Skyway Riverside expansion

[JayBird]

Apparently, according to the most recent JRTC thread there is still time to move Greyhound. However, it would take a concerted community effort in my opinion to get the right people to listen.

[Josh]

And as to NEED to get it across State and into FSCJ, the news just said someone was just mowed down by a bus at Laura and State. Possible fatality. It is bad no matter how you cut it but it seems even worse if it's one of our young students, lured to Rosa Parks by a truncated Skyway.

The news is now updating this story that it was a 61-year-old man (possibly walking with a cane) crossing mid-street while the bus had a green light. As terrible as downtown is for pedestrian safety, I think anyone that drives a lot through downtown knows 'pedestrians' are certainly to blame for their fair share of incidents.

[JayBird]

^agreed, that "pedestrian always has right of way" attitude
and Ock, though I'd love to see Skyway all the way to 8th Street it will not prevent this. I would assume next logical stop would be 1st and Pearl and students up in front bldg and portables would not walk back.

[JeffreyS]

I am not big on pedestrian bridges but if the skyway crosses there should be a pedestrian bridge attached.

[JayBird]

^Agreed, however the speed limit there is only 30mph. However, due to its design that looks like a freeway, I get pushed off the road and I'm usually going 40-45. JSO or FHP need to hit between Matthews Bridge and I-95 for a couple weeks and slow people down. And lets remember, this was one incident. I can think of many more pedestrian crossings much more dangerous.

[tufsu1]

The easy way to fix the speed on state and union is to retime the lights....right now you get a green at one end and go 45 you get green the whole way

[coredumped]

The easy way to fix the speed on state and union is to retime the lights....right now you get a green at one end and go 45 you get green the whole way

True, that will fix the speed, but not pedestrians walking across when they don't have the right of way.
I think pedestrian traffic will be greatly reduced once the new JTA station opens.

[Ocklawaha]

The easy way to fix the speed on state and union is to retime the lights....right now you get a green at one end and go 45 you get green the whole way

Speed adjustment and perhaps for the time being a mid block speed hump-cross walk, fully signaled with in street LED's at the Rosa Parks Station would pretty much stop it. A pedestrian walk from the Skyway station center platform should be an easy but more expensive fix. They could later add the track on each side.

Its true that a 'logical stop' would be at First and Pearl, but anytime you have have a huge collector/distributer such as the college, in the urban core, there is no reason why it can't stop at both. Actually if you curved NW right up close to the buildings and cut a diagonal across the parking lot, you could have a stop at the Hogan Creek Tower/Jefferson St. Pool/Klutho Park - The VA Clinic - and UF. I think the VA clinic could be the clincher on a Federal Grant. The way it is designed a station could be located virtually over the entry, and as they have already filled it or accounted for all of the space they still have a need for the VA canteen (cafe), PX and probably other services we could plug into and/or create such a package.

[JayBird]

^ all good ideas, Ock ... doesn't Mr. Ford need a consultant from the community? *hint hint*

[coredumped]

^ all good ideas, Ock ... doesn't Mr. Ford need a consultant from the community? *hint hint*

I second this. Watching the video he seems like a smart, reasonable man:)

[Dapperdan]

Does anyone know what plans he submitted for the  federal funds? I mean was it the basic station Metro Jacksonville proposed that sat on ground level, or was it the full plans that had two stops down Riverside ending across Forrest Street?

[tufsu1]

From what I understand, it is for one station close to the existing maintenance center....but due to restrictions on the TIGER grant program, it may be a bit more than something simple / no-frills

[Ocklawaha]

We've got an idea for that and a story in the pipeline with the details.

[thelakelander]

Does anyone know what plans he submitted for the  federal funds? I mean was it the basic station Metro Jacksonville proposed that sat on ground level, or was it the full plans that had two stops down Riverside ending across Forrest Street?

Most likely, something in between.  The minimum TIGER grant is $10 million and that $10 million can't exceed 80% of the project's capital cost.

FY 2013 Appropriations Act specifies the following additional requirements:

The FY 2013 Appropriations Act directs that not less than $120 million of the funds provided for projects in rural areas.

TIGER Discretionary Grants is to be used for projects located in rural areas. TIGER Discretionary Grants may be used for up to 80 percent of the costs of a project, but priority must be given to projects for which Federal funding is required to complete an overall financing package and projects can increase their competitiveness by demonstrating significant non-Federal contributions. DOT may increase the Federal share above 80 percent only for projects located in rural areas, in which case DOT may fund up to 100 percent of the costs of a project. Therefore, for projects located in urban areas, based on the statutory requirements of at least 20 percent non-Federal cost share and a minimum grant size of $10 million, the minimum total project size for an eligible project is $12.5 million (where the minimum $10 million TIGER Discretionary Grant request represents 80 percent of the total project cost). The minimum total project size for an eligible project in a rural area is $1million (where the entire project cost is funded with a TIGER Discretionary Grant). However, the statutory requirement to give priority to projects that use Federal funds to complete an overall financing package applies to project located in rural areas as well, and projects located in rural areas can increase their competitiveness for purposes of the TIGER program by demonstrating significant non-Federal financial contributions.

http://www.dot.gov/tiger/application-resources

[JeffreyS]

If we have to go further than a platform at the maintenance barn then we should go to RAM.