Bus-only traffic lanes coming to downtown Jacksonville

[tufsu1]

I doubt its too late...it just requires a design firm that gets it...by the look of things, they could reduce the travel lanes to 11'....then take another foot from the sidewalk whichwould give them the minimum required 4' bike lane

[Reaper man]

I don't get bus only lanes.  I mean buses go through once every half hour or so right?  So are you telling me that for the times where there isn't a buss passing through that there's just going to be this unused road there, especially during say rush hour?  Can someone explain this to me why this would be a good idea?

[thelakelander]

A few comments on statements in the article:

The routes will allow passengers to get out at the new courthouse, a planned Jacksonville Regional Transportation Center at the Prime Osborn Convention Center and a proposed San Marco Riverwalk. Hemming Plaza and the San Marco Square will also be within easy walking distance.

The San Marco Riverwalk project died a few years ago.  Those guys (Related and Donald Trump) were smart to jump ship before the market really took a turn for the worst.  Also, the connection to San Marco Square is a 9 to 10 block walk, with one of the city's busiest rail lines splitting it at grade level.  

Clem said the Blanding lanes, installed early this year, were a test case designed to see how the community would respond.

“It’s been a great success,” Clem said. “Cars are not getting into the lanes and our bus drivers love it because it makes it so much easier to travel that area.”

I would hope that more criteria would be used to determine success.  Has this project significantly increased transit ridership down Blanding or encouaged the possibility of transit friendly infill development along this corridor?  These should be more important than worrying about if cars will drive in them.  As long as drivers can read and follow the law, they should be able to stay in the correct lane.  Also, this stretch only gets around two or three buses in each direction per hour.  A more accurate determination on the impact of making right turns will come when frequencies are increased to a bus every 10 minutes (although this is probably still a decade out or so).

Except for Jefferson and Broad, the bus-only lanes follow the same route as the Skyway, which hasn’t come close to meeting the ridership estimates anticipated when it was being built.

Teeple said the two systems serve different people. The Skyway was designed for people who drive downtown and then get on the people mover to get closer to where they work, she said, and people using the new lanes will take a bus into the downtown and then transfer over to one of the downtown buses.

The skyway will forever be doomed to failure if this is the outlook for it being there.  The horrendous route planning and selection makes it more of a hassle to get to and use than just driving straight to your downtown destination.

However, history suggests that's not what the skyway was designed to do. Skyway was designed to be a downtown circulator that would be fed riders from a regional transit system that stretched further out into the community.  If designed properly, BRT could be a part of the solution to the skyway's problems.  This can be easily done by not putting BRT stops within a block of every Southbank skyway station.  If stations are duplicated, there's no incentive for suburban BRT riders to use the skyway as a DT circulator.

JTA’s focus on bus-only lanes has frustrated supporters of commuter rail who believe the city would be better off focusing on that as the main way to move people around more efficiently. The agency is also looking at rail and a streetcar system.

This article does't really expose anything that hasn't already been known (at least around MJ).  Now that its not going through the heart of the core, its not a bad route to get buses through DT.  Other than the duplication of skyway stations on the Southbank (which hurts the skyway more), transit riders can't rely on buses alone. Considering this project will include rebuilding or repaving some streets, don't under estimate the benefit to this system by making it more accessible to end users.  BUILD BIKE LANES AS A PART OF THIS PROJECT and the JTC!  Make it easy for people ride their bikes to transit stations.  Its the 21st century... lets think and plan from a multi-modal perspective.

[Jason]

Why on earth would the southbank BRT route ignore the Baptist complex and San Marco Blvd??

If there was one location with a built in group of transportation dependent clientele it would be the hospital and its surrounding outpatient clinics and other medical facilities. 

[Ocklawaha]

This will be a good opportunity to rebuild and improve the walkability and visual attractiveness of these streets.

"congested downtown area"?

I believe this will eliminate all the buses making the crazy time consuming loops in the heart of downtown.  The only real negative of the BRT phase is that it will render the skyway useless on the Southbank, since it parallels it 100%.  Looking back, we successfully kept JTA from screwing up the central CBD but we did not prevail in stopping them from duplicating the skyway and forcing it to compete for limited transit riders.

Might come as a shock to some of you but my plan for the Southbank trumps JTA'S in scope and cost. Yes it would be expensive, but it would FIX FOREVER the FEC RY blockade and offer EMS a flyover from downtown to Baptist. The Two lane flyover would cover from the Acosta to Palm Avenue in front of Baptist, effectively flying over the Atena lot, and the St. Johns site, with a station at the intersection of Prudential and Palm. Further down the street under I-95 a station located between Palm and San Marco, would serve medical arts, Ronald McDonald Home and the busy San Marco redevelopment area. The two lane busway would "TAKE OVER" Gary street which no longer has a single active driveway, residence or business on it. It would fly over the FEC again just below I-95 with a station between Hendrick's and Kings Avenue.

Or

We could just duplicate the Skyway and trash what is left of the investment...

BUT

Who am I? I'm just the guy that told the city the Skyway was a bad idea!

Go figure...


OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Ock, how would you integrate your proposal with the I-95 Overland Bridge plans or get the northbound lanes over the FEC and onto the Acosta.

[Ocklawaha]

I would use Flyovers on the FEC at both points, the Northbound lane would pull off the Atena/Baptist Station almost due east, and over the FEC RY, then under the Skyway and Acosta Freeway, joining the Acosta between the "San Marco" Skyway station and the expressway.

Both lanes would be built on the southern edge of I-95 east-west roughly along the Gary Street right of way with balusters in the divider between the busway and interstate serving as a headlight blocker.

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

With the flyovers it would be way more expensive then their proposed Southbank route, but it would complement the skyway and directly serve the large medical facilities in the area and retail strip down San Marco Blvd.