
ENFORCEMENT
Some people might say that we need more enforcement on the Circle. To be honest, we’ve seen more enforcement on the Circle and especially noticeable on Hook Square by the Miami Springs Police Department with the Deal and now Castillo in charge. The police are doing their part, but even so, they can’t be there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Heck, some officers have told us that there are many times the cars coming in from Hialeah don’t even stop for the cops as they are navigating around the Circle. If cars don’t stop for the police, there’s no chance they’re stopping for us.
We need physical changes to the roads and the signage in order to reduce the number of accidents impacting our city approximately every 10 days.
What do you think?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below or via social media.
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Video: Circle Invites Bad Driver Decisions…Creates Accidents
To add to the circle problem, when traveling north on Curtiss, at the circle, the left lane goes into the lane to Hialeah, but wreckless drivers who want to go first are in the right lane and force their way in front of those on the left. That is awfully bad design and a car accident waiting to happen!
In addition, I spoke at a Council meeting before the new apartments were built, expressing my concern for heavier traffic once the building was full. I feel no consideration was given to my concern as they approved it anyway and with not enough parking spaces.
It was working fine before why the changes. I try to avoid that fiasco circle 100%
Honestly, I thought I was going to hate it, but I find the new circle flow to be greatly improved. The problem has always been negligent drivers who use MS as a thru lane. I think we underestimate what a fine-warning sign will do. People behave drastically different when they know their finances are at risk. Place it directly under the yield sign. See what happens. Also, paint the white lines yellow nearest the exit to Curtiss Parkway. Current traffic lines scream “do not exit from the middle lane” which is maddening.