BRT Coming to Blanding Boulevard

[fsujax]

Not sure about the comparisons between LRV and Streetcars. The articles always seem to focus on LRV. Since streetcars normally move at slower speeds, the accident rate is probably a little less than with LRV.

[Ocklawaha]

BRT Lanes - Accidents or Centers of Beauty, LRT or Streetcar still wins...

In this photo, take a good look at another RIVER CITY - Cincinnati

Cincinnati and its waterfront, besides the great swaths of concrete of the roadways themselves are the vast parking lots and garages necessary to accommodate the battalions of private motor vehicles which this combined land use and transportation policy is designed to encourage. SEE: http://www.westonmorris.com/html/brt.htm
[Photo: Google Maps]

In this photo, take a good look at another RIVER CITY on the BAY - San Francisco

San Francisco and its waterfront, unseen is the "heavy" rapid rail BART subway system, the Muni Metro light rail system (also underground in the downtown). Just out of the photo to the south is the CalTrain regional (commuter) rail station, and on the surface and visible in the photo is a surface light rail line and a streetcar line, along with cable cars, electric trolleybuses, and diesel buses.
SEE: http://tripplanner.transit.511.org/mtc/XSLT_TRIP_REQUEST2?language=en
[Photo: Google Maps]

Which one smells like Jacksonville?

Any Questions?

Ho! Its SOCO time again!

OCKLAWAHA

[CrysG]

I live not far from the area that got the BRT lanes added. They are lanes that were converted from on street parking for business(most notably a flea market). My husband and I were driving to MH the night before the lanes opened and noticed that the lanes would open the next day at noon. (We had no idea up until this point). While driving I was pointing out questions that I wanted to know in terms of the lanes. For one how does one turn into the business on the right? Are you to wait in the now center lane? If so wont that clog up a lane the way the buses used too? Or are you to drive in the bus only lane. If so wont that hold up the bus lanes?

Also the lane abruptly ends at 103rd St(which is heavily used for people coming off of Blanding) so you have the bus only lane ending in the turning lane for 103rd St. I foresee a log jam with buses trying to get over to continue down Blanding and cars wanting to turn east onto 103rd.

Lastly I asked my husband who drives this route to and from downtown for work if he ever see's any buses in the lane. His reply? Nope.

[JeffreyS]

This isn't a test they just built this leg now to piggy back the FDOT road work.

[JaguarReign]

I doubt that this will provide a meaningful example of the positive or negative of BRT because this is such a small section of the city. More of Blanding should have been utilized or there should have been more areas of the city open to BRT. When performing a social experiement such as the perceived benefits of the BRT, more samples should be obtained.  

[thelakelander]

CrysG, cars can use the lane for right hand turns only and I think buses come along that stretch every 30 minutes or so. 

[ProjectMaximus]

For one how does one turn into the business on the right? Are you to wait in the now center lane? If so wont that clog up a lane the way the buses used too? Or are you to drive in the bus only lane. If so wont that hold up the bus lanes?

CrysG, cars can use the lane for right hand turns only

Lake, according to the very first diagram in this article, it appears cars can only use the bus lane for right turns approaching an intersection. If you're turning into a business, you turn right from the center travel lane.

[thelakelander]

You're right.  Be careful out there when making those right turns into individual businesses.

[rwolfe618]

Our neighborhood group - Lake Shore Area Preservation Society - had a couple folks from JTA come speak to us about the BRT probably about a year ago. For those of you that don't know, Lake Shore is right around the corner from where the BRT trial has been setup. I've lived in the area a very long time and have honestly never had a problem with buses blocking the right lane when they stop. There's always been enough of an emergency lane on the right for them to pull safely into.

JTA set up the trial lanes on this stretch basically because (1) it was free for them, as others have already mentioned and (2) they're pretty much guaranteed a "success" because there's so little bus traffic there to begin with. That's assuming they brush under the rug the number of pedestrians that will probably get hit near the flea market, as well as the number of accidents caused by there being basically no parking for the flea market anymore. If they had done this between Collins and Wells Road (just a busy stretch, as an example), it'd be a completely different story.

I guess they're hoping people will be so frustrated with the situation (which JTA is kind of creating) that they take the bus and put money into JTA's wallets.

[WJDII]

AS a long time JTA rider, I would come to believe that the Bus Lanes are more beneficial for use by school buses which have the right to use the lanes as well. As far as BRT lanes being used by JTA, They would have been wise to start with I-10 and I-95 as BRT lanes would reduce transit delays for about 60% of all lines.

[ricker]

As Clay and Duval have historically been linked by only 2 arterials [US17 and SR21]  I understand that the BRT rollout effectively cleaned up the appearance of Blanding by removing all on-street parallel parking near SacredHeart. great. fine. whatever even though such a move has negatively impacted the bargain house of fleas.

WHY wasn't BRT [restriping] launched in an area of greater density as aprecursor to rail to begin training crazies outof their 4wheel polluters?
SAY between Harlow and FSCJ Kent?

[Jaxson]

Our neighborhood group - Lake Shore Area Preservation Society - had a couple folks from JTA come speak to us about the BRT probably about a year ago. For those of you that don't know, Lake Shore is right around the corner from where the BRT trial has been setup. I've lived in the area a very long time and have honestly never had a problem with buses blocking the right lane when they stop. There's always been enough of an emergency lane on the right for them to pull safely into.

JTA set up the trial lanes on this stretch basically because (1) it was free for them, as others have already mentioned and (2) they're pretty much guaranteed a "success" because there's so little bus traffic there to begin with. That's assuming they brush under the rug the number of pedestrians that will probably get hit near the flea market, as well as the number of accidents caused by there being basically no parking for the flea market anymore. If they had done this between Collins and Wells Road (just a busy stretch, as an example), it'd be a completely different story.

I guess they're hoping people will be so frustrated with the situation (which JTA is kind of creating) that they take the bus and put money into JTA's wallets.

You have a good point about the flea market.  I still remember one incident in which a couple were killed when they attempted to cross Blanding by the flea market.  I remember this because they had either just celebrated their anniversary or they were about to and a friend of mine told me what he saw at the horrific scene.  With or without on-street parking there, I hope that we will remain vigilant with an eye toward safety - this includes both drivers and pedestrians...

[ricker]

Yes, If I remember correctly one of those folks was wheelchair bound.

I maintain:  IF what is dubbed 'BRT'  had launched as a mechanism to connect Avondale, Oakleaf and DT, maybe?

[Ocklawaha]

The sad part of this is JTA jumped the gun on converting those lanes into BRT. Perhaps they believed their own propaganda that BRT was the magic bullet that would send ridership soaring, yeah maybe. The fact is this is now only an ugly scar on Blanding with all the usefulness of a nuclear powered bath towel. Until they were ready to commit funds for improved stations, park and ride facilities, real time information, Google or Nextbus technology, and close those headway's to every 10 minutes, it's doomed to fail.

10 minute headway's can be accomplished by making this the "mainline" for 2-3 bus routes, 3 routes running every 30 minutes could be scheduled to pass along Blanding every 10 minutes in BOTH directions. Send one off into Argyle Forest, another up to Kingsley to loop through the community, and yet another via Well's/Collins Roads, there would even be room for a several times each rush hour express that could go all the way to Middleburg, perhaps even with military subsidized runs all the way to Camp Blanding on the weekends.

Still, we have NO real BRT buses, no BRT schedules, no BRT stations, but we've closed off lanes in what is arguably the busiest road in North Florida so we can use BRT "BUS ONLY" paint stencils...



Otherwise, don't apply bus lanes until we can run them all the way into Jacksonville Terminal downtown. Frankly I really like the Post Street Route as more dense, better connected, more walkable, and it sets up two major expansion opportunities. There is no reason why another link from FSCJ Kent to South Blanding couldn't be added after rail transit connection's become a reality. 

SO TYPICAL OF WHAT WE'VE COME TO EXPECT... perhaps JTA could borrow an old historic saying and coin it to fit Jacksonville transportation and what they have done to that "AUTHORITY..." Hell JTA, here's one:

"We are the knights of Bushido, of the order of the Rising Sun, we don't execute our projects in the evening, we execute at dawn."


OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

I don't think Riverside would like your Post Street route.  Post is majority residential and gets pretty narrow at certain spots.  To accommodate BRT style traffic, you're probably looking at removing significant amounts of on-street parking (in a neighborhood that already has residential parking issues), along with trying to convince residents that its perfectly fine for buses to blow right past the front door of their houses every 10 minutes.