Guest Series: Carmen Godwin

[Adam W]

I lived a life without a car in Jacksonville/Riverside in the mid-2000s and found it basically impossible. At one point, it was fine because I was working downtown and, if anything, it was more convenient to take the bus than to drive to work anyway. Leaving work at night, however, was a bit of a hassle due to bus schedules. I would walk home from the office and would get home before the bus would've gotten me there anyway. Perhaps a bicycle would've been wiser.

Once I started working on the Southside (at BoA), the bus just wasn't an option, unless I wanted to allow almost 2 hours for the commute (and include a dangerous walk at the end). I think Jax is in a bit of a bind - the bus routes are a bit crap and the frequency of service just isn't good enough. But can you really demand more routes with more frequent service with such low ridership?

I never felt that comfortable riding my bike in Jax, as there are few bike lanes and motorists just don't seem to understand how to treat cyclists. But I hear it's gotten better in the five or so years since I left, which is great news.

[Dog Walker]

My wife and I ride around Avondale and we know the laws, yet it is amazing how many DOPES, and you know who you are, ride around at night without flashers in the front and back of their bikes. JSO could pay for Zone 4, by patrolling RAP and handing out 100 buck tickets for not having flashing lights in the front and back of bikes.

Don't be a moron, get your flashers and get legal. Don't get hit because you were too cheap to buy a 5 dollar set of white and red flashers.

Those flashing LED lights have to be one of the greatest safety advances for bicycles in the last 100 years.  I wonder how many lives have been saved by them.  The old steady lights just weren't visible enough in our cities.

If you ride at night without the flashers, Darwin is going to get you.

[hypnotoad]

Why don't we get all our friends together, buy a used trolley, all contribute equally to break even on the payments/gas/maintenance and figure out what the route should be, let other people ride too per trip or a monthly/yearly pass.  Not-for-profit co-op transportation?  I don't know if that is feasible honestly -- just thinking out loud.

[Dashing Dan]

Or just rent a bus with a driver.  There are companies in town that could provide that service for that fee.  If a couple of bars chipped in, it could pay for itself.  Think of all of the potential riders who wouldn't have to worry about a DUI.

[Ocklawaha]

Why don't we get all our friends together, buy a used trolley, all contribute equally to break even on the payments/gas/maintenance and figure out what the route should be, let other people ride too per trip or a monthly/yearly pass.  Not-for-profit co-op transportation?  I don't know if that is feasible honestly -- just thinking out loud.

Sorry, but the only thing this would achieve is making all of the local bankrupcy attorneys happier then a tornado in a trailer park.

OCKLAWAHA

[Timkin]

[/quote]

Sorry, but the only thing this would achieve is making all of the local bankruptcy attorneys happier then a tornado in a trailer park.

OCKLAWAHA


[/quote]


funny

[hypnotoad]

Dashing Dan, that is an interesting idea!  I love the idea of riding a trolley around Riverside/Avondale/San Marco/Downtown to restaurants and shops for starters.  Later service would be great and it would be fun for a night out with friends.  Not worrying about DUIs is definitely good all around.

I'm not really sure what the basis was for immediately dismissing what I said... because there was really zero information in the response so it almost seemed non-sequitur.  Since I'm new to the site I just hope this will be a courteous forum with people who are respectful and want to make the city a nicer place to live for everyone.  I hope I'm not expecting too much out of my fellow Jacksonvillians.  Great site.  Peace.

[ChriswUfGator]

Dashing Dan, that is an interesting idea!  I love the idea of riding a trolley around Riverside/Avondale/San Marco/Downtown to restaurants and shops for starters.  Later service would be great and it would be fun for a night out with friends.  Not worrying about DUIs is definitely good all around.

I'm not really sure what the basis was for immediately dismissing what I said... because there was really zero information in the response so it almost seemed non-sequitur.  Since I'm new to the site I just hope this will be a courteous forum with people who are respectful and want to make the city a nicer place to live for everyone.  I hope I'm not expecting too much out of my fellow Jacksonvillians.  Great site.  Peace.

Well when you plunge in sometimes you don't realize how deep the water is. Ock is a transportation engineer, he's been in that industry 30 years, and he designed/laid out much of the proposed riverside trolley system. He was giving you his opinion of the idea of a not-for-profit local bus service in Riverside. It's a qualified opinion. Of course you're free to disagree with it.

[Timkin]

Dashing Dan, that is an interesting idea!  I love the idea of riding a trolley around Riverside/Avondale/San Marco/Downtown to restaurants and shops for starters.  Later service would be great and it would be fun for a night out with friends.  Not worrying about DUIs is definitely good all around.

I'm not really sure what the basis was for immediately dismissing what I said... because there was really zero information in the response so it almost seemed non-sequitur.  Since I'm new to the site I just hope this will be a courteous forum with people who are respectful and want to make the city a nicer place to live for everyone.  I hope I'm not expecting too much out of my fellow Jacksonvillians.  Great site.  Peace.

I do not think anyone was "bashing" your idea.  So not to worry,  please do come back .

[Ocklawaha]

Dashing Dan, that is an interesting idea!  I love the idea of riding a trolley around Riverside/Avondale/San Marco/Downtown to restaurants and shops for starters.  Later service would be great and it would be fun for a night out with friends.  Not worrying about DUIs is definitely good all around.

I'm not really sure what the basis was for immediately dismissing what I said... because there was really zero information in the response so it almost seemed non-sequitur.  Since I'm new to the site I just hope this will be a courteous forum with people who are respectful and want to make the city a nicer place to live for everyone.  I hope I'm not expecting too much out of my fellow Jacksonvillians.  Great site.  Peace.

Please excuse my sarcasm, it's my spiritual gift... LOL!

Here is the breakdown:

Purchase one used potato-chip-truck-thinks-its-a-trolley bus, anything in the 2000's is going to set you back about $50,000 - $75,000 dollars. Because almost all mass transit highway vehicles run on a 12 year/500,000 mile federal transportation guideling. So 'our' new bus will probably end up being more like $100,000 dollars to make it truly usable. Buy at least 2 of these to make sure your covered in the VERY LIKELY event a vehicle dies.

A qualified bus driver is going to cost $31,000 minimum annually, and you'll need 2 or 3 to protect the scheduled operation IF it only ran 8 hours a day. Add another shift and you'll need another 2 or 3 drivers. Bottom line, at a bare bones and bottom line, it's going to be another $100,000 annually. Mechanics add another $35,000 to 40,000 annually. Any way you look at it, its going to be a $200,000 dollar a year operation, and we still haven't paid insurance, fuel (at about 8 mpg) or rental space for a bus lot.

You now into this for something like a quarter to a half million dollars. You'll recover this at $1.00 a pop and a average load of what? 5-15 passengers!

You be lucky to cover even the fuel cost.

Sad but that is the way it is and THAT is why the private transit industry died off from about 1950-70.

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Great breakdown. You really can't make money running a transportation system (roads or mass transit) without the land development connection.

[hypnotoad]

Ocklawaha thank you for your response!  It makes good sense.  Oh well, back to the drawing board! lol

[deathstar]

No negative outbursts or aggression from any motorists after having used the strip of road on Riverside Avenue with the sharrows... "yet". I'm shocked at how big of an issue this is for so many citizens and how there's no common ground on the matter. I saw the report Channel 4 did with Tarik Minor, where he intereviewed 2 young motorists, and not 1 individual bicyclist, like Carmen Godwin for one. How CAN we, or rather, will we ever be able to, educate people on the matter? I hope it doesn't come down to something as drastic as an accident or with an intent to cause bodily harm like that mess on Roosevelt by FSCJ a few years ago, again.

[mtraininjax]

Please excuse my sarcasm, it's my spiritual gift... LOL!

The wit is under appreciated often times on the board, but glad to have it! 

[Dashing Dan]

No negative outbursts or aggression from any motorists after having used the strip of road on Riverside Avenue with the sharrows... "yet". I'm shocked at how big of an issue this is for so many citizens and how there's no common ground on the matter. I saw the report Channel 4 did with Tarik Minor, where he intereviewed 2 young motorists, and not 1 individual bicyclist, like Carmen Godwin for one. How CAN we, or rather, will we ever be able to, educate people on the matter? I hope it doesn't come down to something as drastic as an accident or with an intent to cause bodily harm like that mess on Roosevelt by FSCJ a few years ago, again.

I'd like to start a new thread on this website that would be specifically about sharrows.  We need more sharrows in this city, and we need motorists as well as bicyclists to know how they work. 

In the meantime here's a link to the website for the Jacksonville Bicycle Coalition:

http://jaxbikecoalition.org/