by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
A major traffic change coming to Riverside may create serious confusion for commuters soon, but proponents of the switch say it will remove a boundary that’s divided the neighborhood for more than half a century.
College and Post streets will switch from a pair of one-way state highways to two-way residential streets by the end of the year. The Florida Department of Transportation has already installed new traffic signals at some intersections, and FDOT will transfer the roads to the City as soon as resurfacing is complete. The City will put up signs to direct traffic and monitor intersections during the transition, according to Public Works Department spokeswoman Marcy Cook.
After World War II, FDOT took over College and Post and made them into one-way streets to ease traffic commuting to Downtown via Riverside. Neighborhood organization Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) has been pushing for the streets’ return to residential use since its first meeting in 1974, according to RAP Executive Director Bonnie Grissett.
“Nothing was more detrimental to Post and College than when they were turned to one-way streets to accommodate traffic from the west and south parts of the city,” said Grissett. “It caused an extreme decline. People didn’t know each other across the street.”
Grissett acknowledged that other factors, including an exodus to the City’s growing southside and increased crime, contributed to the division and decline of the Riverside neighborhood northwest of Post Street.
City Council President and former RAP chairman Michael Corrigan said the one-way streets have encouraged drivers to speed, which works against a walkable, family-friendly environment. Grissett said criminals were once drawn to the area because they could flee quickly.
“I think that currently you have two neighborhoods: Post Street to the river and Post Street to the interstate,” said Corrigan. He added that he hopes the two-way changes will unify the Riverside neighborhoods and “families will start playing with their children on the front yard.”
RAP anticipates the slower residential streets will make the neighborhood a friendlier place – with higher property values.
“It (the switch) will be a factor in property values on those two streets,” said Grissett. “They’ll become more like the rest of the neighborhood.”
After years of talks with the City and FDOT, RAP finally got its two-way wish in 2005. Corrigan introduced legislation that arranged for the City to take ownership of the roads after FDOT prepares them for the two-way conversion.
The approved transfer agreement requires the State to pay for improvements that will extend the streets’ lifespan by 20 years. The City will be responsible for future maintenance and finishing touches like repaving and restriping.
Some people have spoken against the two-way switch in recent months, arguing that RAP didn’t gather enough community support for the decision and the City didn’t do enough research on how the change will impact traffic.
Rick Ball, the City’s acting traffic engineer, said he can’t predict how the traffic patterns will adjust to the change. He said public works decided to approve the two-way switch because of the neighborhood request and the City’s goal to redirect increased traffic flow to higher-capacity roads.
“This was not a formal report. We don’t have anything in writing,” said Ball. “(But) the road improvements that are under construction as we speak should absorb the extra traffic being diverted to them. We assume that most of the drive-through traffic coming from the west quadrant of Jacksonville will stay on Interstate 10 and exit into Downtown.”
Ball said construction of new entrance/exit ramps and improvements on I-10 won’t be complete until 2011. He added that, for the first few months, traffic might increase on Riverside Avenue and Park Street.
“Park and Riverside will be altered,” he said. “Those streets already carry a lot of traffic during rush hour.
“Basically, we plan on monitoring the situation. We’ll be out there with DOT when they switch it to two-way. We’ll probably need to give it a couple months to stabilize, and if we identify specific problems, we’ll have to address them.”
Westside and Riverside residents have identified other concerns about the two-way switch. Some have argued that the speeding issue is just a matter of enforcing the speed limit and writing tickets. Corrigan said the City has tried strict enforcement of speed limits in the area, but the effects don’t last very long.
“We’ve tried that off and on, and it slows things down for a while,” said Corrigan, but he added that signs currently direct travelers and truck drivers from State Road 228 and U.S. Highway 17 onto the streets because College and Post are considered part of those routes.
Ball said FDOT should adjust the signs when the two-way conversion is complete.
Joe Smith, a 33-year veteran of the Jacksonville Fire & Rescue Department, said the one-way streets allow fire and rescue workers to travel through the neighborhood quickly when responding to emergencies. He said switching the streets to two-way will slow down emergency response time.
“For me, it’s a safety problem,” said Smith. “Somebody is eventually going to get hurt because of it,because that really is the main drag through there for rescue vehicles, especially ones going to St. Vincent’s (Hospital).”
Corrigan said FDOT called public meetings two years ago to inform the public and gather feedback. After one resident arranged his own neighborhood meeting regarding the two-way switch in May 2006, Corrigan called a town meeting to inform residents in June.
That meeting brought up new arguments against details of the change. Some residents say two-way streets will work, but only if the City limits parking to one side of each street. On similarly narrow,nearby streets like Myra and Ernest oncoming cars often have to dodge each other, pulling over to allow other vehicles to pass safely.
Smith said dual-side parking will pose further difficulty for emergency vehicles.
“You’ve got to pull into somebody’s driveway sideways and let somebody go by,” said Smith. “I’ve driven these big fire trucks and I know that you can’t just swing them in and out of holes like that. And it slows down your time to responses.
“I think it (the College and Post decision) is a thing where a little group of citizens made a decision that will affect the entire county.”
Corrigan said no-parking signs are a possibility in the future, but he wants College and Post to be similar to other residential streets. Ball said parking restrictions are not planned for the two-way conversion, and the width of both streets varies.
“Some areas there won’t be any problems. Some areas it will be a little tight,” said Ball. “The initial plan is not to do that; we’re pretty much going to allow parking on both sides. (But) we’ll do what is necessary for traffic safety.”