Downtown Investment Authority JULY 19 TH, 2017

Transcription

1 Downtown Investment Authority JULY 19 TH, 2017

2 COMMUNITY SUPPORT AND LONG-TERM PLANS Redevelopment Goal No. 1 Reinforce Downtown as the City s unique epicenter for business, history, culture, education, and entertainment. Redevelopment Goal No. 4 Improve walkability/bikeability and connectivity to adjacent neighborhoods and the St. Johns River while creating highly walkable nodes. Redevelopment Goal No. 7 Use planning and economic development policies to promote design for healthy living.

3 Two-way Street Conversion & Liberty Street Improvements are both identified as priorities within the CRA Plan for Downtown (Ord E). CRA Plan is the result of over 40 public meetings.

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5 TWO-WAY STREET CONVERSION The CRA Plan identifies multiple streets for conversion from one-way into two-way streets. Existing Downtown oneway street patterns promote faster speeds and reduce wayfinding and traffic dispersion for motorists and lead to confusion and circuitous travel to destinations and attractions. For the casual visitor to Downtown Jacksonville, the one-way street grid often presents a confusing circulation pattern and a frustration at the inability to find a specific location. Two-way streets, coupled with on-street parking and street trees tend to work together to slow automobile travel speeds thereby creating a more walkable, pedestrian-friendly environment. Further, two-way streets increase street-level activity and vibrancy in urban areas, increasing the visibility of downtown businesses and retailers. Hogan Street (Union Street to Bay Street) ±2,246 linear feet Julia Street (State Street to Bay Street) ±2,520 linear feet Monroe Street (Pearl Street to Liberty Street & Lee Street to Broad Street) ±4,890 linear feet Adams Street (Liberty Street to Lee Street) ±5,654 linear feet Forsyth Street (Liberty Street to Jefferson Street) ±4,224 linear feet Pearl Street (Forsyth Street to Ashley Street) ±1,400 linear feet

6 LIBERTY STREET BIKE LANE CRA Plan recommends giving Liberty Street a road diet reducing lanes from four to two lanes. The CRA Plan recommends north-south protected bike lanes (cycle tracks) along the west side of Liberty Street connecting the Klutho Park Greenway with the Northbank Riverwalk. Liberty Street is a four-lane undivided road with on-street parking and very low traffic volumes. Fueling Redevelopment to Boost Real Estate Value Protected bike lanes can bring order and predictability to streets and provide transportation choices while helping to build neighborhoods where everyone enjoys spending time. Helping Companies Attract Talented Workers Millennials and members of Generation X increasingly prefer downtown jobs and nearby homes. Protected bike lanes make biking more comfortable and popular and can help companies locate Downtown without unnecessary expenses on parking. Making Workers Healthier and More Productive By creating a clear delineation between auto and bike traffic, protected bike lanes get more people burning calories, clearing minds, and strengthening hearts and lungs. As companies scramble to lower health care costs, employees benefit from the exercise of pedaling to work while helping boost overall productivity and reduce bills. Increasing Retail Visibility and Sales Volume When people use bikes for errands, they re the ideal kind of retail customers: regulars. They stop by often and spend as much or more per month as people who arrive in cars. Plus, ten customers who arrive by bike fit in the parking space of one customer who arrives by car.

7 PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY City plan will address Jacksonville's 'jarring' pedestrian death rate Times Union Dec 5, 2015 So far this year [2015] 41 pedestrians died on Jacksonville streets, according to the Sheriff s Office. Ten have been reported since Oct. 7. In 2013 Jacksonville s rate of pedestrian deaths was second only to Detroit, according to the latest analysis available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Downtown Streets Are We Strangling Ourselves on One-Way Networks? Transportation Research Board 1999 Urban Streets Symposium: "In traffic engineering circles, the operational disadvantages associated with one-way streets are becoming increasingly recognized. The system...[causes] an increase in the number of turning movements and total miles of travel. One-way streets present challenges to the pedestrian due to speed and pedestrian expectations at intersections... there are simply more (typically percent) vehicle/pedestrian conflicts within a one-way street network than in a comparable two-way system."

8 PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY

9 PUBLIC HEALTH & SAFETY Two-Way Street Conversion Evidence of Increased Livability in Louisville Journal of Planning and Education Research, March 2015; Will Rigs 1 and John Gilderbloom 2 1 California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA 2 University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA In 2011, the city [Louisville] converted two one-way streets (Brook and 1st) in the Old Louisville part of town. Though originally designed as two-way streets, Brook and 1st became one-way after World War II, in keeping with the car-first engineering of the time. In the area of traffic, we show that after the conversion of Brook and 1st Streets to two-way flow, there was a 36 percent and 60 percent reduction in total collisions.

10 QUALITY OF LIFE Two-Way Street Conversion Evidence of Increased Livability in Louisville Journal of Planning and Education Research, March 2015; Will Rigs1 and John Gilderbloom2 1California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA, USA 2University of Louisville, Louisville, KY, USA While Louisville experienced a five percent jump in crime during the post-conversion study period (2011 to 2013) as well as the period before conversion (2008 to 2010), a disproportionate amount of crime occurred on multi-lane one-way streets (according to police records). Yet nearly three years after the conversions took place, crime dropped a jaw dropping 23 percent on the converted streets.

11 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT City of New Haven [Connecticut] Two Way Conversion Final Report June 2014 Strategic Priority: Economic Development One-way streets have a negative impact on storefront exposure for those businesses highly dependent on pass-by traffic. As a vehicle stops at or enters an intersection the driver has excellent visibility of the storefronts on the far side of the cross street. On one-way street networks, storefront exposure is lost when one direction of travel is removed, causing one side of every cross street to be partially eclipsed from view. Approximately 25% of businesses are eclipsed in a one-way network, meaning they are not visible to vehicles travelling on the one-way street.

12 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT City of New Haven [Connecticut] Two Way Conversion Final Report June 2014; Strategic Priority: Economic Development The economic development implications have been documented for both conversions to and from one-way streets. Both Chattanooga and Cincinnati saw retail vacancies climb dramatically on the heels of their mid- 20th century conversions of downtown streets from two-way to one-way. Conversely, in the City of West Palm Beach, Florida, property values along Clematis Street increased from $10-40 per square foot to $ per square foot after converting from one-way to two-way. Commercial rents increased from $6 per square foot to $30 per square foot, and retail vacancies went from 50% to 0%.

13 LEVEL OF SERVICE The Case Against One-Way Streets The Atlantic, January 21, 2013; The typical metric of traffic is vehicle flow which amounts, more or less, to standing on the corner and counting how many cars go by. Flow is high on one-way streets because there's little reason for cars to slow down. But flow doesn't take into account the fact that traveling through one-way street systems often means taking a circuitous route, which adds distance to every trip. "You can move more vehicles through a roadway, but if they have to travel a longer distance, in the end, you have actually fewer people being able to get to their destination and get off the road. - Dr. Vikash Gayah, Assistant Professor of Civil Engineering, Penn State University

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