Brown's Team Suggests Trolley System in DT; Would It Be Another Skyway?

[fsujax]

Someone needs to convince the TU to do a "real" story on the benefit of streetcars and examine why it was recommended by the transition committee. Guess that is too much to ask from the TU.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

The primary benefit of an efficient public transportation (and one that seems to be most overlooked by the opponents) relates to the workforce.  Whenever I ride the skyway, I am one of the few who do so by choice.  Most don't have access to a car or can't drive one.  So, what we seem to be telling them is - don't hang out at Hemming Plaza all day, go get a job!  But when you do, expect to take 2 to 3 hrs to get to and from work.

I met a guy recently on a hot Saturday waiting for the train to cross San Marco Blvd.  He lived on the north side and was working on the south bank.  I asked him why he was on this side of the tracks.  Because it was Saturday, the skyway was not running.  To get to Kings Avenue Station he would have had to go all the way to Regency and back.  So he takes the bus to San Marco Square and then walks back up.  Surely we can do better than that.

There are quite a few changes coming next month for the southside services.  I don't use them, but one of the biggest things is they're really looking at starting saturday service for the skyway because the newest proposed route (that combines 3 others) terminates at the KSS M-F and they really don't want to change the route just for the weekend because of the skyway.  This was per Kent Stover & Liz Peal.

Although, even though that sounds like a good sign, neither of them were familiar enough with the skyway to recommend options for existing passengers.  There was one lady at the meeting who was full of piss and vinegar because she couldn't get to the X-4 in the afternoon from Rosa Park without a 6-8 block walk.  After listening to Kent try and explain how she could catch this bus or this bus or this bus, I simply explained to her that she could hop on the skyway at RP, get off at Central, cross the street and meet the X-4, and based on her arrival time she would have a 10-15 window once getting to Rosa Park - more than ample time and it will save her about 45 minutes each day - and she only has to drive to the K-mart and not the OP Mall.

So while I'm glad that they're trying to get Saturday service, I'm really skeptical.

[exnewsman]

I've seen it all now.  A guy has actually made an argument that Portland, San Diego and Charlotte are all transit failures that have not stimulated any TOD.  I guess what I rode on, walked through and photographed last week was pure fantasy.

I guess I photoshopped the San Diego images posted below:

Well Portland only had $3 BILLION in development within 3 blocks of their system. Maybe the failure threshold is $4B???

[exnewsman]

I am baffled by the fascination with taking the Skyway to the stadium. There is plenty of on site parking for all the events NOT at the stadium. And there is a viable working system in place to get people to the stadium now in a cost effective manner for the 10-15 days the stadium is actually in use.
... Ride the stadium shuttle - it works just fine and has ever since the Jaguars have been in town. Not to mention save us $100M

I rode the shuttle to/from the Eagles/Jags' game last September and can't say I was too impressed.  Easy enough to get there, but took nearly an hour to go the 2.2 miles from the stadium to the drop-off near Prime Osborne afterwards.  Not the worst system in the world, but seems pretty silly to be sitting on a bus in traffic for an hour to go 2.2 miles when Jacksonville has a great system that, if extended 1 more mile, would make that same trip in 5 mins...all the time.

I that was an anomoly. I've NEVER had the trip take more than 15 minutes in either direction. Nor have I heard anyone complain about an hour trip on the stadium shuttle. It's one of the smoothest running operations that the JTA has.