More Room For Cars In Downtown!

[Metro Jacksonville]

More Room For Cars In Downtown!



With a couple buckets of extra paint, Jefferson and Broad Streets have been quietly widened to become downtown's latest six lane one-way pair.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-jan-more-room-for-cars-in-downtown

[I-10east]

It doesn't look like six lanes to me...Broadway in downtown Nashville actually is a six lane street (plus dual parallel parking) wider than any streets in DT Jax, but nevermind that though...

[thelakelander]

What is a six lane street or one-way pair supposed to look like? It's basically three travel lanes in each direction. Nevertheless, the basic point is many of our streets are wider than they have to be. Several can be retrofitted at a minimal expense to increase multi-modal connectivity and safety.

[Jumpinjack]

I've always believed that one way streets destroy our grid system. It actually works against free flow of traffic. How can this be good for downtown improvements?

[JeffreyS]

Good thing downtowns aren't places where people might walk across the street.

[coredumped]

Sad, doing the bike Lane would have cost no more money and could possibly save lives.
How does something like this happen without public hearing? Do they not need to announce things like this?

[Redbaron616]

Your headline makes it sound as if it is horrible having cars in downtown Jax. No cars; no business. We Americans love our mobility and we're all not about to park our cars and walk/bike/ride a bus/tram to downtown. So get over yourself. Once you make downtown into your own image, no one might come.

[vicupstate]

Your headline makes it sound as if it is horrible having cars in downtown Jax. No cars; no business. We Americans love our mobility and we're all not about to park our cars and walk/bike/ride a bus/tram to downtown. So get over yourself. Once you make downtown into your own image, no one might come.

The point isn't NO cars, it is to allow for cars AND pedestrians at a minimum, and ideally bikes as well.  How many businesses are flocking to Union and State streets?  The traffic count on those streets is high, but only a fast food/convenience store or two has opened there in many years.  Highways attract highway oriented business but nothing else. 

[Gunnar]

How many bicyclists are there (or would there be) in this area in the first place ? Just asking...

[jaxjaguar]

As someone who lives downtown and regularly cycles, I guess I'll just stick to the dilapidated sidewalks on my way to five points... Also, I'm glad to see the real problem with these streets was fixed, the paint, not the horribly uneven surface 

[thelakelander]

Your headline makes it sound as if it is horrible having cars in downtown Jax. No cars; no business. We Americans love our mobility and we're all not about to park our cars and walk/bike/ride a bus/tram to downtown. So get over yourself. Once you make downtown into your own image, no one might come.

Lol, how did you get that out of the headline? Are you a Green Bay Packers fan or something? You shouldn't make assumptions without at least first putting forward the effort to dig for more information to validate the predetermined opinion.

The title wasn't negative. It just said "More Room For Cars In Downtown". You inaccurately believed it was a negative because of a predetermined personal opinion.

Then there was a tirade about loving our cars and then for me to get over myself. Let the anger go, because it will take the stress out of your life. Seriously, this is only an internet forum.

In reality, I'm fine with using white paint to alter traffic capacity, for cars or any other mode. The point of the article wasn't a tirade about cars. It was just highlighting how fast things can happen when we want to do them. There was no years of wasted tax dollars on studies and then excuses to why we couldn't afford white paint to add an extra lane to an existing street.

Somebody determined that there was a need and it happened. We can do the same to inexpensively improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure connectivity. That's the gist of the story.

[I-10east]

The way that I look at it is that particular section of Broad has always been an awful bottleneck, with the additional traffic dumping out from the off ramp. The new courthouse added additional traffic. With those two issues alone, I have no problem with the transition adding a 3rd lane. Even if they was to add a bike lane instead (the demand for it is very questionable on Broad IMO, with no 'source' to start) it would be a certainty to stop at State St, not that far away. 

[tufsu1]

This is part of the JTA BRT project.  The outside lanes will be reserved for buses in the peak hours.  That said, there are now extra travel lanes for cars at all other times.

[thelakelander]

The way that I look at it is that particular section of Broad has always been an awful bottleneck, with the additional traffic dumping out from the off ramp. The new courthouse added additional traffic. With those two issues alone, I have no problem with the transition adding a 3rd lane. Even if they was to add a bike lane instead (the demand for it is very questionable on Broad IMO, with no 'source' to start) it would be a certainty to stop at State St, not that far away. 

The article wasn't about adding a bike lane on Jefferson and Broad Streets. It was just highlighting restriping as an inexpensive way to enhance travel on existing streets.

In the case of Jefferson and Broad, an extra travel lane was added. On Adams, a travel lane was removed to add parallel parking spaces that were lost on Broad, as a part of the conversion.

Instead of debating whether this is the right use of roadway width on these two streets, we should be looking at restriping on wide streets like Park, Adams, Bay, Hubbard, Edgewood, Myrtle, Oak, Forest, etc. as a quick and cost effective way to improve pedestrian and bicycle connectivity and safety throughout the city.

FYI, the article isn't about adding a bicycle lane on Jefferson and Broad Streets. It was to point out

[thelakelander]

This is part of the JTA BRT project.  The outside lanes will be reserved for buses in the peak hours.  That said, there are now extra travel lanes for cars at all other times.

Originally, the plan was to rebuild these streets and streetscape the sidewalks. Has that been modified to restriping to add the extra lane, meaning the sidewalk improvements have been taken out?