This was the original Seminole Heights blog with commentary about life in and around the urban neighborhood of Seminole Heights in Tampa, Florida. Musings about other topics as my mood permits. The blog is essentially inactive since I moved to Lutz. Go to The Official Unofficial Seminole Heights Blog - www.seminoleheightsblog.com for active content.
In case you didn't see the story:
TAMPA - A request to make Florida and Highland avenues and Tampa Street two-way roads will be reviewed by the Metropolitan Planning Commission's policy committee.
http://centraltampa.tbo.com/centraltampa/MGBB4Q22RVE.html
Posted by
Jay McGee
at
12/18/2006 10:23:00 AM
13 comments:
What would be a disadvantage of converting the roads back to two way streets?
Seems to me, and I'm no urban planner, that it would be no disadvantage at all to Seminole Heights. However, one-way streets are supposedly more efficient at moving traffic in and out of downtown. If that is true, then people who use those roads to do so might experience longer waits at lights or possibly more congestion.
Or they might not, if there are turn lanes and bus pull offs.
I think that two way sounds like a great idea the only time Florida, Highland and Tampa Street see a lot of traffic is during rush hour. But the city needs to definitely put in turn lanes otherwise you run the risk of having another Dale Mabry south of Kennedy. And that's not any better than people flying down the street doing 50.
Anon 10:46:
On two-way to two-way intersections, left-turn traffic must wait for a light to go. In two-way to one-way intersections, the one-way traffic can make left and right turns without a light.
So at the very least, this amount of time at each red light encountered will be added to the current commute. Left turn lanes and bus lanes have no effect on this wait. (Although insufficient left turn lanes will as traffic will back up into the main travel lane. )
I'd be genuinely surprised to see bus pull-offs on Florida Avenue in Seminole Heights. Both because of existing road width and budget problems like those preventing the repaving of Nebraska South of Hillsborough Blvd.
I think that two waying would definitely promote a longer commute time when going through the neighborhood, as well as Tampa Haights ... which I think is the purpose. To force more people to use the Interstate and make the neighborhoods more people/pedestrian-friendly.
As a jogger in the area who runs down the Florida and Highland Ave roads, I can attest that the 4 ft wide sidewalks that drop off into the road of 45 mph+ traffic is scary.
(Why do I run down those roads you make ask? 1) My options are those or MLK and Hills, 2) I like to try to notice if businesses are changing (for this blog and another publication I'm working on for the area).
They were 2 lane roads in the 1960's. Now they want to do it again.
Bi-directional traffic is better for the businesses on the street. People are more likely to go to a business if they don't have to hassle with taking strange routes to avoid the issues caused by one-way streets.
I think it will be a mess. The people that cut through our neighborhood will not stop cutting though. It will just be heavily congested. Think of putting all the traffic from Florida or Nebraska onto Central Ave.
Or if it does redirect them them it might actually hurt some of the businesses.
Any effort to redirect traffic needs to be paired with a serious solution for parking in the hood. It doesn't matter which direction cars go in or how slow they go - if they have nowhere to park when they get to their destination they are not going to pull over. We need a plan of action to address both problems.
I think that Randy as the head of OSHNA has already been in discussion with the city about the neighborhoods options. sherry and Gary were there also.
Two-way streets will not 'redirect' anyone other than give them the choice of going South on Florida where now they must go South on Tampa.
Two-way streets will not hurt businesses. Exactly the opposite is true. One-way streets are bad for business because they make getting to places difficult.
Two-way streets will likely not increase through-traffic much but may distribute it less evenly between Tampa and Florida avenues. If two-way streets help businesses, then by definition they will increase local traffic. (As opposed to traffic going through to downtown.)
Parking on one-way streets is the same problem as parking on two-way streets. That change by itself will not require a new parking solution. Existing reasons for needing parking will continue to exist. If businesses do pick up more customers and new businesses move in, they will need to address parking (just as they must do now.)
The bottom line here is that people that drive through our neighborhood on those streets will be affected somewhat negatively. People that drive into our neighborhood will be affected positively. Property values for commerical properties may improve as access improves. The one-way streets were an answer to freeway traffic conjestion and should be viewed as serving the same purpose as freeways (to get you through areas quickly).
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