When a city is either very large or very populous, it's beneficial for there to be alternative forms of transportation available apart from cars. We need ways for more people to get anywhere they want to go, without us piling up behind each other in the form of traffic. An extensive bus system does a lot to reduce the number of vehicles on the road, and bus or trolley routes provide relatively affordable transit for people who can't or don't drive. But it's even better if transportation can become more independent of roadways. Bike lanes are one way to do this while also reducing consumption of gasoline. But a bike can only hold one, maybe two people, and doesn't travel very quickly. So to move more people more quickly, many large cities opt for a rail system.
All Aboard
New York City famously has a subway that many people depend on more than cars. The London Underground, nicknamed "The Tube," was the first metro system in the world. My favorite is the extensive and easy to use subway in Hong Kong that connects the islands and the peninsula, even going underwater in places. Cleveland, Ohio has a much simpler rail that can be critical for new arrivals trying to get from the airport to the city center. Miami has a linear metro rail supplemented by a smaller local circuit that travels around downtown. The advantage that a rail can have over other forms of transit is that they can move more people at a time, they move faster and go further, and they are more capable of bypassing built and natural obstacles, compared to cars or buses.
An extensive railway is beneficial to a big city. So it's surprising that the expansive and populous city of Jacksonville doesn't have one. Like other Floridian cities, Jacksonville absolutely can't have an underground subway because the ground is too porous; the Florida water table is a significant factor to recon with that presents almost all underground construction. We can't even have basements here. But an above-ground rail like the one in Miami would be a huge advantage. In fact, there is a little one called the Skyway. It's been running since the 1980s, but it only runs Downtown and has just 8 stops. Although people do use it and it's a free public service, it's no use to most people in the city because of the limited area it covers. This leaves Jacksonville, as a very expansive urban area, highly dependent on cars and bus routes. But the Skyway is a good place to start, so we're going to imagine a way for it to begin to grow into what Jacksonville needs.
An Evolution in Transit
I started to map a proposal to extend the Skyway, but the day I finished I learned that for the first time in my entire life, there are actual, imminent plans to extend and transform the Skyway. So I went back to the drawing board and incorporated the plans into my proposal. It'll also be necessary to revisit this exercise later because Jacksonville's current Skyway and even the planned extensions cover such a small portion of the city that they can't be shown clearly at the same scale as a more extensive rail. So first we'll look at a smaller scale proposal that expands on the planned Skyway extension, and later we'll do the same exercise at the scale of the entire city. Click to enlarge the map series.
In the first map the existing Skyway people mover routes are shown in neon blue lines, with its eight stations. The system was constructed in the late 1980s and has been unchanged since 2000, according to the Jacksonville Transportation Authority. Although it supports about 5,000 trips per day, it covers a very limited area exclusive to Downtown. In 2016 JTA approved project development of the "Ultimate Urban Circulator" or U2C as an extension of the Skyway, shown in neon yellow above. Our proposal for future additional routes is shown in red neon lines, with proposed stations highlighted with gold rings. We're zoomed into the densely populated city center, broken down by census tracts colored to indicate total population. This, combined with colors indicating areas of special interest, gives us a sense of where there are the move people to move, and where they might want to go.
The U2C represents a major shift in Skyway operation because the regular rail will be repopulated with autonomous vehicles that will be able to operate either on roads or on elevated rails. Although it won't be a traditional rail, it overcomes the fact that new construction of elevated railways would be unwelcome in many areas, especially the more historic districts on the fringes of the Skyway's present extents, a long-time obstacle to extension considerations. The U2C website gives a nuanced explanation of the planned updates , and of how the vehicles can move people at both ground level and on elevated routes. The U2C will expand the Skyway's territory north through Springfield to the UF-Shands Hospital complex, southeast into historic Brooklyn and attractions on the edge of Riverside, deeper south into historic San Marco, and east to Everbank Field stadium with a new car-free bridge for pedestrians, bicyclists, and users of the U2C.
Consider the Possibilities
Having considered proposals to extend the Skyway before, I'm excited about the future of the people mover. And I'm glad I heard about it right as I decided to map a proposal, because the well-considered U2C design and its multiple transit capabilities open up possibilities for additional extensions. The new system will be easier to extend than the original Skyway because it will not require the construction of elevated railways in every portion of its routes.
The red neon lines link up with the existing Skyway and the planned U2C stations to carry people outward from the Downtown area. Routes run along the same routes as the major roadways: north, across the river, and southeast along 1-95; southwest and then south along Roosevelt Blvd; west along 1-10, northwest along Kings Road, east along FL-115, Atlantic Blvd, and Beach Blvd. These are the places where it's most likely that additional elevated railways could be built, without disturbing residential areas.
The West Side
To the southwest, the U2C forks in two to reach Five Points, where funky shops and restaurants are gaining popularity, and the Riverside Art Market, which takes place weekly in the large space under the I-95 overpass, adjacent to the St. Johns River. From Five Points, the U2C can just keep going into Riverside to hit another lively corner at Park and King, passing by some cool dining options before rejoining the route that runs along 1-10. From the Art Market, it can keep going to reach St. Vincents Hospital, then on to the Shops at St. Johns, a charming and vibrant strip of stores and restaurants whose main drawback is insufficient parking spaces. Then the route can turn away from the river along Edgewood avenue and continue to the west side, a much less affluent part of the city which can benefit from the connectedness that the U2C can offer.
In this part of the map the route connects between the main routes along 1-10 and Kings Road. Toward the latter end of it, the U2C could connect the neighborhoods on either side of the railroad running northwest-southeast, where there Old Kings Road is literally cut off and picks up on the other side. Near one end is a Fire Station, and on the other is a mental health resource center. If the U2C could do what car's can't currently do, and leap over this gap, that reconnection could improve the health of both communities.
Within the west side there's also shorter route along 5th Street and McDuff and connecting back to the 1-10 route, to act as a more central people mover. A major route along Kings Road would provide transit directly to Edward Waters College, Florida's first Historically Black college and first private institution for higher education. The presence of U2C stations in key locations within the poorer parts of the city can help reduce community isolation and improve visibility, creating a new and efficient transit option for people who don't have a car, and helping to put the businesses in this area in more direct connection with those separated from them by major infrastructure.
Downtown and the East Side
I propose that the northernmost planned U2C route should extend a short distance in two directions: connecting the final stop at Shands Hospital with a major route along 1-95, and to continue from the second-to-last stop through the rest of Springfield along Main Street. The latter would connect to another one north of downtown, starting at Kings Road, crossing the 1-95 route, and then continuing further east before turning south to reconnect with the one running east along Arlington Expressway. This one runs east and west downtown, meeting up with Kings Road and an existing Skyway stop, continuing east via the Matthews Bridge in the direction of the beach, with another route branching off to serve Jacksonville University.
To the south and southeast, there's the opportunity to continue the new U2C routes through historic San Marco into the largest part of the city. The region between the river and the ocean has key commercial, educational, and residential areas. First, the U2C could connect to the Riverside area across the Fuller Warren Bridge, and the Baptist Hospital across from St. Vincents could have its own stop. From there, the U2C can go through the San Marco shopping center, south via Hendricks Avenue along the river's edge. The other planned U2C route, which will cross the river northward to the stadium, can go on to follow Atlantic Blvd to the east, branching off with Beach Blvd, and also following the southern part of I-95, creating three major U2C routes to key locations including Memorial Hospital. These could be connected by minor routes along Emerson Street and University Blvd.
To Conclude
The plans for the U2C are an exciting improvement that will help Jacksonville to benefit more from its railway. The addition of a car-free bridge for pedestrians and bicyclists is particularly cutting edge, and supports the hopeful future of Jacksonville as a less car-dependent city. The future U2C routes gave us a great place to start, and the additional proposed routes we discussed above could put it to even greater use as a new, versatile transit option to improve circulation throughout the city and reduce traffic congestion.
I would hope that as much as possible of these proposed routes would be built up as elevated railways. The more of the system is off the ground, the more of the burden is taken off of roadways and the more efficiently people can use them to travel. At the same time, the new capability of going off the rails and traveling part of the way like a futuristic trolley car is the key that makes a more extensive system like this possible.
In Part 2 we'll zoom out to consider what the major routes that we looked at in this proposal could do for the city and its neighbors by transforming how people can use the existing infrastructure. We'll go all the way out to the city's outer ring at 1-295, and pack your sunblock because we'll also be going to the beach!
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