Is Jacksonville Dangerous By Design?

[Dashing Dan]

I attended the JCCI meeting yesterday.  It wasn't crowded.

[Dashing Dan]

The next BPAC meeting is tomorrow Thursday August 4 at 5:30 p.m.  in the Lynwood Roberts Room on the first floor of Jacksonville City Hall.  Come and see what's being done to get a bike lane on Riverplace Blvd.  (Many thanks to the MJ folks who are helping with this.)

[Dashing Dan]

From today's NY Times (August 16, 2011) -

On Wide Florida Roads, Running for Dear Life

ORLANDO, Fla. â€" As any pedestrian in Florida knows, walking in this car-obsessed state can be as tranquil as golfing in a lightning storm. Sidewalks are viewed as perks, not necessities. Crosswalks are disliked and dishonored. And many drivers maniacally speed up when they see someone crossing the street.

Then there are the long, ever widening arterial roads â€" those major thoroughfares lined with strip malls built to move cars in and out of sprawling suburbs.

It is no wonder that four Florida metropolitan areas, led by the Orlando region, ranked as the most dangerous places to walk in the country, according to a recent survey by Transportation for America, a nonprofit safety advocacy organization.
...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/16/us/16pedestrians.html?ref=us

[Dashing Dan]

^Sounds good.  Regarding the Hendricks & Riverside Avenue connection, has there been any thought to coordinating bike lanes as a part of JTA's BRT project?  There is certainly enough ROW along Riverplace Blvd. and even Broad & Jefferson in their preliminary engineering plans.  That project alone, could provide the connection between State/Union, Riverside Avenue and Hendricks.  Tie it in with their north BRT corridor and you'll connect with Shands, the new VA Clinic, FSCJ, S-Line bike trail, 8th Street, Springfield, New Springfield and Brentwood.  However, unless things have changed, they aren't putting them in.

Mission Accomplished!  I don't have the specific details, but it was announced at last night's BPAC meeting that this matter has been resolved.  With the concurrence of the JTA, there WILL be a bike lane on Riverplace Blvd.

[Lunican]

Jacksonville has moved up the list to number 3 most dangerous in the nation for pedestrians.

The Most Dangerous U.S. Cities for Pedestrians
Between 2003 and 2012, 47,025 pedestrians were killed by drivers in the United States.

The 10 metropolitan areas in the nation where people walking are most likely to get killed by cars or other vehicles, with their PDIs, are:

Ranking   Metro Area   Pedestrian Danger Index
1   Orlando-Kissimmee, Florida   244.28
2   Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida   190.13
3   Jacksonville, Florida   182.71
4   Miami-Fort Lauderdale- Pompano Beach, Florida   145.33
5   Memphis, Tennessee (including parts of Mississippi and Arkansas)   131.26
6   Birmingham-Hoover, AL   125.60
7   Houston-Sugarland-Baytown, Texas   119.64
8   Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Marietta, Georgia   119.35
9   Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Arizona   118.64
10   Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord,  North Carolina-South Carolina   111.74

http://www.citylab.com/commute/2014/05/the-most-dangerous-us-cities-for-pedestrians/371253/

Link to 2011 rankings:  http://www.metrojacksonville.com/forum/index.php?topic=12334.0

[thelakelander]

^Watch out Tampa, you're next on our push for number 1 status.

[Charles Hunter]

Is this the Next Level?

[tufsu1]

Seems like we could easily pass Tampa Bay, but getting "up" to Orlando's level will be difficult.

As a side note, I was thinking about the methodology last night and why some feel it skews the results against Florida.  The stats are based on # of total pedestrian deaths in relation to the percentage of people who walk to/from work.  That's a bit like mixing apples and oranges.  Given the large amount of tourists and elderly in our state, the resulting ratio could very well be misleading.

Another thing to note is that the study released yesterday only includes stats through 2012.  So any progress that has been made (anywhere in the country) since then is not reflected.

I'm not saying we don't have a BIG problem with roadway design and pedestrian safety, but perhaps the methodology makes Florida metros look a bit worse in relation to other cities/states than they really are.

[NoahDavis]

An updated and still frightening report on our pedestrian safety. We hold on to number three.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/jimdalrympleii/these-are-americas-deadliest-cities-for-pedestrians

[Jumpinjack]

When you examine the interactive map of Jacksonville fatalities in Dangerous by Design 2014, there are wide multilane higher speed roads with high numbers of fatalities. A few of these same roads appear in the TPO's Path Forward long range plan for widening to six lanes.