Extending the Skyway and Bike Share in Jax's Future?

[thelakelander]

I love idea of bike share I would just like to hear more about addressing bike infrastructure before we just flood the streets with bikes.

Chattanooga is an example of a city that has less bike infrastructure than Jax, but still moved forward with implementing bike sharing.

[CityLife]

Regarding bike safety. I just did bike share in NYC in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, where bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks at all. Did a one day unlimited pass and rode all the way from the Lower East Side, through Greenwich Village to Midtown, to the Upper West Side. Must have covered about 10-15 miles and was on some of the busiest roads in the city. Also rode all over Brooklyn. If New York can become a relatively bike friendly city, the urban core neighborhoods and Downtown Jax can.

[ProjectMaximus]

I'm confused. What does a main hub for bike share look like? I'm assuming it has more bike racks than the typical bike share station? Also, is Unity Plaza purchasing the naming rights? Anyway, hopefully JTA's TIGER grant application to fund the Skyway extension and this bike share  program is successful.

I'm still not sure what a successful application is. If TIGER recipients only get partial funding what is the next step? Are they allowed to modify their plan or is the only recourse to secure more funding from another source?

A successful application is one that results in some money being sent our way.  From my understanding, JTA is shooting for a portion of funding in the form of a TIGER Grant, which they'll use to match with their own money.

Something is getting lost in translation. Our grant application included matching funds to complete the project. I believe that is a requirement of TIGER grants. But I thought you and TUFSU were saying that even the funding requests are generally only partially fulfilled. Is that not actually the case? If the government awards a TIGER grant do they generally give "full funding," as in the full request amount?

In the arts, our city, state and federal grants are never fully funded. But thats always the expectation and our projects are therefore not dependent on full funding for implementation.

[IrvAdams]

Regarding bike safety. I just did bike share in NYC in both Manhattan and Brooklyn, where bikes aren't allowed on sidewalks at all. Did a one day unlimited pass and rode all the way from the Lower East Side, through Greenwich Village to Midtown, to the Upper West Side. Must have covered about 10-15 miles and was on some of the busiest roads in the city. Also rode all over Brooklyn. If New York can become a relatively bike friendly city, the urban core neighborhoods and Downtown Jax can.

Yes indeed. We have many miles of very navigable suburbs here, fanning out in all directions from Downtown. Not to mention several river bridges. You can get almost anywhere on a bike, theoretically. The only major block I can think of is the Overland Bridge expressway area, but there are ways under that.

[fieldafm]

But I thought you and TUFSU were saying that even the funding requests are generally only partially fulfilled. Is that not actually the case? If the government awards a TIGER grant do they generally give "full funding," as in the full request amount?

IF JTA gets the grant (and the picture isn't exactly as rosy as the JBJ article would lead you to believe-it also hase some inaccuricies, however the TIGER grant effort by JTA was much, much better this go around... but there are also a lot of other good projects that have applied for funding), then it would probably only get 50-60% of the mone they asked for. At that point, the applicant has to scale the project down to what is realistic given the combination of cash on hand and grant money awarded.

[Ocklawaha]

^ Cities that have added bike share have also added infrastructure (bike lanes and such) at the same time or shortly thereafter.  Data shows that more bikes on the road yields more safety.  Much of the problems Jax. has now can be traced back to drivers not expecting to see bicyclists (or pedestrians) so they aren't looking for them.  Having a few hundred brightly colored bikes on the streets of the urban core would help change driver behavior rapidly.

Maybe so, but Florida drivers seem amine to common sense approaches like learning to share the lanes. Thus we have the third highest massacre rate in the nation for killing bicyclist and pedestrians.

Reminds me of an old hippie friend back in Portland. Determined to teach his cat to use the toilet every time the poor thing would squat, he'd scoop him up and run to the toilet. This was way back in the crazy days of the late 60's early 70's. As I recall the bathroom was missing a window and except for a waterbed, the house was missing furnishings or a litter box. He would jam the cat down on the toilet and start yelling 'SHIT IDIOT! SHIT!' and once he got really pissed off he would throw the poor animal out the bathroom window and the cat would be gone for a day. Finally the cat got the idea, he would run to the bathroom, do his duty on top of the seat, then jump out the window! I don't expect much more from these bottle throwers.

We need grade separated bike lanes and multi use trails.

[ProjectMaximus]

But I thought you and TUFSU were saying that even the funding requests are generally only partially fulfilled. Is that not actually the case? If the government awards a TIGER grant do they generally give "full funding," as in the full request amount?

IF JTA gets the grant (and the picture isn't exactly as rosy as the JBJ article would lead you to believe-it also hase some inaccuricies, however the TIGER grant effort by JTA was much, much better this go around... but there are also a lot of other good projects that have applied for funding), then it would probably only get 50-60% of the mone they asked for. At that point, the applicant has to scale the project down to what is realistic given the combination of cash on hand and grant money awarded.

Ah, understood. Thanks, Mike! I guess it's a good thing that the application seems like it's not as cost-effective as it could be.

[tufsu1]

^ Cities that have added bike share have also added infrastructure (bike lanes and such) at the same time or shortly thereafter.  Data shows that more bikes on the road yields more safety.  Much of the problems Jax. has now can be traced back to drivers not expecting to see bicyclists (or pedestrians) so they aren't looking for them.  Having a few hundred brightly colored bikes on the streets of the urban core would help change driver behavior rapidly.

Maybe so, but Florida drivers seem amine to common sense approaches like learning to share the lanes. Thus we have the third highest massacre rate in the nation for killing bicyclist and pedestrians.

I would submit to you that drivers in places like Miami Beach and even the Jax beaches have come to expect to see bikes.

[thelakelander]

It appears JTA has lost again in its effort to win TIGER grant money to expand the Skyway to Brooklyn and bring Bike Share to Jax....

TIGER grant winners to be announced this week

News on the winners of the sixth round of TIGER, the popular federal grant program for innovative local transportation projects, is leaking out already, with formal release of the full list expected later this week.

It's always a poorly-kept secret when the winners of USDOT's TIGER grants are about to be announced because of the requirement to notify congressional representatives for districts containing a winning project a few days before the full announcement. As a result, news on some of the winners begins to leak out 2-3 days before the list of winners from USDOT is released.

Some that have already surfaced:

Bus rapid transit in Richmond, Va.
A project to expand the port in Norfolk, Va.
A new bridge on the border of Maine and New Hampshire
A system of downtown and waterfront street improvements that includes a new greenway trail in Waterbury, CT
A new metro station near an emerging job core in St. Louis, MO
And quite a few others.

We'll have the full list here as soon as it's released, and then add new winners to our full map of all six editions of TIGER grants dating back to February 2010. That's a great way to see the nationwide impact of this important program all at once.

Full article: http://www.t4america.org/2014/09/10/tiger-grant-winners-to-be-announced-this-week/

[Tacachale]

Oh well. Maybe that can move forward with a cheaper approach, at least for the time being.

[ProjectMaximus]

I'm an eternal optimist so do you have any more info Lake? Cause I don't see this suggesting that JTA hasn't won just yet... think there's still a good day or two for news to break before I'd throw in the towel. (and of course throw in the towel meaning look for alternative funding which apparently would have been necessary, to a lesser degree, anyway)

[thelakelander]

It's confirmed from multiple insider sauces..

[jaxjaguar]

Good ol' Lake crushing our dreams 

[jcjohnpaint]

Maybe they can look to Richard Clark and his calculator

[ProjectMaximus]

haha, well if Broussard says so...