Every morning and every evening, tail lights bathe Miami\u2019s major highways in red. Despite traffic being at a near standstill, drivers manage to cut each other off. Horns whine in constant protest.<\/p>\n
Greater Miami is the second most traffic-congested metro area in the United States, trailing just Los Angeles, according to a new report<\/a> by location technology company TomTom.<\/p>\n That\u2019s meant longer trips for commuters and more car dependence, particularly in greater Miami\u2019s increasingly far-flung developments, where public transit is limited \u2014 spelling higher costs for residents who are struggling with affordability<\/a>. Miamians already spend more<\/a> on transportation than residents of any other large U.S. metro area.<\/p>\n Miami\u2019s traffic surge has accompanied its population boom during and after the pandemic. And as housing prices in and around the urban core have surged, more commuters have been pushed farther from their jobs \u2014 south, toward Homestead, or north, to Broward and even Palm Beach counties.<\/p>\n On an average day in 2025, traffic made Miamians\u2019 trips nearly 50% longer than they would have been on clear roads \u2014 up almost 20 percentage points from 2019, according to data from TomTom. During rush hour, drivers crawled along at an average speed of just under 19 miles per hour.<\/p>\n In the morning, the average congestion level \u2014 which TomTom defines as the percent increase in travel time compared to free-flow conditions \u2014 was 74%, with drivers averaging 20.1 miles per hour. During the evening commute, congestion rose to 89%, and drivers crept along at 17.7 miles per hour.<\/p>\n On the worst day, congestion peaked at 114%, and it took drivers 15 minutes to crawl less than 4 miles.<\/p>\n That\u2019s a lot of time in the car.<\/p>\n Last year, the average greater Miami commuter spent roughly 36 minutes driving to work, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. While the census doesn\u2019t track trips home from work, TomTom\u2019s report suggests that evening rush hour trips are roughly 11% slower than morning commutes, so it follows that that same driver spent 40 minutes in the car on the way home.<\/p>\n That works out to 76 minutes behind the wheel each workday, or 19,700 minutes per year \u2014 just under two full weeks spent navigating some of the most congested roadways in North America.<\/p>\n Heavy traffic can mean people show up late to work and leave early, affecting both workers\u2019 productivity and that of their employers.<\/p>\n It can also shape career decisions that impact people\u2019s advancement \u2014 what jobs workers feel they can reasonably make it to, given commute times, said Cathy Dos Santos, director of Transit Alliance, a local nonprofit promoting walkability, bikeability and better public transit.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a matter of zoning, said Dos Santos.<\/p>\n Greater Miami is built low and spread out \u2014 dominated by single-family homes that take up lots of land. As people moved into South Florida over the past decade, the region had to make room for them. And if it wasn\u2019t going to build up, it had to build out.<\/p>\n That outward growth pushed residents farther from the places where they work, shop, dine out and study, deepening their reliance on cars. \u201cIt\u2019s really hard to provide good public transportation options in those areas,\u201d Dos Santos said. \u201cBasically, we force everybody to drive.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, she added, much of the transportation funding that could go toward transit instead goes to expanding highways \u2014 a short-term fix that often does little to fix congestion in the long run, she said.<\/p>\n The phenomenon is known as induced demand: Add more road space, and people will drive more, creating even more traffic.<\/p>\n \u201cFor billions of dollars,\u201d Dos Santos said, \u201cwe end up, in as little as a couple of years, with the exact same problem.\u201d<\/p>\n For starters, \u201c(Miami) should look beyond lane-widening\u201d \u2014 or increasing highway space \u2014 to address its traffic crisis, said Pete Costello, a senior account manager at TomTom.<\/p>\n One potential option: land-use changes. Building more housing near transit, something both the city of Miami<\/a> and Miami-Dade County<\/a> have tried to promote, is part of the equation, said Dos Santos, especially if it\u2019s affordable housing.<\/p>\n But another, less obvious, fix could be parking reform.<\/p>\n \u201cParking is absolutely central to creating that (traffic-generating) sprawl,\u201d Dos Santos said.<\/p>\n Local zoning codes often mandate 1.5 to two parking spaces per housing unit. But only half \u2014 53% \u2014 of greater Miami\u2019s 2.4 million households have more than one car, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau.<\/p>\n The Transit Alliance estimates that, in Miami-Dade alone, parking requirements mandate roughly a half-million more parking spaces than are actually needed. Reducing those requirements could free up land for gentle increases in density, which would make public transit more viable and households less car-dependent. When homes are spread out \u2014 that is, when density\u2019s lower \u2014 people often have to travel too far to reach a transit stop, so they end up driving instead.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t mean that, just automatically, less parking is going to exist,\u201d Dos Santos pointed out. \u201cLet\u2019s allow the private market to tell us how much parking they need.\u201d<\/p>\n Making it easier to get around on bike or foot could also help reduce congestion, said Costello.<\/p>\n If people could more comfortably walk or bike for short trips \u2014 to work, the grocery store, the salon \u2014 that would ease traffic and help Miami residents cut back on car-related expenses.<\/p>\n In fact, because of traffic delays and the cost of driving, short trips by foot or bike are already competitive with driving, said Dos Santos. But the problem is infrastructure. Protected bike lanes, safer crossings and pedestrian-friendly streets are still lacking across much of greater Miami.<\/p>\n But for local governments, those projects can be relatively quick, effective and, crucially, inexpensive alternatives to large-scale transit investments.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not talking about billions of dollars, we\u2019re talking about millions,\u201d said Dos Santos, adding that such projects are often easier to maintain and cheaper to operate than major transit systems.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a step toward getting more people for those short trips, from point A to point B,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n This story was produced with financial support from supporters including The Green Family Foundation Trust and Ken O\u2019Keefe, in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald maintains full editorial control of this work.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Every morning and every evening, tail lights bathe Miami\u2019s major highways in red. 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