North Beach alley behind Collins Avenue could become a $700,000 bike route, city says

Miami Beach transportation staff are recommending that Collins Court, the narrow service alley between Collins and Harding avenues from 73rd to 87th streets in North Beach, be turned into a bicycle boulevard, a route for bikes and scooters that could cost about $700,000 for the first round of work, according to a city memo for the Nov. 9 meeting of the commission’s Public Safety and Neighborhood Quality of Life Committee.

The money isn’t in the transportation department’s budget for the year that began Oct. 1, the memo says. Staff plan to finish an in-house feasibility study with cost estimates in December so the city can apply for state or federal grants, an approach worked out in an Oct. 19 meeting with the Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization. If the committee wants to fund it, the administration recommends taking it up in the budget for the year starting October 2027.

Why the alley

Collins and Harding avenues are state roads with no bike lanes, and electric scooters and e-bikes are barred from the Beachwalk, the memo notes, leaving no safe north-south route through North Beach for them. The alley could fill that gap, but staff found problems in an August walk-through: it is 11 to 18 feet wide with no sidewalks, runs one-way southbound, has potholes and cracked pavement, and is often blocked by parked cars and delivery trucks serving the businesses and buildings that back onto it. Utility poles, manholes and grates add hazards, and riders would have to slow or stop at every cross street because of poor sight lines.

The first phase would repave the alley, stripe it as a designated bike path, and add speed-limit, one-way and do-not-enter signs and warnings that cyclists may be riding both ways. Later work could include parking changes, more lighting and a fully designed bicycle boulevard as part of the West Lots master plan.

Commissioner Tanya K. Bhatt brought the idea to the commission in December 2025. The committee meets at 9 a.m. Monday in the commission chambers at City Hall, 1700 Convention Center Drive, and on Zoom; the agenda has the link.