Transit Numbers Released: How Does Jacksonville Rank?

[CS Foltz]

Lights won't ever go on Ock! JTA is too focused on "concrete" or BRT! Rail is not in their vocabulary and the current administration could not find their way out of a phone booth much less look into the future!

[stjr]

Ca3rice, welcome to MJ.  Ock and I agree on many things, but the $ky-high-way and ads on bus shelters are where we respectfully see things differently.

I encourage you to visit the several view count and post leading threads on the MJ "Transportation, Mass Transit, and Infrastructure" forum for an energetic review of the pros and cons on both these issues.

Among these threads, you will find my oft repeated response to Ock about how the  $ky-high-way is already a once-expanded and completed system in its existing state as self declared by JTA, it's godfather.  Without regard to additional expansion options, this current completed system has dismally failed twice (once for Phase I, and again for expansion Phase II) by 90+% its "expert" traffic projections after 30 years of booming economies and population.  And, with every passing year, it declines into the abyss ever more with no end in site, promises of better days be damned.  Any Phase III (the arguments for which mirror those for Phases I and II) would be pure folly based on the $ky-high-way's history.  More importantly, I believe we have far more appealing options using streetcars and buses.

Unlike Ock, and given the  lousy taste the $ky-high-way has left in the mouths of many taxpayers about mass transit, I don't see this City contemporaneously building multiple integrated mass transit systems over the foreseeable future.  With such limitations, I support pursuing the "most bang for the buck" options, buses and streetcars, followed by commuter rail.  If in 30 more years, the $ky-high-way hasn't been reduced to rusting metal and crumbling concrete, Ock can try again to raise his flag for it.

That's my side and I'm stickin' to it!  

[spuwho]

As one who TRIES to use the Skyway when necessary, I can share my quibble.

I use the Skyway for two events annually. The Auto Show at the PO and the Gator Bowl Parade.

The station at the PO was a mess. The elevators were broken, the change machines were off (or broken) and we almost had to jump a turnstile if not for someone who happened to have change.

For previous Gator Bowl Parades we simply parked in the JTA Kings Street Garage, walked to the station and rode. Only in 2010, JTA kicked us out of the garage saying it was a "private" garage and could only be used by the new Hilton Garden Inn customers or with monthly passes. After some back and forth, I was pushed into a private lot as you go under I-95.

In 2009, the Skyway broke down at the peak ridership for the Gator parade and the change machines were still broken. I called and complained bitterly about how the tourists were being treated by this carelessness. In 2010, everything worked. Change machines were on, there were 3 JTA employees on all platforms with radios to alert for any issues. All the elevators were working as well.

I know they can do it when they want to. But getting booted out of the Kings Street Garage after this many years of use still irks me. Especially when it sits there half empty 7 days a week.

Quibble complete.