Downtown Development Update: What's rising, what's delayed

[jaxlongtimer]

Using our Super Bowl experience, Bay Street from Main to the Stadium, can make for a great street festival.  Street is wide, lined with some bars and restaurants, and people can park on either end, at the sports complex that has plenty of parking or in Downtown spaces.  Just pick days the Jags or other events don't conflict.

[marcuscnelson]

^ I can't imagine FDOT agrees to a closure of that nature for anything smaller than the Super Bowl. Too primary a street to lose the LOS on and there aren't effective modal alternatives to get people around the area.

[jaxlongtimer]

^ I can't imagine FDOT agrees to a closure of that nature for anything smaller than the Super Bowl. Too primary a street to lose the LOS on and there aren't effective modal alternatives to get people around the area.

Is Bay Street an FDOT road?  I thought that was a City street.  FYI, we close FDOT bridges all the time for charity runs and the Gate River Run that last a few hours.  That's a lot worse than closing Bay Street for a few hours.  I see lanes closed on San Jose Blvd./State Rd. 13 all the time for marathons too. FDOT officials have told me they regularly work to allow closure for community reasons when they can.  I don't see an issue on Bay Street on a Saturday or Sunday if there are no events at the sports complex.  As wide as Bay Street is, they could always leave one lane open as a one way street if needed and cars can go around the block on parallel streets if they need to go the other way. Where there is a will there is a way!

[thelakelander]

I don't believe that Bay, east of Main, is a FDOT street.

[Charles Hunter]

Pretty sure you are right, that Bay Street is a city street, not a state road.

A couple points
- If the idea is to create a pedestrian zone out of the street, leaving one lane open for traffic doesn't seem to be safe.
- There's not much of a street grid there for alternative routes. It can be done, but some of the options aren't obvious.

[jaxlongtimer]

Pretty sure you are right, that Bay Street is a city street, not a state road.

A couple points
- If the idea is to create a pedestrian zone out of the street, leaving one lane open for traffic doesn't seem to be safe.
- There's not much of a street grid there for alternative routes. It can be done, but some of the options aren't obvious.

If there is nothing going on at the sports complex, my experience is you could shoot a canon down Bay Street there and not hit anything on a weekend.  We are talking about taking a dead zone on weekends and putting it to use.

If joggers can run along moving cars on major streets during marathons with much higher speeds and only traffic cones separating them from vehicles, I would think that if we had to keep one lane open on Bay Street at 30 mph (or less during events like you have in construction zones) we could make it reasonably safe.  Thousands walk it to the Jags games with 4 full lanes of cars and bicycle shuttles darting in and out and no one seems to worry about that.

Otherwise, just close the street entirely for several blocks (maybe just short of Maxwell House) and property owners walk to their business a few extra feet if they are even open on weekends. I would also anticipate use of JSO for traffic control and enforcement.

There is a reason a street exists.  So, any street you close will cause potential inconvenience to someone. We even close the interstates for accidents for hours.  If we can do that, and survive, we can close a portion of Bay Street on a weekend and do the same.

What other street on the Northbank would one suggest closing that is less intrusive to others?  Water Street?  Block off the Center for Performing Arts, CSX, the Marriott, Riverwalk, etc.?