University Blvd. Complete Streets proposal

[Charles Hunter]

JTA and the City held a public meeting Wednesday (Aug. 26) to share their complete streets alternatives for University Boulevard in Arlington. Specifically, from the Arlington Expressway to the roundabout at JU/Merrill Road. JTA is responsible for design and construction south of Arlington Road, and the City of Jacksonville from Arlington Road to Merrill Road.

There are four alternatives:
1. Signals - Five lanes and traffic signals throughout
2. Roundabouts - Four lanes and roundabouts replacing signalized intersections
3. Lane Repurposing with Signals - 5 lanes and signals south of Arlington Road, 3 lanes with signals from north of Arlington Road to south of Merrill Road
4. Lane Repurposing with Signals and Roundabouts - 5 lanes and signals south of Arlington Road, 3 lanes with roundabouts from north of Arlington Road to south of Merrill Road

All four alternatives would provide 10' shared use paths on both sides of University south of Arlington Road. North of Arlington Road, the 10' path would only be on the west side, with a 6' sidewalk on the east side.

Link to JTA page on the project: https://publicinput.com/q20087
Besides presenting each alternative, the website includes a place for comments.

There will be another public meeting in October, when the team will present their preferred alternative.

[jaxlongtimer]

How is determined how to split such projects between JTA and the City?  Seems inefficient.

JTA should be strictly mass transit going forward and the City/Public Works Dept. or some other dedicated road building/maintenance entity should handle city streets.  Are there other "transit authorities" in the country set up like JTA to do both mass transit and road building?

[Charles Hunter]

I know at one time, JTA's hybrid was unique; but, I don't know if it still is the "one and only."

I am wondering the same thing about the project split. It used to be that JTA did road construction on state highways. But that doesn't apply here.  In the project video, it says that FDOT gave University Boulevard north of the Expressway to the City back in 2024.

History trivia (or Trivial History): SR 109 followed University Boulevard from San Jose Boulevard (SR 13) north to the vicinity of Justina Terrace (south end of the JU Stadium). Why? Many many years ago (in the 1960s), there was a concept to extend the 20th Street Expressway (now, the east-west portion of the MLK Parkway) east across the river to just south of Fort Caroline Road. At the time, Arlington was still sparsely developed. Anyway SR 109 would have connected the "20th Street Bridge" with the Arlington Expressway, the Hart Xway, I-95, and SR 13. Realistically, the transfer could have been done years ago, as that north stub of University serves no "state" purpose.

[MakeDTjaxGre@tAgain]

Surprisingly no bike lanes in either design. Wonder how many people bike out that way anyway?

[tufsu1]

Surprisingly no bike lanes in either design. Wonder how many people bike out that way anyway?

The alternatives include wide sidewalks (read shared use paths)

[Charles Hunter]

Surprisingly no bike lanes in either design. Wonder how many people bike out that way anyway?

All four alternatives provide:
Between Arlington Road and the Arlington Expressway: 10' shared use paths on both sides of University

North of Arlington Road: 10' shared use path on the west side, and 6' sidewalk on the east side, of University

[marcuscnelson]

How is determined how to split such projects between JTA and the City?  Seems inefficient.

This particular project is being funded by the gas tax extension, where it had been agreed to split the additional cents collected between the City and JTA with each responsible for certain projects. They decided then and with the original LOGT road projects (MobilityWorks) and (I think) with Better Jacksonville Plan as well to have JTA handle building certain road projects.

JTA should be strictly mass transit going forward and the City/Public Works Dept. or some other dedicated road building/maintenance entity should handle city streets.  Are there other "transit authorities" in the country set up like JTA to do both mass transit and road building?

A few years ago I was pondering the concept of a "COJ DOT" that might do such a thing, mainly in the face of JTA's executive-driven mismanagement, but obviously a changing of the guard makes that redundant (and now the possibility of major property tax reduction definitely makes that redundant). The expanding role of JTA in running some sort of transit service in surrounding counties perhaps also begs some questions, but hard to say how much that matters with the state already reshaping the board.

That said, it is not uncommon for "transportation authorities" to be responsible for both mass transit and roads. San Francisco's MTA (Muni), the New York MTA, and LACMTA (LA Metro) are some such examples. Another example is those in which the municipality controls both the roads and transit agency under one agency, like Miami-Dade's DTPW. Usually, the benefit to structuring an authority like that is that you can design and build the roads such that they are supportive of transit (with lanes or signal systems or bus stop construction), or if the roads are tolled, direct that revenue into congestion management through transit services, like New York began doing last year.

However in practice, because of who is often chosen to run these agencies and how funding is directed towards them, they tend to serve to implement big road buildouts, like JTA did with the Beltway or JTB, or LA Metro has done with a number of the highways in that region.

[Steve]

So in NYC, MTA has different advisory board for Bridges and Tunnels, and Transit. Note that MTA doesn't handle road redesigns. They do Bridges and Tunnels, and of note, they are responsible for maintenance going forward, where JTA hands it to either COJ Public Works or FDOT.

That said, I can't imagine anyone saying that the MTA is a well run agency.

[Jax_Developer]

At least the MTA is an actual transit organization & not LARP'ing.