The Administration recommends that the Mayor and City Commission accept the recommendation of the Finance and Citywide Projects Committee (FCWPC) and endorse the funding strategy, consisting of extending the trolley advertising pilot and allocating those revenues along with Parking Funds to fund the annual operations and maintenance costs of the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) portion of the  ITS/Smart Parking System (SPS) Project.  

BACKGROUND

Since 2014, the City of Miami Beach has been providing Traffic Monitoring and Management Services as part of a citywide program intended to reduce congestion, improve incident management, and improve traffic flow through construction zone management and special event traffic management along its principal corridors for 14 hours a day, 365 days a year.  The service hours are extended during four (4) major special events per year.

The existing program consists of the deployment of temporary traffic monitoring cameras, travel time data collectors, and portable Digital Message Signs strategically placed throughout the City to monitor real-time traffic conditions, inform motorists, and deploy mitigation strategies along the following corridors:

·         MacArthur Causeway

·         5^th Street

·         Washington Avenue

·         Collins Avenue – 5^th Street to 63^rd Street

·         Alton Road

·         17^th Street

·         41^st Street

·         Julia Tuttle Causeway

·         Indian Creek Drive

·         63^rd Street

·         71^st Street – Indian Creek Drive to Collins Avenue

These services are performed by a contractor under supervision of City Transportation Department staff in addition to other strategies such as traffic text alerts, Traffic Congestion Specialists and a City Traffic Engineer with access to the County’s traffic signal timing system to monitor and modify signal timing on a real-time basis to mitigate congestion.  

The Traffic Monitoring and Management Program has resulted in significant improvements to the operation of the City’s roadway network. In comparison to pre-existing conditions, the Traffic Monitoring and Management Program has resulted in an average travel time improvement of 22% along the monitored corridors.  For Fiscal Year 2018/19, the cost of the Traffic Monitoring and Management Service is $499,000, excluding salaries of City staff who assist in the operation and management of the program.

In parallel to this effort, the City's Transportation Department has been working on a comprehensive Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) and Smart Parking System (SPS) Project since 2015.   

The City of Miami Beach ITS/SPS Project proposes to utilize advanced technology to improve traffic flow, parking efficiency, and provide real-time traffic information to the motoring public.  The project elements are described in Attachment A.

In addition to the existing corridors currently managed, the ITS Project includes the following corridors:

·         Meridian Avenue

·         West Avenue

·         Harding Avenue/Abbott Avenue

·         Collins Avenue – 63rd Street to City Limits

·         71st Street/Normandy Drive – Indian Creek Drive to City Limits

Further, even on existing corridors, the more robust ITS Project will provide increased camera coverage, improved data processing, and improved messaging to motorists. These improvements will enhance the City's ability to manage traffic and accurately inform motorists of traffic and parking conditions.

Finally the SPS system will display information on parking availability in garages  via digital message signs located outside City-owned garages and some parking lots, and on digital message signs throughout the City during high impact periods.

It is worth highlighting that all the above-ground technology proposed in the ITS/SPS Project will

be aesthetic and contextual to Miami Beach.  With the implementation of the ITS/SPS Project, the driver will experience improved travel times and be provided clear, real-time information on parking and traffic conditions.  

The ITS/SPS Project is anticipated to improve travel times by an average of 13% in addition to the 22% improvement currently achieved by the existing Traffic Monitoring and Management Program (i.e., an overall improvement of 35% in travel time over pre-existing conditions) and significantly improve the ability to gather data and make decisions to improve traffic flow on a real-time basis from  the Traffic Management Center (see below) .

The technology proposed will be able to adjust to roadway incidents, such as accidents, emergency construction or lane closures, bridge closures, special events, and other incidents that impact traffic flow. The implementation of the proposed technology will also reduce the number of police officers needed for traffic control, reduce congestion, reduce gasoline consumption, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  The travel time savings, incident clearance, and environmental benefits will be monetized on a monthly basis to show benefits to the City.

Traffic Management Center

As part of the ITS and SPS project, a Traffic Management Center (TMC) will be implemented and staffed with traffic operators to monitor traffic conditions and deploy traffic management initiatives as needed.  All the aforementioned devices will communicate with the TMC where data will be compiled, analyzed, and utilized for real-time decision making on traffic mitigation strategies, traffic routing, signal timing modifications, and incident management.  The TMC for the City’s ITS/SPS Project will be located within the FDOT’s District VI Sunguide Center.  This co-location of the TMC will not only represent savings to the City’s ITS/SPS Project, but will also improve the coordination and communication between both agencies to benefit the traffic flow in the region.

Project Phasing

As part of the Project Plan, the ITS/SPS Project was divided into six (6) phases based on the importance of the corridor to the roadway network (Attachment A).  The project phases are described below.

Phase:

1.    MacArthur Causeway, Alton Road (5^th Street to Julia Tuttle Causeway), Julia Tuttle Causeway, 17^th Street (Alton Road to Washington Avenue), Dade Boulevard (Alton Road to Washington Avenue)

2.    5^th Street, 41^st Street, Washington Avenue

3.    Collins Avenue (23^rd Street to 44^th Street), Indian Creek Drive/Collins Avenue (44^th Street to City Limits), Alton Road (Julia Tuttle Cswy to 63^rd Street), 63^rd Street (Alton Road to Collins Avenue)

4.    Collins Avenue (5^th Street to 23^rd Street), Indian Creek Drive (26^th Street to 44^th Street)

5.    Harding Avenue/Abbott Avenue

6.    Meridian Avenue, West Avenue

The phasing is subject to the City's discretion.

Prior City Commission Action

At the June 10, 2016 Neighborhood/Community Affairs Committee (NCAC) meeting, staff presented the ITS/SPS Project and received endorsement from the Committee.  The recommendation from the NCAC was presented at the July 13, 2016 City Commission meeting.  At that meeting, the City Commission accepted the NCAC recommendation and directed staff to proceed with the project and issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Design, Build, Operation, and Maintenance (DBOM) Services.

Contract Negotiations

In December 2017, the City commenced negotiations with the selected firm (Transcore). Transportation Department Staff, Procurement Department Staff, and the Program Manager (Kimley Horn) have held ten (10) meetings with Transcore.  Over the past year, the City has been successful in lowering the capital cost of Phases 1 and 2 by 43.1%.  In addition, through the negotiation process, the operations and maintenance for Phases 1 and 2 has been reduced by 10.3%.  The operations for the ITS/SPS Project would cover 16 hours per day, 365 days per year of service.  

Current Funding Status

Since 2015, the Budget Department and Transportation Department have worked together to identify capital and operating funds for this project.  Capital funding for design and construction of all six (6) phases were identified and approved as part of the Fiscal Year (FY) 2018/19 Capital Budget.  The capital cost of the ITS portion of the project (all 6 phases) is currently fully funded by Half-Cent Transit Surtax/People's Transportation Plan (PTP) Funds (Fund 187 and Concurrency Mitigation Fund (Fund 158).  The SPS portion of the project is funded by  Parking Operations Fund (Fund 480).

Portions of Phases 1 and 2 of the ITS/SPS Project are anticipated to be completed in late FY 2019 and all 6 phases should be completed by FY 2022/23

As of November 2018, the City has finalized negotiations with Transcore ITS LLC and the Administration is ready to execute a DBOM contract with Transcore for Phases 1 and 2.

The operating cost for the SPS portion of the project is approximately $30,640 per year for Phases 1 and 2 and $37,860 per year for full project implementation. These costs will be fully funded by the Parking Fund.  The adopted FY 2018/19 Transportation Department Operating Budget includes funding in the amount of $600,000 for the ongoing Traffic Monitoring and Management Services, sufficient to cover the current contract as well as cover Phases 1 and 2 under the new contract in the summer, if the notice to proceed is given in January 2019.  The negotiated cost for operations and maintenance of Phases 1 and 2 of the ITS portion of the Project is $1,813,000 annually.  The total cost for operations and maintenance for all six (6) phases is $2,018,000 annually.  A reduction in operating hours has also been explored based on an analysis of travel times and incidents experienced in the current Traffic Monitoring and Management Services.  The reduced hours of operation is similar to the existing hours of traffic monitoring and management but covers the additional corridors and enhancements to existing corridors described previously. The Administration recommends the reduced service scenario at this time.

The table below depicts the estimated annual operations and maintenance costs for various phases and scenarios of the ITS portion of the project:

Based on a Five (5) Year Transportation Operations Financial Forecast (Attachment B) prepared by the Budget Department, the following table depicts the additional funding each year that would be needed beyond the Transportation Department's Operating budget for the reduced service scenario.

Note: FY 2019/20 reflects the impact of the $1.25M FDOT grant for the South Beach Trolley

As shown below, the Parking Fund is anticipated to generate approximately $6.04 million per year or revenues in excess of expenditures in FY 2019. A minimum of $3 million per year is recommended to be set aside for renewal and replacement needs for parking lots and garages, and an additional $1.521 million is currently transferred to the Transportation budget each year from the year end surplus.  At the end of FY 2018, $1.166 million was transferred to the General Fund.  Assuming that the Plan to eliminate the General Fund contribution is followed, this would leave $1.519 million in annual surplus available for other uses including ITS.

Given that the additional transfer of $1,037,000 from the Parking Fund would significantly reduce the potential use of surplus funds for other parking purposes, the Administration would recommend that the Trolley Advertising pilot be extended, and that some or all of the $500,000 in projected advertising revenues be used for Transportation, thus significantly reducing the amount of funds needed from the Parking Fund.

At the December 14, 2018 FCWPC meeting, the Administration recommended the above strategy to fund the annual operation and maintenance costs of the ITS portion of the ITS/SPS Project. 

In the longer term, the FCWPC recommended using future revenues from the Convention Center Hotel guaranteed rent.  In November 2018, Miami Beach voters approved, via referendum, the construction of a Convention Center Hotel and, further, that the City adopt an ordinance to dedicate the Hotel's guaranteed rent payments to enhance funding in equal portions annually for stormwater projects, traffic reduction measures, and education.  Given an anticipated minimum guaranteed rent of $2,000,000 annually, the City would allocate approximately $667,000  to traffic reduction measures.  If these revenues were to be dedicated to the ITS portion of the ITS/SPS Project, they would offset the funding contribution needed from the Parking Department.  The Convention Center Hotel is anticipated to open in 2022, and funding for the operations and maintenance of the ITS portion of the ITS/SPS Project would be needed as early as FY 2020/21.  Thus, the additional parking funds  may only be needed for 2 years if this strategy is followed.