The City Publishes Its March Traffic and Parking Measures Each February

Since 2024, when the city took out advertising announcing that it was breaking up with spring break, Miami Beach has published a package of March measures each February. The package varies year to year and is targeted at named high-impact weekends rather than the whole month, but the components have been consistent.

What the package usually contains

An Ocean Drive traffic plan. In recent years vehicle access to Ocean Drive has been restricted to a single entry at the northern end with a sole exit at 5th Street, on two designated weekends.

Neighbourhood traffic restrictions, typically from 6pm on Thursday through Sunday, around the South of Fifth area and Flamingo Park.

Flat parking rates. The four Art Deco District garages switch from hourly charging to a flat rate that has run in the region of $40 to $100, with resident discounts suspended for those facilities.

Doubled towing. Non-resident towing within the Art Deco District has been set at roughly double the standard rate, plus administrative fees.

Bag checks and licence-plate readers at beach entrances and causeway approaches, alongside a large police deployment including mutual-aid officers.

Curfew powers held in reserve. Curfews were imposed in several years in the early 2020s, sometimes declared mid-weekend at short notice. In 2026 beaches were not closed early and no blanket curfew was imposed, but the city retained the ability to impose one.

What to do about it

Check the City of Miami Beach's own announcements in February for the year you are travelling, and note which weekends are designated. Two or three usually are; the rest of the month runs close to normal.

Do not drive onto the island in March. The combination of restricted access, flat garage pricing and doubled towing makes it the most expensive month of the year to bring a car, and the traffic plans make it the slowest.

Mornings are unaffected. The beach, the Art Deco District and the museums run their ordinary programme in daylight, and the restrictions are an evening and weekend phenomenon concentrated between 5th and 16th Streets.