Jacksonville 34th Most Congested Metro Area

[reednavy]

Good luck getting the Davis family to sell much of that land. A good part can't be built upon anyways because it is wetlands.

[Bike Jax]

My problem with Orlando streets are the speed limits are stupidly low. A major street, like Bumby, is 25mph in a residential area because people bitched too much.

Reednavy, it's called livable streets. It shows how far more advanced Orlando is in it's thinking about road use. "25mph in a residential area", provides for the safety of "all" road users which include cyclists and pedestrians. Not to mention the noise reduction and calming atmosphere it provides for everyone that has to live, work and play along those streets.

The problem of congestion will not ever be solved with the building of more roads. That only moves the congestion to another location. The problems lies with people living 10 - 20 miles and most times even more away from where they work. How much congestion would be reduced if the majority lived within 5 miles of work and had the option to train, bus or bike to work instead of driving?

Of course that means our city leaders would have to be progressive enough to change the way everything is currently zoned, designed and built. Can this be done with the apathy and ignorance that Jacksonville's general populous puts towards electing it's officials? I seriously doubt it.

[TD*]

I think what all of you are missing, is this survey could be based upon traffic counts....

Jax has a great highway and freeway system that moves cars around the city efficiently.

[ralpho37]

If you take a look at the link, and see the different categories in the study, statistics show that during peak hours (rush hours) in Jacksonville, traffic accounts for only 50% of the total congestion.  In many of the larger cities such as Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles, rush hour traffic accounts for over 60% (some over 70%) of the total volume.  This suggests that Jacksonville's traffic patterns are more evenly distributed throughout the day and traffic is not so concentrated during "rush hour."  It also explains why in Jacksonville, it is relatively rare to experience a 5 hour drive to work from the suburbs as one would in those larger cities.

Despite some of the downsides of Jacksonville's infrastructure, I'd say some of these stats speak louder than just the sheer volume of traffic.

[JaxNole]

I can see the Fuller Warren and the I-95/I-10 junction from my office.  For nearly a month, I have noticed the pace of traffic crawl to where motorists would probably rear-end another vehicle if they let their cars coast.

One day I was even able to keep track of a delivery truck for 15 minutes.

I decided to enter 95 South from Park and it tooks me 45 minutes to reach the JTB exit with no accidents or other activity.

Another afternoon it took nearly an hour to drive the Southside Corridor from Merrill to Southside to Philips.

It took 75 minutes to drive from Park and Stockton, down Blanding and then to 220.

Sure, we aren't LA, Chicago, NYC or even Miami, but we have far fewer residents and the commute times are increasing--even without a traffic crash.

[fatcat]

why not move to down town 

[urbanlibertarian]

It's good to live downtown, close to work.  I don't miss the drive in from Jax Beach one bit.

[JaxNole]

I'm lucky I live close enough to walk to work.  I live in Riverside and from my front door to the office in Brooklyn is only 1.4 miles.

I only have to put gas in my car once each month.

Love it.

[JaguarReign]

I was surprised Honolulu was so low at 38. I guess its the small population there because I have driven in Honolulu for 8 years. There is only one way into that city from the rest of the island, H1 interstate, with extremely low speed limits for freeways. It can take upwards of 1.5 to 2 hours to travel 3 miles. Jacksonville, IMO, is not nearly as congested as Honolulu and definitely Boston, two other major cities I've lived in. 

[Jason]

Sometimes we can get to focused on the interstates when it comes to congestion.  I would not be suprised if it is the corridors like Blanding, Southside, Beach, Baymeadows, San Jose, JTB and limited river crossings that combine to drag the metro down.

Indeed, and I shudder to think what some of those corridors will look like once the Southside truly becomes built-out. Only 3 major arterials to the beaches, and only one river-crossing between Downtown and Green Cove. Yikes.

There are still a couple of right-of-way corridors that could impose a little more connectivity. However, so many of them were gobbled up for subdivisions over the past 15 years, I think the Southside might be beyond hope once it reaches true built-out. Imagine once all those woods finally get filled-in PLUS development in the swamps South of JTB.

That is the one major chunck of land I would HATE to see developed.  That would make an amazing urban oasis if it were outfitted with camping areas, hiking/biking trails, etc. 

[jeh1980]

I would imagine that the new I-95/I-10 interchange might ease some congestion and possible bring us further down in the rank...I hope.

[thelakelander]

^My prediction is that congestion points will pop up where all the new lanes merge back down to three.

[Jason]

Precisely.  Just look at the rebuilt I95/I295 interchange.  A simple continuation of the I295 northbound lanes down to St. Augustine road would solve a lot of the problem.

[CrysG]

I think depending on where you live traffic is horrible. I remember in my downtown days that getting there from Fleming Island was the worst. It would take 45 minutes to get from 220 to 295 on 17. I think part of the problem is that there are only 3 major ways to get out of Clay into Duval.

And Blanding between 295 and Wells on a Saturday....forget it....

[reednavy]

Who's bright idea was it to make I-295 3 lanes when you have a four lane bridge, seriously.