The Jacksonville Transportation Authority will conduct
public meetings tonight and Monday to help select routes where the JTA will buy
an estimated $100 million of land for a new rapid transit system.
The meetings will provide the first look at various routes the JTA is
considering for either light-rail lines or busways -- lanes dedicated solely to
buses -- from the Northside to downtown and the Southside.
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The money to buy right of way will come from the Better Jacksonville Plan,
which voters approved in September with a half-cent sales tax increase. The $100
million to buy the land is the single biggest item in the Better Jacksonville
Plan.
Officials say it will take about a year for the JTA to identify the right of
way to acquire, including sites for transit stations.
However, there is no timetable or funding for building a rapid transit
system, which would cost several hundred million dollars. Part of the JTA's
study will make ridership projections about how many people would ride the
system.
Possible routes include the Arlington Expressway; Philips Highway;
interstates 95 and 295; and Southside, Beach and Butler boulevards.
On the other side of the St. Johns River, possible routes include I-95; Main
Street; Edgewood Avenue; and Kings, Leonid and Moncrief roads.
One specific proposal, for example, calls for a route along Main Street from
the Trout River, then following Arlington Expressway, Southside Boulevard and
Butler Boulevard.
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Public meetings on
rapid transit planning will be held:
From 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. todayat Gateway Mall, 5188 Norwood Ave., in room 15.
From 5:30 to 8 p.m. Monday at the Southeast regional library, 10599 Deerwood
Park Blvd.
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In the case of Butler Boulevard, a separate study by the state Department of
Transportation concluded that rapid transit is not a long-range option to handle
the rising level of travel on Butler. The state's ongoing study of Butler
determined the Southside growth is too spread out for rapid transit to get
enough people to give up driving cars.
But Ed Castellani, the JTA's rapid transit manager, said he disagrees with
that conclusion and thinks Butler remains a viable option.
Castellani said no alternative has an edge over the others.
"What we want to do is have meetings that areto all comers, for all
suggestions," he said. "We want people to feel, as they really do, that they
have a complete blank page they can write on."
