Miami Bike Route Safety Map

The Miami-Dade Transportation Planning Organization counts "more than 522 miles of bicycle infrastructure" across the county. Transit Alliance Miami, measuring a narrower thing, counts 201 miles of bike lanes of which only about six miles — three percent — offer any physical separation from traffic. Both numbers are true, and the distance between them is the whole experience of riding here: a genuinely strong set of car-free trails and causeways, stitched together by streets that mostly give you paint. Brakeaway scores any Miami route 0–100 on protected infrastructure, trail connectivity, intersection risk, traffic exposure, and surface quality. Paste a Google Maps link, upload a GPX, or connect Strava. Scores are informational estimates — not a substitute for local judgment. Verify conditions before you ride.

Score a Miami route

How Brakeaway scores a Miami route

Every route is analyzed across five factors, weighted for the conditions Miami-Dade riders actually meet: a small but growing set of true separated corridors, a dense grid of wide arterials, a county-level high-injury network that absorbs most of the serious crashes, causeways that are simultaneously the region's best riding and its most-publicized crash sites, and terrain so flat that grade almost never decides a score.

Protected infrastructure and trail connectivity. What share of your line sits on a separated path, a physically protected lane, or a car-free corridor? Segments on The Underline, the Commodore, Old Cutler, Biscayne, Black Creek and South Dade trails, and the rebuilt separated stretch on Virginia Key, score at the top of this factor. A striped lane on a six-lane arterial does not.
Intersection and arterial-crossing risk. Miami-Dade's Vision Zero program is built around a high-injury network that, in the County's own words, represents "about 20% of the county's total road miles" but accounts for "86% of all fatal and severe-injury crashes." Brakeaway penalizes both riding along those corridors and crossing them unprotected, which is why a quiet residential street can shed points at a single signalized arterial crossing.
Traffic volume and exposure. A bike lane with nothing but a white line between it and 45 mph traffic is scored as exposure, not protection. In a county where Transit Alliance puts physical separation at roughly three percent of the bike-lane network, this factor does more work in Miami than in almost any other city Brakeaway covers.
Surface quality and crossing furniture. Causeway expansion joints, bridge grating, drainage grates set into the gutter pan where a bike lane runs, sand blown across the Beachwalk and the Key Biscayne approaches, and the unpaved sections of the Black Creek Trail all move the surface term. Brakeaway downgrades unpaved and degraded segments explicitly rather than averaging them away.
Elevation and grade. Miami is flat enough that grade is usually a rounding error. The exceptions are the bridge crossings — the William Powell Bridge on the Rickenbacker, the Venetian Causeway's bridges, and the drawbridges over the Miami River — which are the only sustained climbs most routes contain. Brakeaway factors grade into the score rather than reporting it separately.

Highest-scoring Miami bike routes

These are the routes that repeatedly land in Brakeaway's High Confidence band, because the separation is physical rather than painted.

The Underline — Brickell Backyard south toward Dadeland

The county's signature project, and the one most likely to change your commute's score. Miami-Dade describes The Underline as transforming "120 acres of Miami-Dade County, City of Miami and City of Coral Gables owned land adjacent and below to the existing Metrorail guideway, from the Miami River (Brickell area) to the Dadeland South Metrorail Station." Phase 1, the Brickell Backyard, opened to the public on February 26, 2021. Phase 2 — a 2.14-mile segment connecting SW 13 Street to SW 19 Avenue through the Roads, Shenandoah and Silver Bluff neighborhoods — opened April 24, 2024. Phase 3 is a 7.36-mile segment running from SW 19th Avenue near the Vizcaya Metrorail station down to Dadeland South, and the county expects the whole corridor to be completed in 2026. The finished 10-mile corridor is planned to vary from 70 to 170 feet wide and to improve "over 30 intersections" — intersection treatment being precisely where a linear park either holds its score or loses it.

Rickenbacker Trail — Brickell to Key Biscayne

The classic Miami ride, and the one that needs scoring segment by segment rather than end to end. Miami-Dade calls the Rickenbacker Causeway "a multimodal corridor that provides the only ingress and egress connection to the Village of Key Biscayne," measuring "approximately 3.6 miles in overall length with 1.2 miles of bridge structures and 2.4 miles of roadway," and describes it as "one of the busiest bicycling and running routes in Miami-Dade County." The county estimates the causeway "draws an estimated half million cyclists and 250,000 pedestrians a year." The trail continues over Bear Cut Bridge into Crandon Park and along Crandon Boulevard to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. Scores split sharply: the stretch that closed after Hurricane Irma and reopened in December 2024 — WLRN reported it "received a $14 million upgrade including paved trails, a seawall and native plants" — sits well above the on-road green bike lane over the William Powell Bridge, where riders and motor traffic share a corridor posted at 40 mph from the toll plaza to Calusa Circle.

Commodore Trail — Coconut Grove to Coral Gables

Five and a half miles of asphalt and paver path running from Cocoplum Road at Ingraham Park to Brickell Avenue at Alice Wainright Park, threading Coconut Grove under a heavy tree canopy. It connects to the Old Cutler Trail at its south end and to the Rickenbacker Trail at its north, which makes it the hinge between the county's two best-known rides. It is also narrow, shared with pedestrians, and interrupted by driveways — Brakeaway holds it below the fully grade-separated segments for exactly that reason.

Old Cutler, Biscayne and Black Creek trails — south Miami-Dade

The Old Cutler Trail is an 11-mile paved path whose north end sits at S. Red Road and SW 102nd Street and whose south end is at Old Cutler Road and SW 224th Street in Cutler Bay. It meets the Biscayne Trail at Old Cutler Road and SW 87th Avenue, and the 8.7-mile Black Creek Trail — paved from the zoo to Black Point Park, unpaved elsewhere — crosses Old Cutler Road about 0.2 miles south of the Old Cutler Trail's southern end. Chained together these form the longest continuous off-street riding in the county, and the Black Creek Trail's unpaved sections are the main reason a route through them can lose a band without any traffic being involved.

South Dade Trail — Dadeland to Florida City

A 22-mile rail trail running south alongside the South Dade TransitWay bus rapid transit corridor all the way to Florida City, built as a 10-foot-wide shared-use path and opened in stages between 1997 and 2007. Its northern end is where The Underline's completion matters most: once Phase 3 reaches Dadeland South, the two paths form a continuous 32-mile off-road corridor, running from The Underline's start at the Miami River all the way to Florida City.

Venetian Causeway — Miami to Miami Beach

The low, slow, bridge-hopping alternative to the MacArthur. It is heavily used: roughly 1,500 cyclists cross it daily along the 2.5 miles between Miami and Miami Beach. In December 2021, Zebra separators were installed in parallel over the existing dividing line to protect the one-way bike lanes on each side of the roadway. Brakeaway scores that separated section above an ordinary striped lane but below a true path, because the separators are modular units rather than continuous curb, and because the causeway's drawbridges introduce stop-and-queue points that a path does not have.

Miami Beach Beachwalk and the green-lane grid

Miami Beach describes the Beachwalk as "a nine-mile oceanfront pedestrian promenade," completed in June 2022 as a wider, ADA-accessible paver pathway connecting Miami Beach to Surfside and Bal Harbour, and part of the Atlantic Greenway Network. It is car-free, which scores well, but it is a pedestrian promenade first — Brakeaway treats heavy mixed-use promenades as low-speed corridors rather than through-routes. Away from the sand, the city reports "seven projects completed totaling 31,000 linear feet for bike lanes on both sides of the road," and says it "has been recognized by Miami-Dade County as Bike305 Municipality of the Year for 2024."

Miami-Dade by area — what to expect

Brickell, downtown and the Miami River

The Brickell Backyard gives downtown its one genuinely separated spine, and The Underline connects to the Miami River Greenway at its northern end. Away from that corridor, downtown is a grid of one-way arterials with painted lanes and frequent driveway conflicts, and the Miami River drawbridges add crossing delay. Scores here swing hard over a few blocks.

Coconut Grove and Coral Gables

The strongest recreational riding inside the urban core: the Commodore Trail, the Old Cutler canopy, and a residential street network with low volumes. The offsetting hazard is that the connectors between them run on arterials, and the Gables' roundabouts and merge points are where a Grove route usually gives back its score.

Miami Beach and the causeways

A compact, flat, highly rideable island with a real green-lane network and the Beachwalk on the ocean side — and only a handful of ways off it. The Venetian is the protected-ish option; the other causeways are high-speed state roads. Brakeaway's biggest single score swing on a Miami Beach route is almost always which causeway you pick.

Little Havana, Allapattah and the western county

This is where the paint-versus-protection gap is widest and where the future Ludlam Trail matters most. Miami-Dade Parks completed a Project Development and Environment study for "the 5.6-mile-long Ludlam Trail Corridor between 400 feet north of NW 7th Street and SW 80th Street, between 69th and 70th Avenues, within the former railroad right-of-way." Until it is built, north–south travel here means arterials, and Brakeaway scores it accordingly.

South Dade — Pinecrest, Cutler Bay, Homestead

Trail country. Old Cutler, Biscayne, Black Creek and the South Dade Trail give this half of the county more continuous off-street mileage than anywhere north of it. The weak points are the at-grade crossings of major east–west arterials and the unpaved Black Creek segments.

North Miami-Dade

Thinner coverage. The Snake Creek Trail is the county's named facility on this side, and beyond it the network is mostly on-street. Routes here benefit most from pre-scoring, because the low-stress options are not obvious from a map.

The numbers behind the score

Miami's problem is well documented and is not a matter of opinion. The Miami-Dade TPO states that "crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians account for 40% of the traffic fatalities in Miami-Dade County each year." When the county won a $16.2 million Safe Streets and Roads for All implementation grant in December 2023, it described the projects as "focusing on curtailing the nearly 40% increase in pedestrian and cyclist crashes observed between 2012 and 2022," and said the funds would target "24 critical locations within the County's high-injury network" — a network that carries about 20 percent of the county's road miles and 86 percent of its fatal and severe-injury crashes. Miami-Dade's Vision Zero program, formally established by the County Commission in 2021, states a goal "to end traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2040," and notes that "each year, there are close to 300 fatalities on Miami-Dade County road."

At the metro level, Smart Growth America's 2026 Dangerous by Design rankings place Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach 17th nationally, with an average annual pedestrian fatality rate of 3.4 per 100,000 people and 1,062 pedestrian deaths over 2020–2024. Statewide, FlaglerLive's December 2025 review of the data reported that "Florida remains the most dangerous state in the nation for bicyclists, looking at combined 2022 and 2023 data," and that "there were another 207 bicycle fatalities in 2024, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles." Locally, WLRN reported in January 2025 that "Miami-Dade County recorded 18 cyclist fatalities in 2024."

The counterweight is that the trend line on infrastructure is moving. In January 2026 the League of American Bicyclists listed "Miami-Dade County, Florida (Silver, Moving Up — pop. 2,701,767)" among 79 communities recognized in that round, an upgrade from the Bronze award the county first received in 2017. None of that makes any individual road something Brakeaway will call safe — the score is a confidence estimate about infrastructure, not a promise — but it does mean a route you scored two years ago is worth re-scoring.

What is being built next

Three projects will move Miami scores more than anything else on the map. The Underline's Phase 3 closes the last 7.36 miles to Dadeland South and, joined to the South Dade Trail, produces a continuous off-road spine from the Miami River to Florida City. The Ludlam Trail adds 5.6 miles of rail-trail through the county's western middle. And the wider Miami LOOP — which Rails-to-Trails Conservancy describes as "a 235-mile trail vision" for Miami-Dade County — is the frame both sit inside. Rails-to-Trails notes that "approximately 58 percent of the network is already complete, and nearly 86 percent of the LOOP's proposed corridors are publicly owned," while observing that "Miami still ranks 30th on the list of top cities in the U.S. for bike commuting."

On the street side, the City of Miami adopted an updated Bicycle Master Plan in 2026 — its first was adopted in 2009 — and Transit Alliance Miami, which campaigned for it, summarizes the commitment as "10 Dedicated Bike Projects By 2031," with at least one project in each of the five City Commission districts. Brakeaway refreshes infrastructure data monthly, so those corridors will change scores as they are built rather than as they are announced.

Things worth knowing before your first Miami ride

Paint is not protection, and here that is most of the network. The single most useful habit in Miami is to pre-score the route and look at where the line goes red, rather than trusting a bike-map color. Three percent of the county's bike-lane mileage has physical separation; the map does not distinguish.

The causeway is the ride and the risk. The Rickenbacker's popularity — half a million cyclists a year by the county's estimate — is exactly why its crash history is so visible. The 40 mph limit from the toll plaza to Calusa Circle, a $370,000 phase that relocated a beach park entrance "approximately 350 feet east of its current location," and the "delineators devices, pavement markings and other features" the county "added to restrict vehicles from turning through the bike lane" are all recent responses to that history.

Named losses drive the local advocacy you will hear about. Local 10 News reported that a bicyclist was fatally struck by a vehicle on the Venetian Causeway on August 29, 2019; Transit Alliance Miami's Venetian Causeway campaign is built around that death, stating "On August 29th 2019, Flavia Carnicelli was killed by a car while cycling across the Venetian Causeway." The Zebra separators installed in December 2021 came out of that campaign.

The trails are strong; the joins between them are not. Old Cutler meets Biscayne at an intersection. Black Creek crosses Old Cutler Road at grade. The Commodore Trail hands you to the Rickenbacker at one end and Old Cutler at the other through ordinary street junctions. Most of the score damage on a long south-county ride happens in a handful of those handoffs rather than along the miles in between, so look at where the scored line changes color, not just at the total.

Bike share is everywhere, and scores the same. Citi Bike Miami advertises "160+ station locations and more on the way," available "24 hours a day, 365 days a year," and a free bike-sharing program began operating along The Underline corridor in 2025. Brakeaway scores a share bike exactly like your own.

Weather is a ride-day variable, not a score. Heat, humidity, the reliable summer afternoon storm and post-storm debris all change a ride materially and none of them are in the model. That is the reason the disclosure exists.

Resources

Frequently asked questions

Is Brakeaway free to use for Miami routes?

Yes. Scoring routes — in Miami or any other city Brakeaway covers — is free. Upload a GPX file, paste a Google Maps directions link, or connect Strava to import existing rides. Every score is informational data, not a substitute for local judgment; verify conditions before you ride.

Why do so many Miami bike lanes score lower than the map makes them look?

Because most of them are paint. Transit Alliance Miami's Build It – Bike It audit put it plainly: Miami-Dade County currently has 201 miles of bike lanes, but only 6 miles, or 3% of the network, offer cyclists any protection or separation from vehicle traffic. Brakeaway scores what is physically on the ground, so a striped lane beside fast general traffic is scored as exposure rather than protection, and a route that looks continuous on a bike map can drop a full band where the separation stops.

How does Brakeaway score the Rickenbacker Causeway?

Segment by segment, because the causeway is not one consistent facility. Miami-Dade describes it as approximately 3.6 miles in overall length with 1.2 miles of bridge structures and 2.4 miles of roadway, and as one of the busiest bicycling and running routes in Miami-Dade County — the county estimates half a million cyclists and 250,000 pedestrians a year. The stretch that closed after Hurricane Irma and reopened in December 2024 received a $14 million upgrade including paved trails, a seawall and native plants, and that separated section scores far above the on-road bike lane over the William Powell Bridge, where riders share the corridor with motor traffic under a 40 mph limit.

Which Miami trails score highest?

The fully separated ones. Miami-Dade Parks publishes seven named county trails — Snake Creek, Rickenbacker, Commodore, Old Cutler, Biscayne, Black Creek and Southern Glades. The Old Cutler Trail is an 11-mile paved path from S. Red Road and SW 102nd Street down to Old Cutler Road and SW 224th Street in Cutler Bay. The Black Creek Trail is 8.7 miles of paved and unpaved pathway. The Commodore Trail runs 5.5 miles from Cocoplum Road to Brickell Avenue. The South Dade Trail is a 22-mile rail trail running alongside the South Dade TransitWay to Florida City. The Underline's completed phases are the highest-scoring urban segments.

What is The Underline and how does it change Miami route scores?

The Underline is a 10-mile linear park being built on county, City of Miami and City of Coral Gables land adjacent to and below the existing Metrorail guideway, from the Miami River in Brickell to the Dadeland South Metrorail Station. Phase 1, the Brickell Backyard, opened February 26, 2021. Phase 2, a 2.14-mile segment from SW 13 Street to SW 19 Avenue, opened April 24, 2024. Phase 3 is a 7.36-mile segment to Dadeland South, and the county expects the corridor to be completed in 2026. Each completed phase converts a stretch of arterial riding into separated path, which is the single largest score change available on a north–south Miami route.

Does Brakeaway score Citi Bike Miami trips?

Yes, and identically to trips on your own bike — the hardware does not change the infrastructure under the wheels. Citi Bike Miami states it has 160+ station locations and more on the way, with bikes available to use 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, across Miami and Miami Beach. A free bicycle sharing program also began operating along The Underline corridor in 2025. Export the trip as GPX and upload it, or rebuild the line in the analyzer.

Does Brakeaway account for Miami's flat terrain, heat and rain?

Elevation is part of the model, and in Miami it barely moves the number — the bridge and causeway crossings are the only sustained grade on most routes, and the William Powell Bridge on the Rickenbacker is the closest thing to a climb the county offers. Heat, humidity, afternoon thunderstorms and hurricane-season debris are ride-day conditions rather than fixed infrastructure, so they are not scored. That is exactly why the disclosure matters: a score is informational data about the road, not a forecast, and you should verify conditions before you ride.

How often is Miami route data updated?

Infrastructure data is refreshed monthly from OpenStreetMap and published Miami-Dade County, City of Miami and regional datasets. Openings such as new Underline phases, the Ludlam Trail, and Vision Zero corridor rebuilds are reflected in scores within about 30 days of appearing in the source data.

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Last updated: September 24, 2026.