JTA looking at October start on Regional Transportation Center

[thelakelander]

Looking through rose colored glasses, the concept of surrounding the core with parking garages might work, but it's illogical considering there's no provision in place to allow decent sized infill development without parking.  Futhermore, Jax's zoning code actually encourages the creation of more parking in the heart of the core.  As long as the code does this, JTA's 2,000 car garage at this center will be just as empty as the garage on Kings Avenue.

[Ocklawaha]

Lake, far be it from me to argue that we have some pretty stupid laws regarding our downtown CBD. (transit stop advertising and encouragement to build auto facilities in the core being just two of them). Yes, I do look through rose tinted glasses at JTA's monster TC project. Overall, it stinks, just another giant public office building hidden in a sea of "we did this for you... BS!" If they wanted to do a REAL Transportation Center, we'd wait for a decision on the Convention Center and build it in that space. Scattering a "Transportation Center all over LaVilla defeats the very definition of "center," a one-stop-shop for all of your surface transportation needs.

According to current projections Duval County will be COMPLETELY build out by 2040! Over 70,000 people currently work in downtown, and lord knows, many others will soon work or live there. In my "transportation guy" view, the garage system is about the only thing I could say I like about TC besides returning it to the use it was intended for in 1919. As I said, I would ring the downtown core arteries with garages. All of them would include access to one or more of a future Skyway, Commuter Rail, Light Rail, Bus/BRT system. All of them would include ground level or Skyway level retail, food, information and great lighting and security. In fact, building a upscale 3 unit condo right into the building would make it ideal for on-site resident police. Security in exchange for off-duty services?


In this image, I have the garages (and Jacksonville Terminal-Prime Osbourne) in Purple (what else?) I connected them with a yellow line just to show how it COULD be done. NONE of these locations are real places, don't panic, we are not going to do this on top of your home or business! This is just to give an idea of how the inner circle (defensive line) might stop the cars and catch the riders.

The Park and Ride lots I checked out near the Beaches had perhaps 50 to 100 spaces in them. That equals only TWO BUSES! This is not a Jacksonville flaw, it is a Florida, flaw in our thinking and promotion. We build these things for the very poor, the non-drivers, non-automobile-owners then target them with our marketing. WRONG! We need buses that offer a place for the businessman on a 30 minute commute to do some work, get a coffee and relax. A very large system of lots next to the rail and other facilities would do this. We must start to teach ourselves, great grandfather and grandmother had it right, we ALL should be using the public transportation system. I see the garage as one simple way to make that happen.  

Ocklawaha

[Jason]

Here is a 3D model I put together in Google Earth. The details aren't exact but this will give you an idea of the scale of this proposal.