Kings Road Enhancement Project: Before & After

[thelakelander]

According to wiki, a lane diet could work on a road carrying fewer than 19,000 vehicles a day.  However, a transportation planning co-worker of mine believes that in Florida, that magic number is closer to 12,000/day as a rule of thumb.

If properly designed, traffic does not divert to other streets road after a road diet, because the road previously provided excessive capacity. In other scenarios, reduction of traffic (either local traffic or overall traffic) are intended in the scheme. Road diets are usually successful on roads carrying fewer than 19,000 vehicles per day. Road diets can succeed at volumes up to about 23,000 vehicles per day. However, more extensive reconstruction is needed. Examples include replacing signals with roundabouts, traffic calming on parallel streets to discourage traffic from diverting away from the main road, and other means to keep traffic moving smoothly and uniformly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_diet

Anyway, I think the issue we'd have to overcome is the fact that FDOT is more concerned about automobile movement than other modes.  Outside of taking over maintenance on the road, it would be a fight to convince them to reduce auto capacity in favor of creating an friendly environment for the community, pedestrians and cyclist.

Just for reference, Orlando's Edgewater Drive had over 20,000 vehicles a day before their 2001 lane diet.  So I agree with you that it can and should be done on Kings Road and a number of other streets throughout urban Jacksonville (ex. Edgewood in Murray Hill, Prudential Drive and Riverplace Blvd in DT, etc.).

A 2001/02 roadway resurfacing project converted this narrow undivided four-lane facility to a three lane roadway with bike lanes and parallel parking in Orlando's College Park neighborhood. This complete streets road diet involved a transfer of jurisdiction and maintenance from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to the City of Orlando.  As a result of the road diet, Edgewater Drive has seen a 23% increase in pedestrian traffic (2,632 trips after verses 2,136 trips before), a 30% increase in bicycle traffic (486 trips after verses 375 trips before), and automobile travel delays increased by only 10 seconds during the morning peak hours.  Furthermore, the automobile Daily Traffic Volume for this roadway has decreased 12%, from 20,501 trips before improvements to 18,131 trips four months after the project’s completion.

article and images: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-revitalizing-the-urban-core-road-diets

[iMarvin]

I know it seems weird, but IMO, Jacksonville doesn't seem like the city where this urban living stuff could happen. I mean, I love Jacksonville but it seems like Jacksonville can't turn into a modern city. I don't know why I think this but I just do. 

[jolita63]

I'm looking at a 1926 map of the City of South Jacksonville.  There was no Kings Avenue south of the river back then.  There was a Kings Road but it was short and not the main road on the east side of the RR tracks.  The main road was Atlantic Avenue.  Perhaps when I-95 was constructed, they combined the roads - and the names?

Since i was living in the late 1940's Kings road was always kings road i.e. US !