San Jose Boulevard Gets Bike Lanes

[Metro Jacksonville]

San Jose Boulevard Gets Bike Lanes



In 2010, the passage of Jacksonville's 2030 Mobility Plan called for the City of Jacksonville to invest $36 million to fund over 100 miles of new bicycle facilities throughout the city. The addition of bike lanes to San Jose Boulevard was a major item on the proposed improvements list.  Well, we can remove a good chunk of it from the list. The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) District 2 recently added them as a part of a $4.5 million roadway resurfacing project. Take a look.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-aug-san-jose-boulevard-gets-bike-lanes

[Bridges]

Sweet! 

So, this was an FDOT project without help of the Mobility Plan (even though it was included as a project)?  Or did the Mobility Plan fund this?

[jaxlore]

much needed!

[thelakelander]

Sweet! 

So, this was an FDOT project without help of the Mobility Plan (even though it was included as a project)?  Or did the Mobility Plan fund this?

It was on the mobility plan's list but FDOT restriped and narrowed the existing auto lanes to create the extra space as a part of their resurfacing of the roadway. So if the city is still keeping track of the mobility plan projects, they can switch whatever was allocated to this to something else.

[coredumped]

This is just what we needed. I'd prefer to see some more separation between the cars and road:


or a different color of paint like in NYC. Now, just watch out for doors!


Is this a requirement for future road projects? If not, it should be.

[cline]

I believe FDOT has begun to use colored lanes in some parts of the state.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

I drove down San Jose last Friday for the first time in forever and, "Wow!".

From the car, those lanes looked as though they were 6-7' wide.  The part that irks me is that the space for the lanes has been there since forever, what's the 'dragging of the feet' for just adding a simple stripe to the side?  It shouldn't take a $4M resurfacing project to add $10k worth of paint - on San Joes or any other road that would be used more by cyclists.

On a kind of WTF moment on my way home, there were two asshats on tri-bikes (assumed due to the aerobars) that weren't content with their new bike lanes and were still a couple of feet into the traffic lane.  I guess someone's gotta be 'that guy'. 

[cowford]

I live off San Jose just north of Bay Meadows and love the new bike lanes.  It was a pleasant surprise.  The shoulder to the right of the bike lane even leaves enough room for people to park their cars.  The ride to San Marco, Riverside and Murray Hill is much nicer now.

[Sonic101]

I feel like this still won't be enough for most people. I'm currently in Rochester Hills, Michigan and most of the roads have multi-use paths instead of sidewalks. I see a lot of people use them and you can go almost anywhere with them. Like here at Hamlin Rd: https://www.google.com/maps/@42.6529245,-83.1163768,83m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en

[hound dog]

It's terrific. Now, how can we make sure the bike lanes continue all the way to Hendricks and Atlantic in the next phase of SR 13 repaving? Does anyone know if they are part of the plan?

[Bike Jax]

This could have been so much better, FDOT District 2 could have set the precedent for the rest of the state. We showed them study after study showing how simply switching the parking and bike lane creating a Cycletrack provided much safer infrastructure for the cyclists.

But as usual, they chose to ignore that data because of the catch 22 syndrome that the FDOT suffers from, if no other division has done it, then we can't do it. Which means nothing new or progressive gets done and FDOT gets to pat themselves on the back saying "look at all the good we've done."

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[Josh]

And on the other end of the spectrum, here's a city that puts bike commuting as a top priority.

https://vimeo.com/102436343

[thelakelander]

It shouldn't take a $4M resurfacing project to add $10k worth of paint - on San Joes or any other road that would be used more by cyclists.

The $4 million resurfacing job would have been done regardless of if bike lanes were added or not.  Once we spend money building all these new wide roads we like to speed our SUVs on, we're then stuck with the task of forever spending public money to maintain them. So to turn lemons into lemonade, if we can coordinate the schedule of the routine resurfacing jobs (we're doing anyway) with implementing context sensitive street enhancements, we can make a lot of change with O&M money already allocated for existing roadways.

[thelakelander]

This could have been so much better, FDOT District 2 could have set the precedent for the rest of the state. We showed them study after study showing how simply switching the parking and bike lane creating a Cycletrack provided much safer infrastructure for the cyclists.

But as usual, they chose to ignore that data because of the catch 22 syndrome that the FDOT suffers from, if no other division has done it, then we can't do it. Which means nothing new or progressive gets done and FDOT gets to pat themselves on the back saying "look at all the good we've done."

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I love cycle tracks as well. My guess is sliding all six lanes and the center turn lane over to one side of the roadway would have probably required moving/replacing traffic signals and mast arms as well, thus rising project costs above the allocated resurfacing budget.  Don't worry, we can change incrementally. Get the bike lanes now, continue to advocate for the next step (separated cycle tracks) because we'll probably resurface this street again/replace signals within the next 10 years.

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

It shouldn't take a $4M resurfacing project to add $10k worth of paint - on San Joes or any other road that would be used more by cyclists.

The $4 million resurfacing job would have been done regardles...

I get that.

My point being that we shouldn't have to wait 3-5 years for resurfacing projects to add the necessary striping and signage for bike lanes on the corridors that are used more frequently for bikes. 

US17 is an awesome ride from Riverside to 295, and I don't mind riding the hwy, but I'd feel a lot better if there was a designated lane along that stretch as well.   Would love to do a loop down 17, over the Buckman and back up San Jose.... As it is, I either turn around at 295 or take Collins to Blanding.