Fuller Warren Shared Use Path

[Ken_FSU]

Really, really great article gents.

It's an awesome amenity, and a really great step in the right direction for Jax.

Got a chance to check it out Saturday at RAM. Amazing views, particularly of the Cummer's gardens, that you can't get anywhere else. Walked from RAM, across the SUP, past all the hospitals, grabbed a scooter at MOSH, and then rode across the Main Street Bridge, through the CBD, past Brooklyn, and back to RAM. The combo of the pedestrian bridges and scooter share really opens up pretty much everything from the sports district to Riverside, which is just fantastic.

From the press preview photos, it looks like a dashed centerline was added after FDOT took their video.

Curious, from the photos in Mark Wood's article, if there is heavy bike traffic, is there enough clearance for pedestrians to safely use the path?  I wonder if maybe there should have been a bit more width to physically separate pedestrians from bikers.  Comments?

It's totally fine. I'd imagine Saturday - during the well publicized grand opening - will be one of the more densely populated days for a while on the path, and there was plenty of room for everyone. So long as bikers watch their speeds on the declines and pedestrians are alert (e.g. not staring at their iPhones), I don't think clearance is going to be a big issue.

[pierre]

Walked it last night for the first time and it’s great. Great views of downtown and the river south towards NAS.

Only thing that surprised me was how many dirt bikes were there under the bridge and then driving up and down Riverside Avenue. There were several of them driving on the sidewalk at times. It made me wonder if this is a common occurrence there.

[jaxlongtimer]

Trash.. is becoming a huge problem, in less than a week. The last time I was up there, I picked up a handful of trash, everything from a tarp, paper plate, pieces of paper, receipts, plastic and more. Mark Woods tweeted the following https://twitter.com/tumarkwoods/status/1645773326357344256?s=61&t=QlvAeVtmwSt6xpcdR1vNag. Of course, there's trash blowing off the Fuller Warren itself, but a group known as "Moms on the Run" were leaving baby water bottles in hiding spots at the base of the path in Riverside. Ugh.. please don't let this be ruined by trash, especially for how long we had to wait for it to open.

Are there garbage cans placed at either end, the midpoint (such as at the lookouts), etc. to facilitate proper disposal?  And, are they animal proof, i.e. like the City provided cans for residential use? 

I have noticed that garbage cans seem to be in short supply in public spaces sometimes and, rarely, if ever, are they animal proof, even though the City owns tens of thousands for residential pick ups. Aside from 2 legged animals (aka humans), raccoons and possums are everywhere nowadays and are not to be underestimated in their ability to raid garbage cans and spread trash over a wide area. 

This issue will also be important for the Emerald Trail to consider.  People are lazy (and, often, just plain slobs and inconsiderate) so you can't have too many cans as they will not walk any further than so many feet to throw trash in them. Sad but true. I think trash in our City is worse than other areas I have visited. 

[acme54321]

Someone on a bike is going to come hauling ass down the west side of that thing and misjudge that corner one day.  Plowing into and endoing over that railing would be less than optimal.

[duvaltilidie]

Trash.. is becoming a huge problem, in less than a week. The last time I was up there, I picked up a handful of trash, everything from a tarp, paper plate, pieces of paper, receipts, plastic and more. Mark Woods tweeted the following https://twitter.com/tumarkwoods/status/1645773326357344256?s=61&t=QlvAeVtmwSt6xpcdR1vNag. Of course, there's trash blowing off the Fuller Warren itself, but a group known as "Moms on the Run" were leaving baby water bottles in hiding spots at the base of the path in Riverside. Ugh.. please don't let this be ruined by trash, especially for how long we had to wait for it to open.

Are there garbage cans placed at either end, the midpoint (such as at the lookouts), etc. to facilitate proper disposal?  And, are they animal proof, i.e. like the City provided cans for residential use? 

I have noticed that garbage cans seem to be in short supply in public spaces sometimes and, rarely, if ever, are they animal proof, even though the City owns tens of thousands for residential pick ups. Aside from 2 legged animals (aka humans), raccoons and possums are everywhere nowadays and are not to be underestimated in their ability to raid garbage cans and spread trash over a wide area. 

This issue will also be important for the Emerald Trail to consider.  People are lazy (and, often, just plain slobs and inconsiderate) so you can't have too many cans as they will not walk any further than so many feet to throw trash in them. Sad but true. I think trash in our City is worse than other areas I have visited.

Unfortunately, the closest trash can on the Riverside Avenue side is the one at RAM, closest to the street. There isn't 1 trash can on the entire SUP, and on the San Marco side, I believe there's 1 at the street level, closest to the lights. I might reach out to a friend who I believe has some contacts, who often does cleanups around town. It's needed, especially with how long the path is, some people won't want to carry trash with them. Also, I recently found 3 cans of flavored sparkling water sitting at the base of a light-post, just behind one of the lookouts. They were placed ever so "neatly" and all it would've taken is a huge gust of wind to knock them into the river below. I stowed them away in the bag on my bike & disposed of them properly.

[duvaltilidie]

Someone on a bike is going to come hauling ass down the west side of that thing and misjudge that corner one day.  Plowing into and endoing over that railing would be less than optimal.

Having rode the path around 15ish times now, I concur. Proper signage to warn bicyclists of the blind turn, with a post in the middle at the bottom, as well as the winding path once you're at the bottom would be a good idea.

[Captain Zissou]

It took Norway less time to build a 3km walking path underground than it took FDOT to build an elevated sidewalk.

Fyllingsdalstunnelen, as it’s known, opened on April 15 with a family day of sporting activities, following four years of construction that began in February 2019. The state-funded mega-project cost close to $29 million, or 300 million Norwegian kroner.

https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/worlds-longest-cycling-tunnel/index.html

[jaxlongtimer]

Mark Woods calls out FDOT for lack of trash cans and public trashing of the SUP.  How long does it take to put garbage cans out... Can't FDOt do anything quickly?  No one thought about that before it opened?

Mark Woods: Within days of opening, the new bridge path was trashed. And then it wasn't.

....The Fuller Warren path was a Florida Department of Transportation project. So it’s the state, not the city, that handles cleanup....

....This leads to one of the issues with the Fuller Warren SUP when it opened: a lack of trash receptacles.

There’s a reason another Main Street, the one at Disney, is known for being clean. It’s partly because there’s always a trash can nearby, and partly because there’s always an employee nearby picking up trash.

Not that I want trash cans lining the Fuller Warren path. It should remain unobstructed. But there should at least be cans at the ends of it — and they should at least be emptied as often as required to keep them from overflowing.

Goss said FDOT officials are working with contractors to put trash cans at the entrances of the path. He also said it takes more than that to keep roadways and paths clean....

https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/columns/mark-woods/2023/04/18/keeping-new-fuller-warren-shared-use-path-free-of-litter-a-challenge/70119856007/