MIKE CLARK has been reporting and editing for The Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal since 1973. “Downtown is the only part of the city that belongs to everybody,” Speck writes.īut people need to feel safe and welcomed Downtown. Making more streets Downtown two-way, for instance, shouldn’t be taking so long. Downtown finally is seeing some action, but urgency is key. Jacksonville for too long has had too much planning and too little action. A “road diet” plan in Brooklyn could lead to narrower streets, more bicycle lanes, more shade - in short, walkability. The authority’s action plans include a number of proposals to improve walkability. If every American biked an hour a day instead of driving, gas consumption would be cut by 38 percent.Īs bike lanes have been added to New York City, pedestrian injuries have been cut by one-third, Speck writes.īack in 2013 when Speck made his presentations, the Downtown Investment Authority was in its infancy. “If redevelopment is happening, then tearing them down will pay for it very quickly.” ![]() “When you tear down a highway, the improvement in property values is so great that the increased tax revenue pays for that teardown many times over,” Speck said. This has been done with the Embarcadero in San Francisco and the Westside Highway in New York City. His plan for Oklahoma City led to most downtown streets going two-ways with just two lanes.Īnother possibility for Jacksonville is to tear down highway sections that dead-end Downtown, like a portion of the Hart Bridge ramp that ends at the sports complex. Returning Downtown streets to two-way streets can be done quickly, which produces more safety, more business and even less crime, Speck said. Since speeds were slower, injuries fell by 68 percent. After changes weremade to Orlando’s Edgewater Drive, crashes fell by 34 percent. “Four-lane streets can be as inefficient as they are deadly because the fast lane is also the left turn lane, and maintaining speed often means jockeying from lane to lane,” Speck writes.Ī road diet may take a four-lane street and replace it with three lanes along with a center lane for left turns. In many cases, lanes can be eliminated or reduced without hurting traffic flow, which local consultants have discovered in Brooklyn, for instance. ![]() Road diets, which are being studied in several Jacksonville locations, involve reducing lane widths, slowing traffic and providing more space for pedestrians and bicyclists. The good news for cities like Jacksonville is that major improvements Downtown can be made fairly easily, Speck said. It’s the logical successor to the seminal Jane Jacobs book, “The Death and Life of Great American Cities.” Speck’s book, “Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time,” has become a bible among urban planners. “You’ve created a landscape where people rely on the automobile to accomplish the most minor tasks,” Speck said. This encourages speeding and discourages walking and bicycling. ![]() That is why the Forest and Park streets intersection in Brooklyn looks like a highway from the air.
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