Metro Jacksonville

Kings Road Enhancement Project: Before & After

(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/1184505044_7nmj2-M.jpg)

Metro Jacksonville takes a look at the results of a $2.3 million JTA pedestrian improvement project at Edward Waters College.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-feb-kings-road-enhancement-project-before-after

Nice update. I'm curious as to the plants and what is the best and cheapest tree shade canopy. Are those crepe myrtles?

Looks good.  No sidewalks -----> sidewalks in front of a college.  Sounds logical.

yes, they are crape myrtles, probably will look better in summer when they are blooming.

It looks great, but quite expensive.  I realize this is a college campus, but if the city is picking up the tab, are brick fences really necessary? Wouldn't bollards and some shade trees accomplish the same thing??  One positive thing to note...  The city looks like it is finally realizing that to create a pedestrian environment, you have to separate it from the automobile oriented street.  This is the first time I have seen any effort towards that in Jax.  

Did I miss it, or did they (JTA) not add any parallel or angle parking??  I guess they figured they had 5 feet of space to work with, so it was either sidewalk and separation, or parking.  I'm fine with their choice, but both would be nice!!

^^Isn't Kings Ave in San Marco (South Jacksonville at the time of that photo)?  Was there ever a streetcar line on Kings Rd. near EWC?

Kings Ave is in San Marco, but I do think Kings Road had streetcar as well.  If we added King Street to the mix, then we could create the Three Kings Streetcar Company.

I'm looking at a 1926 map of the City of South Jacksonville.  There was no Kings Avenue south of the river back then.  There was a Kings Road but it was short and not the main road on the east side of the RR tracks.  The main road was Atlantic Avenue.  Perhaps when I-95 was constructed, they combined the roads - and the names?

The streetcar photo is near the northwest end of the line on Kings Road, near EWC. The South Jacksonville Municipal Railways (not JT CO as in the photo) never operated on Kings Avenue. The SJMUNI ran from the ACOSTA BRIDGE east on Prudential Drive then South on Hendricks and on into San Jose "far out in the country...(?)" A second short line ran from NW San Marco Square east onto Atlantic to Beach Road.

One cannot get too hung up on place names or titles when jumping from about 1912 when this photo was taken to 2011.

"HOOKER - A special cowboy, able to gallop into a herd of Longhorns and rope out or "hook," a problematic, sick or wild animal."

See what I mean?

OCKLAWAHA

I wonder what the modern traffic counts on Kings Road are?  Maybe traffic has actually dropped over the years since it was originally four-laned at EWC and they could consider going back to two lanes and adding in angled or parallel parking.  I realize this is a very long shot no matter what but it doesn't hurt to suggest it. If EWC was interested, they could probably get it pushed through eventually. 

The other option would be a pedestrian bridge over Kings.  Not a typical DOT monster but more like a graceful arching bridge connecting the campus green/plazas on either side of Kings.  I have been on several college campuses with "connecting" pedestrian bridges over arterial roads running through the campus.

The traffic count is still above what would be desired for a lane diet.  However, my suggestion would be to have the road turned over to the city and through traffic directed to MLK Parkway.  After all, it was constructed originally as a bypass.  Why not let it do its job?  Do this and then the lanes could be taken out and replaced with bike lanes and parallel parking.

But would the City want to take on maintenance of another few miles of road? 

Depends on how much the city cares about the health of that community and safety of EWC students.  In Orlando, they felt it was important for the health of College Park to take control over what was formally SR 424 (same width as Kings).  After 10 years, its a pretty walkable and vibrant commercial strip.  In Lakeland, they felt it was important for the health of downtown to take control over Bus. US 92/98 (Main/Lemon-3 lane one way pair).  A decade later, they have things that we wish were in downtown Jacksonville along them.  So, its all about priorities.  With that said, what happens on the Northside has historically not been a high priority of the community at large.

Btw, Stjr, the AADT (Annual Average Daily Traffic) for Kings was 15,100 in 2009.

^Thanks, Lake.  How low would it have to be to be on a "diet"?

According to wiki, a lane diet could work on a road carrying fewer than 19,000 vehicles a day.  However, a transportation planning co-worker of mine believes that in Florida, that magic number is closer to 12,000/day as a rule of thumb.

QuoteIf properly designed, traffic does not divert to other streets road after a road diet, because the road previously provided excessive capacity. In other scenarios, reduction of traffic (either local traffic or overall traffic) are intended in the scheme. Road diets are usually successful on roads carrying fewer than 19,000 vehicles per day. Road diets can succeed at volumes up to about 23,000 vehicles per day. However, more extensive reconstruction is needed. Examples include replacing signals with roundabouts, traffic calming on parallel streets to discourage traffic from diverting away from the main road, and other means to keep traffic moving smoothly and uniformly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_diet

Anyway, I think the issue we'd have to overcome is the fact that FDOT is more concerned about automobile movement than other modes.  Outside of taking over maintenance on the road, it would be a fight to convince them to reduce auto capacity in favor of creating an friendly environment for the community, pedestrians and cyclist.

Just for reference, Orlando's Edgewater Drive had over 20,000 vehicles a day before their 2001 lane diet.  So I agree with you that it can and should be done on Kings Road and a number of other streets throughout urban Jacksonville (ex. Edgewood in Murray Hill, Prudential Drive and Riverplace Blvd in DT, etc.).

QuoteA 2001/02 roadway resurfacing project converted this narrow undivided four-lane facility to a three lane roadway with bike lanes and parallel parking in Orlando's College Park neighborhood. This complete streets road diet involved a transfer of jurisdiction and maintenance from the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) to the City of Orlando.  As a result of the road diet, Edgewater Drive has seen a 23% increase in pedestrian traffic (2,632 trips after verses 2,136 trips before), a 30% increase in bicycle traffic (486 trips after verses 375 trips before), and automobile travel delays increased by only 10 seconds during the morning peak hours.  Furthermore, the automobile Daily Traffic Volume for this roadway has decreased 12%, from 20,501 trips before improvements to 18,131 trips four months after the project’s completion.

article and images: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-aug-revitalizing-the-urban-core-road-diets

I know it seems weird, but IMO, Jacksonville doesn't seem like the city where this urban living stuff could happen. I mean, I love Jacksonville but it seems like Jacksonville can't turn into a modern city. I don't know why I think this but I just do.  ???

Quote from: dougskiles on February 22, 2011, 06:45:32 PM
I'm looking at a 1926 map of the City of South Jacksonville.  There was no Kings Avenue south of the river back then.  There was a Kings Road but it was short and not the main road on the east side of the RR tracks.  The main road was Atlantic Avenue.  Perhaps when I-95 was constructed, they combined the roads - and the names?

Since i was living in the late 1940's Kings road was always kings road i.e. US !