Bicycle-less BRT Streetscape Coming to Downtown?

[Adam W]

It's better to bring this up for discussion now, then after its built and people start questioning why we would spend millions on reconstruction in the 21st century and not incorporate basic quality-of-life enhancing and safety elements of urban roadway design that are openly endorsed and recommended by the USDOT. 

Exactly! Now is the perfect time to get this sorted - instead of building it as planned and then having to shell out lots of money down the road to get the bike lanes or whatever built. Or, even worse, using the cost to add bike lanes later as an excuse to not build them.

I can't imagine it would make much difference to the overall cost of the project to include bike facilities. And if it does cost more, it's going to seem like a lot less when added to the total cost now than it will later on as a standalone cost.

[cline]

Where is the Mayor on this issue? surely he can influence some deicsion makers.

JTA knows full well the elements of design endorsed by the USDOT (or at least they should).  Yet they continue to come up with asinine designs that fly in the face of those quality of life enhancements.  Then they release the plans and everyone is left wondering "What the hell is this?" and now we have to lobby local officials to change a design to include things that should have been there in the first place.  It gets old. 

[wsansewjs]

It's simple.

JTA is full of idiots.

-Josh

[thelakelander]

I can't imagine it would make much difference to the overall cost of the project to include bike facilities. And if it does cost more, it's going to seem like a lot less when added to the total cost now than it will later on as a standalone cost.

It's actually cheaper to restripe.  The lion's share of the project's costs (I believe its $12 million) is to rebuild these streets to accommodate dedicated bus lanes and wider sidewalks/streetscape (brick pavers, period lighting fixtures, etc.).

[Tacachale]

This is disappointing, if not surprising. What are the chances of fixing this?

[thelakelander]

How much was all this going to cost again?

$12 million.  Around 80% is being funded through the Fed's small starts program.

[thelakelander]

This is disappointing, if not surprising. What are the chances of fixing this?

If the council or the mayor can be influenced to support a truly multimodal street design then good.  They have to influence to get things changed fairly quickly than the rest of us do.

[L.P. Hovercraft]

But for starters, who can I contact via email or letter to voice my opinion?

I'd start with City Council and the Mayor. 
JTA too?

Anyone else with their hand in this project?

[simms3]

JTA acts like it is some aircraft carrier of an organization, too busy to turn.  It also acts like Jacksonville is some congested nightmare when that is only partly true in the suburbs where arterials and feeder roads dominate.  These roads where the busses are going to go are DEVOID of cars and pedestrians.  There is no reason to "plan" for the hoards of pedestrians here when that ain't ever going to arrive, and there is no reason not to plan for bikes now when now is easier than ever to put those lanes in.

If these roads served 25,000+ cars a day and required JSO to regulate the intersections and garages emptied out tens of thousands of commuters within a block and businesses lined the streets, it might be a more difficult situation (and perhaps not the best kind of street for bike lanes!).

[thelakelander]

Since there are shared bike/bus lanes on the Southbank as a part of this project, JTA may not be the entity forcing the bad Northbank roadway design.  Either public works or the JEDC could be a factor in the current layout.  In either event, all three can be easily influenced by the mayor's office and council.

[peestandingup]

This town's priorities are completely effed. They know the problems, they know the safety issues when it comes to cyclists/pedestrians, and they know the un-sustainability of all of this mess. Yet they continually go against what's best for turning these things around & let the special interests keep having their way. Or maybe they're just stupid & have zero idea on how to run a modern city? Regardless, thats basically how it goes here it would seem & this is just business as usual for Jax & the good ol boy network.

Sure, I could post solutions, we could have discussions, this & that. But would that really matter? I'm convinced that anything that has to do with alternate modes of transportation here (basically anything besides getting into your own lovely automobile) is done so half-assed that it will discourage such thinking. Buses (with hour long wait times at stops with horrible conditions) that takes you an additional hour to go only a few miles, an insanely expensive monorail (that can never be extended because of that) built overtop a city with an extremely small population density that doesn't go anywhere, bike lanes put out in the middle of nowhere unconnected to anything, yet nothing in the core where it's really needed.

Does anyone else see this, or am I just wearing my tin foil hat again?

[fsujax]

^^haha.

[tayana42]

What this city lacks is good government and inspired authorities (JAA is a positive example) JTA is a failure.

[Kay]

Downtown does not have an advocate like Soutbank does in San Marco Preservation.  Can Transform Jax take this fight on?

[cline]

Downtown does not have an advocate like Soutbank does in San Marco Preservation.  Can Transform Jax take this fight on?

Downtown is all that the Mayor talks about.  You would think he is the advocate.