February 24th, 1893.
The first streetcar in Jacksonville rolls north on Main Street. Originating from Bay Street in Downtown, the electrified tracks lead to the famous Waterworks Park tourist attraction on 1stStreet. Just one month later, all of Main Street is equipped with electrified tracks. Soon other commercial corridors, like Walnut and Pearl Streets, hear the streetcars’ rumble.
That was then.
The start of the Golden Age for the Springfield Historic District in many ways, as the area boomed in the coming decades. But time, shortsightedness, and asphalt have long since covered up those tracks. Streetcar is a thing of the past in the Historic District, and the entire urban core for that matter. And yet, there’s always a whisper. A rumor. A fantasy. What if we magically had streetcar again?
How convenient would that be! Forget convenience, what an amazing economic stimulus that would be! Forget economics, how just plain cool would that be! But is it just a rumor? A fantasy?
And what about the other suddenly-trendy transit options, like light and commuter rail? Oh, and what’s this I hear about some sort of new turbo-bus zooming through the neighborhood soon?
Good thing there’s someone who knows the answers to all this stuff. And he happens to be a Springfield Historic District resident.
James Boyle, JTA’s Regional Transportation Planner, sits down to discuss what lays ahead for these and other transit projects in the Springfield Historic District.
He’s the man with the plan, quite literally.
So, you are the “Regional Transportation Planner” for the entire Northeast Florida area. That sounds like a pretty big responsibility. What exactly do you do?
I juggle a variety of different projects. Right now I’m working on park & ride services, commuter rail, origin & destination surveys (O & D), and other general transit development plans. I also manage Transit Oriented Development (TOD) planning for the agency.
Ok, I have no idea what any of that means.
Park & ride services is meant for the suburbs. You know, so Orange Park residents can park their cars in a lot off Roosevelt Blvd, then hop on an express bus into the city. Less cars on the road and less congestion. Commuter rail is the same kind of concept, basically, except it's a train.
O & D surveys are part of the consumer research that is necessary to measure demand, predict ridership, and determine commuter patterns.
TOD’s encourage and create connectivity and walkability through mixed-use and dense developments close to public transit.
Will we see any of these projects coming to our neck of the woods, by chance?
Well, yes and no.
The first new transportation project coming to Springfield won’t actually be any of those. It’ll be Bus Rapid Transit (BRT). Think of it like an express bus, getting you from point A to point B faster, without all the stops in between. We’ll actually be getting BRT lite, because we won’t have dedicated bus lanes or guideways. But it will still get to its destination faster than your everyday bus. This won’t affect us directly because the BRT route will skim around the Historic District’s edges.
Heading North from Downtown, the route will travel up Boulevard to 3rdStreet, 3rdto Jefferson, Jefferson to 8thStreet, and 8thto Boulevard as it continues further North. It will stop at 44thStreet, I think.
Construction is scheduled to begin in 2012, and it should be up and running by in 2013. That may seem like a long time, but details like stop locations, building out bus shelters, traffic signal priorities, and so on all have to be figured out. There’s a lot of behind the scenes work to be done.
( Example of BRT in Los Angeles, CA )
I have an idea. How about we build light rail instead of BRT?
I get that a lot these days. The idea for Rapid Transit came about in 1998, and BRT was selected as the best mode for this type of transportation around 2000. At that time there was a big push nationally for BRT projects. It can be effective if done right.
The other change we’ll be seeing around the neighborhood, and people may have already noticed, are the phasing out of the large busses on residential streets. Community shuttles will be replacing them. They’re smaller and less noisy, and cost less too. Large busses will still be used for the major transportation arteries. So the shuttles will feed the bus lines. This transition has already begun.
Utilitarian, if not inspiring. What about the really cool stuff? You know, streetcar and other types of rail?
Long-term, we’re looking at both streetcar and commuter rail.
Now that's something to get excited about! When can I hop on?
Right now these are both long-term plans.
The streetcar study was done in 2008 and it identified Springfield as one of the top 3 priorities along with Riverside and Downtown. It looked at some potential alignments, where the tracks would possibly go, and generated some very rough cost estimates. The purpose of that study was simply to get the ball rolling and people talking about it. And it’s definitely served its purpose. People are very interested, but it’s a work in progress.
Springfield has a long history with streetcar. Walnut Street, 8thStreet, Pearl Street, Main Street. They all had streetcar. And the plan is to bring it back to the neighborhood, and bring it back to the entire urban core.
HOWEVER, the only identified funding source at the moment is the 2030 Mobility Plan proposal. If you’re not familiar with it, it basically makes it more expensive to develop out in the suburbs to encourage infill development. And infill makes transit work. But if there’s not a lot of development, then there’s not a lot of income being generated for the project. That’s assuming the Mobility Plan is adopted, and there’s certainly no guarantee about that. If it is adopted, it could be a model for the entire state to follow.
We’re also still looking at funding a Skyway/streetcar study, to try and make the Skyway an effective, integrated, and complete system. This would include a mode analysis to look at the types of streetcar that might be best for the urban core too, among other things.
( For in-depth discussion of the 2030 Mobility Plan, visit www.metrojacksonville.com )
Commuter rail?
Commuter rail is actually farther along than streetcar, believe it or not. The funding for the studies is easier to secure, so more prep work has already been done. Commuter rail, like BRT, would also skirt the boundaries of the Historic District by just a hair. Instead, it would run through the unofficial “Springfield Warehouse District” and have a stop there. If that area is not developed already by that time, it would be a huge catalyst for redevelopment. And if it is developed by then, it will be an enormous boost to activity. It’ll have a big impact, either way.
Fixed transit lines are proven catalysts for development. It doesn’t matter whether it’s streetcar, commuter rail, light rail….sometimes even BRT. The numbers don’t lie.
What are the obstacles for streetcar and commuter rail? Let's get this going!
Funding. How we are going to pay for it. That’s the obstacle right now.
Of course, we need leadership on the issue as well. We need our city leaders to support it and make it a priority. We can have all the plans we want, but if city leaders don’t support it, then it doesn’t matter.
Your average citizen has a role too. People don’t realize how important it is to show up to public meetings and speak about these things. City Council meetings are monthly and always allow public comments. JTA board meetings are the last Thursday of every month at 2pm, and always accept public input. Unfortunately, it’s rare that people take advantage of these public forums to support these kinds of mass transit issues. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.
Wow, what a convenient time of day to hear public comments!
Hey, I don't set the meeting times. Email is pretty good way to communicate too. I receive emails forwarded to me by City Council staff now and then. They do get read.
Do you have any other thoughts on the future of transportation in the Springfield Historic District?
There’s so much potential for great public transportation in Springfield. For instance, I’ve always thought the old Quality Foods building on 8th& Hubbard would make an ideal TOD/infill location. Something like that would be a spark for redevelopment along that commercial corridor.
But speaking broadly, it’s just a matter of time. We’ve definitely been moving in the right direction. Five years ago, rail of any kind wasn’t even being considered. These things take time though. Patience is a virtue. Such is the world of being a Planner.
Main Street, 1900 . . . .
Main Street, 2020?
For more information about JTA (Jacksonville Transportation Authority), visit www.jtafla.com
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Jacksonville has a pretty expansive streetcar system too! I would kill to see a trolley toll up Main Street!
Jacksonville has a pretty expansive streetcar system too! I would kill to see a trolley toll up Main Street!
Ditto. Street cars would be so cool! Didn't they pull up the tracks when the re-did Main Street this time? Or was it earlier?
This is a HUGE step to making streetcar & rail a reality, and was very much in doubt.
It is also meant to somewhat incentivize infill over suburban sprawl.
Things are definitely looking up. : )
The transition team advising Jacksonville Mayor Alvin Brown on transportation is suggesting he consider the first new public transit option in downtown since the Skyway.
In a report Brown received last week, the group recommended Brown publicly endorse and work to move forward with a trolley streetcar that would run on tracks through the downtown. The estimated cost of building this system is about $71 million.
More at:
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011 ... ent-455422
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012 ... g-business
This is amazing.
“JTA [board members] should take this opportunity to look at where they are going,” said council Vice President Bill Bishop. “I’d suggest they look at themselves as a transit organization and not road builders.”
City government, not JTA, should be in charge of road building, Bishop said.
Last year, Blaylock floated the idea of renewing the existing 6-cent gas tax and adding an extra 5 cents per gallon. The City Council strongly criticized it and the idea was dropped. Blaylock said at the time that JTA couldn’t do road construction without at least renewing the gas tax.
Mayor Alvin Brown has also opposed extending the gas tax, and reiterated that stance on Thursday.
Councilman John Crescimbeni said JTA won’t be building roads in the future because it lacks the funds to do it.
“I think they’ll have to focus on mass transit,” Crescimbeni said. “Because there is no political will to extend the gas tax.”
That means JTA should shed its road building departments and become a leaner and more compact organization with a leader who understands mass transit, Crescimbeni said.
It was a mistake for the city to ever give road construction to an outside entity because the city has the taxing power. And the city should be responsible for building the roads, Crescimbeni said.
Bishop and Crescimbeni don’t have a specific way to fund road-building in the future and said projects may have to wait until the economy gets better.
“And if we do ask for another tax at some point it should go to the voters,” Crescimbeni said. “It shouldn’t be approved by a council vote.”
City Councilman Warren Jones doesn’t agree that JTA should get out of the road construction business. But he concedes that in the short term, JTA should probably look for an executive director with a strong transit history.
“There just isn’t going to be a lot of money for road construction right now,” Jones said. “And we need to find a better way to get people around town.”
Jacksonville has a pretty expansive streetcar system too! I would kill to see a trolley toll up Main Street!
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