Jeff Speck About To Take On FDOT Next Week

[fieldafm]

Next Tuesday (May 27th), noted 'walkability expert' Jeff Speck will be going toe-to-toe with FDOT on a proposed street reconfiguration in West Palm Beach. 

A very large hotel is going up in downtown WPB adjacent to the convention center and across from CityPlace (basically, a larger version of the Jacksonville Landing) and West Palm officials hired Jeff Speck to redesign a massively dangerous intersection (that just so happens to be made up of two state roads and a juxtoposition of various pieces of land within the ROW that are owned by local govt and private developers) that devides these three destinations.

As many here will appreciate, one of the sticking points from FDOT's point of view is the consideration that the famously-Florida 12 ft car lanes must be reduced in favor of wider sidewalks/bike lanes/medians/pedestrian shelters/and a tighter turning radius (which furhter reduces vehicle speed and shortens pedestrian's distance traveled-the less time pedestrians spend in 'no mans land' of an intersection, the safer it is for pedestrians).

I'll be receiving some texts throughout the night by some friends down there. Should be interesting to watch FDOT fight for those 12 ft lanes (they fight for them everywhere in the state).



Intersetion now:




One version of Speck's proposal:

[Jumpinjack]

Dangerous by Design 2014 report was just released today. http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/research/dangerous-by-design/dbd2014/national-overview/  As in the previous report 3 years ago, Florida metro areas are national leaders in pedestrians deaths.

As in past years, Sunbelt communities that grew in the post-war period top the list of most dangerous regions according to the PDI: Orlando, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Jacksonville, Miami, Memphis, Birmingham, Houston, Atlanta and Charlotte. These areas developed rapidly, with many low-density neighborhoods overly dependent on extra wide, fast arterial roads to connect homes, schools, jobs and shops. Such roads rarely feature the facilities needed for safe travel by foot.

The report also calls out the unacceptably high number of pedestrian deaths seen in nearly every major metro region. The fact is that even our most walk-friendly communities can—and must—do more.

Pedestrian fatalities are disproportionately born by older adults, people of color, and children. While just 12.6 percent of the total population, those over the age of 65 years old account for nearly 21 percent of pedestrian fatalities nationwide. Among people of color, blacks and African Americans suffer a pedestrian fatality 60 percent higher than non-Hispanic whites, and Hispanics of any race have a rate nearly 43 percent higher. And, for the most recent years we have data, 4,394 children aged 15 and younger were killed while walking. Pedestrian injury is the third leading cause of death for this age group.

Be sure to look at the fatalities map for Jacksonville. Beach Blvd, Moncrief Road, Normandy Blvd, Arlington Expressway, Timuquana have some of the highest numbers of fatalities. In downtown it is the area of State and Union Streets.
Fatalities map here http://www.smartgrowthamerica.org/research/dangerous-by-design/dbd2014/fatalities-map allows you to look up a street address and see what the incidence of pedestrian fatalities are.

[Kay]

Our intersection at Park and Forest seems wider than the ones in WPB.

[fieldafm]

Our intersection at Park and Forest seems wider than the ones in WPB.

I would say, yes... the Brookly intersection locally is wider than this WPB example. The existing traffic counts and pedestrian traffic is much higher in the WPB scenario (and about to increase even more) and there also seems to be massive confusion as to who has ROW from both drivers and pedestrians as the lane markings are virtually non-existent... and not surprising based on these scenarios, accident incidents are much higher.

Neither intersections are something to be particularly proud of.

[tufsu1]

FDOT is often willing to agree to 11' lanes where there isn't much freight activity....their own data shows little difference ion capacity or function between 11' and 12' lanes....but ask for 10' lanes and watch them put up the STOP sign real fast.

Seems to me their bigger concern will be with the 2-lane connecting local road....they will likely ask for an intersection analysis to prove that left turn lanes aren't needed.

[Kay]

Keep us posted on what happens here.