Jacksonville Ranked 40th for Easy Commuting

[Metro Jacksonville]

Jacksonville Ranked 40th for Easy Commuting



Despite being much smaller than many cities with better commutes, Jacksonville scored poorly in the study done by the Texas Transportation Institute.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-mar-jacksonville-ranked-40th-for-easy-commuting

[reednavy]

I see a trend in some of the top performers, a street grid system.

[Hurricane]

According to this study, every Florida city is terrible.  We are actually the best in Florida!!!  Not the best thing to be proud of, but I'll take it.  We need some serious AND USEFUL commuter rail.  The key to this is useful.  Another half assed sky rail is not how to solve a problem.  You don't just put you toe in the pool, you gotta just jump in and get wet.

[tufsu1]

Ths list sems a bit odd....look at NYC...its #1 in "green ranking" yet #60 in "travel time"....so it comes in at 46....huh?

Basically you'll note that the largest metro areas...even those with significant transit (like NYC, Chi, and DC) and complete grid systms rank near the bottom.

btw...I think this is actually a Forbes study....just used TTI's travel time index as one of the factors.

[thelakelander]

Basically you'll note that the largest metro areas...even those with significant transit (like NYC, Chi, and DC) and complete grid systms rank near the bottom.

Lesson to be learned.  You can't rid yourself of traffic congestion.  So instead of paying more to widen roads, which make the problem worse in the long run, invest a little more money on implementing viable multimodal options to give residents a real transportation choice.

[will]

This just seems to be pretty hard evidence that the 20th century interstate/feeder road sprawl model cannot scale. Road networks worked sufficiently when the number of users was small, but the ability of that network to handle traffic decreases exponentially proportional to an increase in usage. For large number of users, it seems like you need a backbone of mass transit, moving most people between known transportation nodes. Car usage, or something like it, should only be necessary at the edges - where not enough people travel there to justify mass transit.

[Jason]

Basically you'll note that the largest metro areas...even those with significant transit (like NYC, Chi, and DC) and complete grid systms rank near the bottom.

Lesson to be learned.  You can't rid yourself of traffic congestion.  So instead of paying more to widen roads, which make the problem worse in the long run, invest a little more money on implementing viable multimodal options to give residents a real transportation choice.

Couldn't have said it better, Lake.

[north miami]

Basically you'll note that the largest metro areas...even those with significant transit (like NYC, Chi, and DC) and complete grid systms rank near the bottom.

Lesson to be learned.  You can't rid yourself of traffic congestion.  So instead of paying more to widen roads, which make the problem worse in the long run, invest a little more money on implementing viable multimodal options to give residents a real transportation choice.

Couldn't have said it better, Lake.

Mayor John Delaney,at the height of his love fest with area enviros and green glow, once exclaimed that we couldn't build our way out of comgestion.Shortly thereafter,he nudged the "Beltway" along during key Florida Department of Transportation permit application placed to Corps of Engineers & Water Management District for "STAND ALONE" Brannon/Chaffee leg,which of course,as planned by the promoters,morphed in to 'de-facto' full blown beltway,the realization not of viable "growth management" but rather decades old urbanization dream and scheme.
The demise of Blanding Blvd. through poor local planning efforts is but one classic example of missed opportunity that has and will cost us dearly.

[Captain Zissou]

This isn't terrible news.  It's not good, but considering the title, I thought it would be worse.  I thought it was going to be 40th out of the biggest 40 cities, as usual.  Considering we have ZERO green transit, our ranking isn't That bad.  If we could build up our mass transit, we could soar up the rankings.

[Overstreet]

The lesson I learned living in Indy, Honolulu, Atlanta, Jacksonville and even Valdosta is that if you drive at the same time as everybody else you will sit in traffic with everybody else. If you live a long way away it will take longer to get to and from work no matter the mode of travel.  If you come in early, leave early,  or leave late you'll miss most of the traffic.

I used to have an office in the Quadrant on JTB. If I left 5 minutes before 5pm I'd be OK but if I left 5 minutes after 5pm by 5:45 I'd be sitting on JTB west bound across from the office. I could just stay and do some extra work and be more productive and less frustrated.

[Ocklawaha]

Commuter Rank Metropolitan Statistical Area

Travel Delay Rank- Green Commuter Ranking- Travel Time Rank

1 Salt Lake City, UT 26- 13- 11 ---- Light Rail - BRT - Bus

2 Buffalo-Niagara Falls, NY 2 36 1 ---- Light Rail/Subway - Bus - Corridor Rail

3 Rochester, NY 1 40 2 --- Corridor Rail - Bus - Light Rail study - ( subway abandoned )

4 Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI 14 33 5 --- Corridor Rail - Bus

5 Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY 8 32 10 --- Corridor Rail - Bus - Commuter Rail Demonstration Project - BRT study

5 Fresno, CA 14 23 16 --- Corridor Rail - Bus - BRT under construction

7 Tulsa, OK 8 48 4 --- Bus - Commuter Rail infrastructure construction - Light Rail advanced plan

8 Pittsburgh, PA 5 14 40 --- Bus - BRT - Subway - Light Rail - Funicular Rail

8 Tucson, AZ 31 18 23 --- Bus - Streetcar - Light Rail under construction

10 Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH 4 41 14 --- Bus - BRT - Light Rail - Heavy Rail - Regional Rail plan

11 Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton, OR-WA 38 8 31 --- Bus - Light Rail - Streetcar - Commuter Rail - Corridor Rail - Regional Rail

12 Oklahoma City, OK 11 52 3 --- Bus - Light Rail study

13 Albuquerque 22 28 22 --- Bus - Streetcar - Commuter Rail

14 Dayton, OH 5 54 6 --- Bus - Trolley Bus - Regional Rail plan

14 Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI 31 29 18 --- Bus - BRT - Light Rail - Commuter Rail

16 Las Vegas-Paradise, NV 42 22 20 --- Bus - Monorail - BRT

17 Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT 11 46 12 --- Bus - Corridor Rail - Commuter Rail - BRT plan

18 Honolulu, HI 31 3 46 --- Bus - "BRT" disappointment (officially) - Rail under construction

19 Louisville-Jefferson County, KY-IN 27 43 9 --- Bus - BRT demonstration - (abandoned EL)

20 Kansas City, MO-KS 2 58 7 --- Bus - BRT - Regional Rail

21 Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC 22 37 19 --- Bus - Light Rail - Corridor Rail

22 Richmond, VA 5 44 21 --- Bus - Corridor Rail

23 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 11 49 15 --- Bus - Streetcar - Regional Rail study

23 San Antonio, TX 29 27 28 --- Bus - BRT in roll out - Commuter Rail study

25 New Haven-Milford, CT 10 34 32 --- Bus - Commuter Rail - Corridor Rail

25 Cincinnati-Middletown, OH-KY-IN 22 47 13 --- Bus - BRT (abandoned subway)

27 Austin-Round Rock, TX 38 17 36 --- Bus - Light Rail - BRT

28 Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA 38 6 48 --- Bus - Monorail - Light Rail - Commuter Rail - Corridor Rail

29 Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH 36 5 51 --- Bus - Trolley Bus - BRT - Light Rail - Corridor Rail - Commuter Rail

30 Columbus, OH 22 57 8 --- Bus - Regional Rail plan - BRT plan - Commuter Rail plan

30 Charlotte-Gastonia-Concord, NC-SC 34 35 24 --- Bus - BRT - Streetcar - Light Rail - Corridor Rail

32 New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA 19 24 43  --- Bus - Streetcar - Commuter Rail plan

32 Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD 37 9 49 - Bus - BRT - Light Rail - Heavy Rail - Commuter Rail - Corridor Rail

32 Denver-Aurora, CO 45 21 33 --- Bus - Light Rail - Commuter Rail Plan

35 Raleigh-Cary, NC 19 45 26 --- Bus - Corridor Rail

36 Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ 42 16 44 --- Bus - Light Rail - BRT - Regional Rail Plan

36 Sacramento--Arden-Arcade--Roseville, CA 48 15 42 --- Bus - BRT - Light Rail - Corridor Rail - Commuter Rail - Regional Rail

36 San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA 52 25 30 --- Bus - Light Rail - Corridor Rail - Commuter Rail

39 St. Louis, MO-IL 14 51 25 --- Bus - Light Rail


40 Jacksonville, FL 29 42 27 --- Umm??  The link below is listed under "JACKSONVILLE TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY, Bus is Better Then Rail"

http://www.jtafla.com/futureplans/Media/PDF/BRT-LRT%20Comparison.pdf


OCKLAWAHA

[tufsu1]

Ock...I get your point...but to be fair you should list Jax w/ corridor rail (same as all those other cities listed) and bus

[hillary supporter]

he lesson I learned living in Indy, Honolulu, Atlanta, Jacksonville and even Valdosta is that if you drive at the same time as everybody else you will sit in traffic with everybody else

I can testify to that, i lived in NJ, hit the manhattan tunnel and drove to Brooklyn at 6am, left brooklyn at 3pm and back in NJ before 4, easy! But if i was late by 30 minutes, heavy consequences!

[Ocklawaha]

Ock...I get your point...but to be fair you should list Jax w/ corridor rail (same as all those other cities listed) and bus

Ummm was not my purpose to list anything for Jax. as I figure our readership already knows what is here. If I were to list us it would have been Bus, Skyway.  We do NOT have Corridor Rail, though we have been named by 3 different corridor groups and labeled for 4 different routes. Currently we are a railroad ghost town, a mere shadow of what is rightfully ours.


OCKLAWAHA

[finehoe]

Why the anti-urban bias?
By Edward L. Glaeser  |  March 5, 2010

THE BILLIONS of dollars being spent on infrastructure across the nation provide an opportunity to plan for a better America, but politics-as-usual favors sprawl over city. This anti-urban bias of national policies must end.

Over the past 60 years, cities have been hit by a painful policy trifecta: subsidization of highways, subsidization of homeownership, and a school system that creates strong incentives for many parents to leave city borders. Nathaniel Baum-Snow, an economist at Brown University, has documented that each new federally-funded “highway passing through a central city reduces its population by about 18 percent.’’

Subsidizing transportation decreases the advantage of living close together in cities, which should make every urbanite worry about the Senate’s fondness for using highway spending to fight recession. The current Senate jobs bill calls for a more than $30 billion increase for transportation over the next two years.

It is a mistake to think that spending on trains balances the scales. Cities will always benefit far less than exurbs from transportation because dense areas already have good means of getting around, like walking. Urban advocates would do better to either reduce highway subsidies or to balance that spending with more funding for urban schools.

Political leaders have long championed homeownership, but subsidizing homeownership is also anti-urban. Sixty-two percent of Boston homes are rented; 78 percent of Wellesley homes are owner-occupied. Cities are defined by apartments, and more than 85 percent of homes in multi-unit structures are rented. Suburbs are known for their single-family detached houses, and more than 85 percent of such homes are owner-occupied. Subsidizing homeownership, through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the home mortgage interest deduction, lures people out of cities.

For many suburbanites, schools loom larger than fast commutes or subsidized mortgages. America’s local school system creates large incentives for education-oriented parents to move to homogeneous enclaves outside of city limits. Cities would benefit if the school system moved leftward, toward a more uniform national system like France, or rightward toward state-level vouchers that break the link between where you live and where your children go to school. School reforms that enable city schools to work more like a private market can harness the urban edge in innovation and competition that works so well in other industries, like restaurants.

The forces of history have created a moment where the right leadership could make America less anti-urban. The housing crisis, a renewed interest in infrastructure, fear of global warming, and the education reform movement could help bring about fairer policies for cities.

The housing bust exposed the myth that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were costless and exposed the folly of encouraging people to bet everything on the vicissitudes of the housing market. It is time to lower the million-dollar limit on the home mortgage interest deduction and to gradually reduce federal support for mortgage lending.

Across the country, a flurry of experiments is building the knowledge needed to improve urban schools. Education Secretary Duncan is trying to harness “a perfect storm for reform’’ by leading a “race to the top.’’ Education is not just the “great equalizer,’’ it is the great nation and city builder. Our country’s cities depend on the reformers’ success.

The environmentalist movement is recognizing that cities are far more energy efficient than suburbs due to smaller housing units and less driving. Greens need to fight both against suburban highways and for more urban development.

In 2009, America’s five least dense states were awarded $1,100 per capita in federal recovery grants while the five densest states, including Massachusetts, got $561 per capita. President Obama can change the tilt toward low density. The most urban president since Teddy Roosevelt, Obama needs to fight for cities, not just as a matter of justice, but because cities, and the creativity that comes when humans connect and learn from each other in dense areas, are the best hope for the country.

Edward L. Glaeser, a professor of economics at Harvard University, is director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston.