I-95/JTB Interchange Public Workshop Scheduled

[thelakelander]

This event is today.

[thelakelander]

[Ocklawaha]

I really wanted to go and PUSH THE ISSUE of pedestrian and bicycle access between the hotels and all of the offices in Southpointe. Sadly a wreck blocking both lanes of I-95 during this rush hour, has turned the afternoon into a nightmare for STJC residents.

[Scott A Wilson]

I really wanted to go and PUSH THE ISSUE of pedestrian and bicycle access between the hotels and all of the offices in Southpointe. Sadly a wreck blocking both lanes of I-95 during this rush hour, has turned the afternoon into a nightmare for STJC residents.

Send your comments Eric Shimmer at FDOT. You should contact the BPAC about the bike/ped ideas. I know you are well versed in dealing with the City/State and I am only making a suggestion.

[thelakelander]

[tufsu1]

look at that flyover image...gorgeous...just imagine the views one would get from up there!

[thelakelander]

One of my professional graphic pet peeves. Don't stretch the images! That flyer appears to be made in InDesign. I'd suggest cropping instead of stretching lower resolution graphics.  Believe me, the documents will look 100% more presentable.  This may not be an issue for FDOT but for consulting firms competing for jobs, the more professional your work is, the better chance you'll have at winning contracts.

Anyway, my comments will be the same as they've been the last few years.  We need a way to get pedestrians and cyclist through this area (primarily connecting both sides of I-95).  Why is this not a part of the plan?  The excuse about these being limited access highways doesn't fly.

[JayBird]

Anyway, my comments will be the same as they've been the last few years.  We need a way to get pedestrians and cyclist through this area (primarily connecting both sides of I-95).  Why is this not a part of the plan?  The excuse about these being limited access highways doesn't fly.

Might be my ignorance to the planning business, but from outside looking in I would say that factor is ignored because that entire neighborhood is uberautofriendly and is actually against pedestrians and bicyclists. Philips hwy is spread out and dangerous, Bonneval and Southpoint is all people driving into work. And maybe walking around the block on lunch. I mean I went to Nova southeastern univ in Southpoint and they used to give warnings about how unsafe walking to JTA bus stop was. They encouraged ride share instead. D&B's would be an attractor ... But from how far away? And the curve in the road between them and JTB has seen its share of nasty accidents that a bike or walker certainly wouldn't survive.

Or maybe it's a chicken and egg thing ... By adding pedestrian/bicycle access now it'll spur further likeness around it?

[thelakelander]

Might be my ignorance to the planning business, but from outside looking in I would say that factor is ignored because that entire neighborhood is uberautofriendly and is actually against pedestrians and bicyclists. Philips hwy is spread out and dangerous, Bonneval and Southpoint is all people driving into work.

This only applies if you're planning this project for 2014 conditions.  I'd hope, given the amount of money it will cost, this project is expected to serve traffic flow through the distant future.  If this is the case, you have to also look at future land use and integration with other mobility projects in the works, within the immediate area. 


DC Metro's Orange Line and development pattern around its stations.

Think of Northern Virginia in the 1970s when DC's Metro opened.  It was pretty sprawly (and still is outside of areas within walking distance of Metro stations). Over the last 30 years, it has transformed because of a deliberate attempt to integrate land use and transportation policy.


Comparison of Philips corridor and DC Metro Orange Line corridor, both of which are similar in length and pre-transit development pattern.

With that in mind, let's look at the intersection of Philips and JTB.  Multifamily residential uses have already started springing up in the middle of office parks on both sides of I-95 in this immediate area.  There's also pockets of commercial, hotel and office on both sides.

Furthermore, we have BRT and commuter rail projects planned for this area. Both would possibly be operational by 2020 or so and would include stations.  To top this off, visioning plan efforts by residents in the city's Southside call for Philips to be transformed into a multimodal friendly district.  Like Northern Virginia, we have an opportunity to revitalize an underutilized arterial into an easy to reach mixed use zone while also preserving existing single family home communities in the vicinity.  Last, but not least, the Mobility Plan and Fee is set up to provide money to eventually rebuild Philips into a corridor with sidewalks, bike lanes, curb & gutters and a multiuse path to complement the things mentioned above. If this is the case, why are we preparing to spend hundreds of millions building something that only facilitates automobile movement for the next few decades?  This only makes all the other things mentioned more difficult to achieve.


Sketch showing JTB/Philips as a denser node of development in COJ Southeast Vision Plan.

http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-feb-a-vision-for-jacksonvilles-southside

Or maybe it's a chicken and egg thing ... By adding pedestrian/bicycle access now it'll spur further likeness around it?

I don't believe in the chicken and egg theory when it comes to urban development.  Quite simply, the integration of transportation investment and land use policy determines everything else.  If you want a human scaled future environment, you invest in the infrastructure and modify land use policies to facilitate it.  If you want sprawl and autocentric development patterns, you make accommodating the automobile a higher priority than the human.  It's as simple as that when all of the layers of the onion are peeled. 

So, in this case, if we want a denser development pattern and multimodal connectivity, we figure out a way to get a ped/bike overpass across I-95 to tie both areas of Southpoint together. It's much easier to figure it out now and include it within the overall project, then to revisit the idea 10 years later when the area is a bigger mess than it is today.