To help ease
the parking crunch in San Marco, the city's Trolley is now
making a lunchtime swing through the area. Service was
scheduled to start this morning at 11.
Moreover, it' free.
The Trolley, a bus that looks like an old-fashioned
streetcar, now runs every 10 minutes from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
weekdays from the Kings Avenue station.
City Councilman Matt Carlucci, who represents the area,
worked with the JTA to start the midday route because of the
difficulty in finding parking and the need to give residents a
way to reach San Marco without driving.
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The JTA is
offering free rides into San Marco beginning today via
its fleet of trolleys. The service will run during the
lunch hour in a bid to ease traffic.
-- Don
Burk/Staff
|
While Southside Baptist
Church dida parking lot in 2001 that's free to everyone,
an upcoming road improvement project will eliminate dozens of
on-street spots on Hendricks Avenue. The entrance to Southside
Baptist's parking lot is behind the fire station at Atlantic
Boulevard and San Marco Place.
Jennifer Price, president of the San Marco Merchants
Association and publisher of San Marco magazine, said she's
excited the Trolley is coming.
"I believe that it will give us a link with downtown and
make us more of a metropolitan area," said Price, referring to
the fact that commuters could ride the Skyway from the
Northbank to the Southbank. "The No. 1 objection, when I ask
people what they don't like about San Marco, is the parking."
In August, JTA surveyed about 250 San Marco patrons and
restaurant owners to gauge their interest and point of origin.
The survey found 51 percent were either somewhat or very
interested and that 42 percent came from San Marco, 25 percent
from the North Bank, 22 percent from the South Bank and the
remainder from other areas.
Those surveyed said they preferred the Trolley to run every
10 minutes. But the route would cross railroad tracks in two
places, a factor that could cause some delays, Larson said.
"Anybody familiar with San Marco knows that train
congestion is part of it," she said. "The key is if you're
waiting for the Trolley, it's running late and you hear train
traffic, you know it could be stuck."
San Marco's Trolley, dubbed the Hibiscus Loop, will have a
one-year test run. Then it will be evaluated to see if the
service should be continued, Larson said.
Price, for one, would like to see enough people riding so
that its hours could be extended beyond lunchtime.
JTA has purchased the three trolleys for $710,000. The
start date is contingent on their arrival, Larson said. They
will join an existing fleet of five trolleys that are used to
ferry passengers from commuter lots at Alltel Stadium to
points downtown.
First-year operating costs of San Marco's trolleys will be
covered through the Jacksonville Economic Development
Commission and a Florida Department of Transportation grant.
