Riverside Ave near the Cummer WTF?

[thekillingwax]

I'm not wild about all the lights heading to and from work but I agree that they're needed to train the flow of traffic. Even if the side access wasn't an issue, a six block long chunk of cars piling down Riverside Ave would be insane.

I don't know for sure but I imagine they'll be adding a turn signal to the light at Riverside and Margaret before long. Going eastbound and trying to turn there can be insane during rush hour.

[Charles Hunter]

Riverside Avenue is a state road (there are little signs with "211" along there), so the cameras mentioned along Riverside Ave. can't be red-light cameras - the State doesn't allow them on their roads.

As said before, the light at the closed fire station is really for Forest Street.  Right now it has less traffic than Riverside, but when that big interchange is finished, and there are exits from I-10 and I-95 to Forest Street, I bet traffic will pick up.  Notice that Forest is 6 lanes wide, so someone is expecting a lot of traffic on it.

[Omarvelous09]

Riverside is one of the nicer places to ride in town, but i feel safer on larger roads like Hendricks/San Jose. It's obvious that Jacksonville caters to "spandex riders" and their $1000 bikes. The city will never cater/support bike commuters. Just the other day i blew a tube on R'side Ave....this would never happen at the beach or in San Marco/mandarin. 

[thelakelander]

^We're working on that.  A transit friendly city has to be able to support and cater to bike commuters as well.

[ChriswUfGator]

This city has so many completely unnecessary red lights, it's ridiculous. Especially in Riverside. And most of them don't even work on the sensors in the street, they are just timed. So even if it's 2am and there's not another car around for 2 miles, you still have to sit there for 5 minutes waiting for green.

Totally agree. The light at Riverside Ave & the YMCA takes over 5 minutes some mornings... I normally just head out right and make a u-turn to head back south on Riverside Ave.

That is just one example I'm sure there are many more.

I TOTALLY agree.

Driving from my house down Riverside Ave. to the entrance of downtown there are...count 'em...FOURTEEN red lights, with each one taking between at least 2-3 minutes, and some MUCH longer, even though there are never any cars.

And out of the 14, only 4 are actually necessary. IMO, the only necessary ones are RS/King, RS/St. Vincents, RS/Margaret, and RS and Fidelity's main entrance. I would normally have included the RS/5pts light, but they just put a huge solid concrete median there, and now you can only go right onto RS from 5pts anyway, and so a stop sign would do just fine. Why is that light even still there? WTF? It serves no purpose now.

The rest of the 14 lights are completely useless wastes of time. I can count on one hand the number of times I've been stopped at any of them and have actually seen another car using the light to cross traffic. They should all be flashing yellows or stop signs to accomodate the few cars that use those tiny side streets. And why do the 20-30 people using the YMCA at any given time warrant a timed red-light that holds up traffic on RS Ave? WTF? That's another one that clearly should be a stop sign or a flashing yellow.

And even worse, they closed the RS Ave. fire station down what? A year and a half ago? But the light in front of it is still there and active. Double WTF!!!!! on that one. If I didn't run redlights (and in 9 years of doing this, I've had 0 accidents, and 0 near-misses, BTW) it would take me 2 or 3 times as long to get anywhere in this neighborhood.

Sorry to resuscitate this ancient thread, but apparently someone at COJ got the memo about this. The last few times I've used Riverside Avenue, all the lights are synched up so that once you catch one green you catch the rest green. Which is how it should be. Traffic flows much smoother now, even despite the bottleneck they created by removing an entire lane in front of the Cummer.

Props to someone at COJ for having the sense to fix the lights.

[ricker]

move the trolley line to Park St.!?
fsujax, jason.. . Yes but that would make too much sense!
Park St heading SW out of downtown and Avondale eventually turns into Blanding Blvd @ FSCJKent campus, through LakeShore, CedarForest, Cedar Hills, HydePark, Confederate Point, on its way to Wesconnett, 103rd/Timuquana, OP...
The Trolley lines could also smartly be routed through the inner areas most blighted by frontage losses and right-of-way expansions which have somewhat permanently, detrimentally removed walkability as an element of design from some streetscapes in neighborhoods lining LakeShore Blvd.south of Murray Hill.
Why not encourage the Herschel St line extension SW through to where the pavement becomes LakeShore Boulevard, continuing around the old inner perimeter loop which LakeShore Blvd creates with its connection to Normandy and Lenox, turn right (east) and head back into town via Murray Hill?
Anyone second that motion?
Anyone?

[RiversideLoki]

I will say that Tuesday afternoon (at freaking rush hour!) is ridiculous. I applaud the Cummer for doing what they do on Tuesday, but the timing sucks and traffic backs up forever. I really wish they would have figured some other way to do that than a crossing signal and light.

[ChriswUfGator]

I will say that Tuesday afternoon (at freaking rush hour!) is ridiculous. I applaud the Cummer for doing what they do on Tuesday, but the timing sucks and traffic backs up forever. I really wish they would have figured some other way to do that than a crossing signal and light.

Yeah the whole problem started when they removed the dedicated turn lane that separated the traffic headed to 5 Points and the North parts of Riverside from the traffic continuing west on Riverside Avenue. Ever since then the backups are awful. They should have put in an elevated walkway for the Cummer and left the lanes alone. Wonder what the logic was behind taking such a busy street and replacing a whole lane with a grassy median?

[ricker]

to please the octogenarian benefactors.
build a garage already!

[CS Foltz]

Well from I heard, SMG has set up shop in Riverside..........should not be too long before some of those houses will be bulldozed and parking should improve from the point on! Am I wrong?

[mtraininjax]

Ride the bus with your bike in front, much safer. Jacksonville is terrible about bike lanes. People would run you over sooner than share the road, its a very selfish car/vehicle town.

[Garden guy]

It's all about slowing everyone down to look at the Cummer and to announce that the RAM is here. I think the area will probably change quit a bit as the use of the bridge evolves.

[ricker]

when traveling INTO Riverside from Downtown/Brooklyn, IF Riverside Avenue is too congested, zip over to Park via RIGHT turn onto Forest St.
VOILA!
the (seemingly prematurely?) narrowed lane of R'side Ave is suddenly not a problem.

OR
boogey on over to Stockton via LEFT turn OFF of Forest at Animal Control.
easybreezeylemonsqueezy.
Seriously too many complainers.