BWL letter to BoCC in support of Joel Blvd. "road diet"

BWL sent a letter to the Board of County Commissioners voicing its full support for the County's upcoming Joel Blvd. lane reconfiguration (known as a road diet), which is scheduled to be implemented as part of the regular resurfacing of this road in the Spring.  Road diets (along with roundabouts) are one of the best ways to improve the safety of all road users, esp. the most vulnerable.

 

Before and After photo of road diet

December 15, 2018

 

Dear Commissioners:

 

BikeWalkLee is a volunteer community coalition raising public awareness and advocating for complete streets in Lee County and promoting policies that enhance the safety of Florida's roadways.  At a recent Community Traffic Safety Team (CTST) meeting, we became aware of LeeDOT’s planned new safety treatment on Joel Blvd. in Lehigh.  Given BikeWalkLee’s commitment to improving the safety of Lee County roadways, we wanted to voice our full support for the County’s scheduled Joel Boulevard lane reconfiguration (called a road diet), to be implemented in the Spring of 2019 as part of the regular resurfacing of this road.

 

As you know, for more than a decade, Lee County has consistently ranked as one of the most dangerous areas for pedestrians and cyclists both in Florida and nationwide, and Florida has ranked the most dangerous state in the country.  In the 2016 national “Dangerous by Design” report, Lee County was ranked as the most dangerous community in the country, demonstrating the urgent need for safety improvements on our roadways.  This road diet project is one way the County can demonstrate that it is taking action to turn around our “worst in the nation” ranking. 

 

We are pleased to see the County following through on the implementation of one of the elements of its 2010 Complete Streets Implementation Plan, developed to carry out the Board’s Complete Streets policy adopted in 2009.  A “road diet” (which typically entails converting an existing 4-lane road into two lanes with a center turn lane and bike lanes), is one of the key proven safety treatments promoted by FHWA and FDOT as part of its efforts to improve safety for all road users, especially pedestrians and cyclists who are the most vulnerable.

 

Road diets are proven to save lives by reducing the number of crashes by 20-50%; and by reducing speeds; the severity of the injuries is less, resulting in fewer fatalities.  This is particularly important for road users at the greatest risk—pedestrians and cyclists.   Safety is of paramount concern at the Joel Blvd. location, where 83 crashes have occurred over the past two years, six of which were fatal.  It is also an excellent choice for a road diet, given its current and projected vehicle volume loads.

 

One of the most cost effective ways to implement new complete street safety treatments is to incorporate them into the planning for road resurfacing.  We applaud the County for taking a holistic approach at this location, and urge you to make this a routine practice to integrate the complete streets and resurfacing planning in order to bring needed safety improvements on the ground faster and for much less cost than if done separately.

As with many safety improvements that are new to the public (e.g., road diets and roundabouts), there is often some opposition from residents and businesses when first proposed because it’s a change.  It’s clear from the research and reporting on the experiences of communities around the country that most public opposition is quickly forgotten after residents experience the new treatments and see the significant safety benefits associated with them.  It is important for our elected officials to stand by the importance of making safety of our roadways the top priority.

Thank you for making the safety of all road users, esp. pedestrians and cyclists, a top priority in your reconfiguration of Joel Blvd.

 Sincerely,

Dan Moser
On behalf of BikeWalkLee

 

 

 

Take-aways from Sarasota County’s presentation on Honore Blvd. project at August 16th Lee MPO Peer Exchange

Lots of great “take-aways” for Lee County from the August Lee MPO Board Sarasota presentation, along with very encouraging update from Division 1 Secretary Billy Hattaway on actions being taken by FDOT to further support Complete Streets and improve related innovative designs and policies. Note plans for September Peer Exchange.

Overview

At the August 16^th Lee MPO Board meeting the Sarasota County team made an excellent presentation about their Honore Blvd. project as part of Lee MPO’s series of Peer Exchange. As described in an earlier blog, instead of widening the road to be a 6-lane highway as originally planned, they changed it to be a multi-modal two-lane corridor with six roundabouts.

This presentation was the second in a series of "Peer Exchanges" by the Lee MPO Board to learn from other communities' experiences as the MPO begins the process of developing its 2040 Long Range Transportation Plan (LRTP).  This informative series not only benefits the MPO Board, but also provides an excellent opportunity for staff and citizens throughout Lee County to be a part of the conversation.

The series was kicked off at the June MPO Board meeting with a presentation by the Executive Director the Nashville MPO, about the award-winning and visionary transportation plan developed by the Nashville area MPO in 2010, followed by a lively discussion with MPO Board members.  Click here for highlights from the Nashville discussion. 

Sarasota Senior Staff Aug. 16^th presentation on Honore Ave. Extension Project

Jim Harriott, Public Works Director of Sarasota County and Frank Domingo, lead engineer for Stantec, the project consultant, presented a road project that to date, is one of a kind here in SW Florida.

Click here for background on the project, including an excellent video.

Since the early 1990’s Honore Avenue had been planned as part of what was considered an essential north-south, trans-county, I-75 reliever, arterial.   It was to be a typical 6 lane thoroughfare, coursing directly by residential areas, but serving primarily commuters only passing through.

Area citizens were concerned about the degradation of their neighborhood that would be left in the wake of a wide, high speed, bisecting thoroughfare. The loss of acres of forest land, including many large trees that create a natural shade canopy, and the endangerment of children traveling to and from the elementary school added to the concerns that led to the petition against the project, effectively stalling it, while asking county engineers for redesigns. The county engineers agreed to reduce the plans to a 4 lane road, but again were met with citizen resistance.

At this point, rather than remain in opposition to the citizens in the project area, Sarasota County Public Works staff did something quite remarkable, they asked the following important questions:

• Is widening roadways to improving traffic flow always the best solution? 
• Is it even a sustainable solution?
• When all are making efforts to reduce waste and increase the efficient use of water and energy, why are roads exempt from similar conservation measures? and
• What other possible options could be developed?

Traffic modeling indicated that a 4 lane road was needed to provide the fastest commute time and that a reduction to a 2 lane road would increase travel time during the evening peak-hour commute by 2%-3%, or a few extra minutes. Future roadway design for Honore became a clear choice between the single goal of minimizing commuter travel time by a few minutes vs. the long-term quality of life in surrounding neighborhoods and massive reduction of environmental impacts by creating a “context sensitive” roadway that better fit the community.  

New goal of Capacity with Sustainability set

The engineering team led the way in getting the County Administration and Commissioners, who had previously approved the traditional road project, to rethink the entire project idea. Out of this fresh approach evolved the 2.7 miles of new and rebuilt roadway that exists today.

Connecting Fruitville Rd to Bee Ridge Rd to the south, Honore Avenue has just 2 - 11’ wide traffic lanes with 6 roundabouts, no traffic lights, bike lanes and meandering pedestrian sidewalks with LED street lights in landscaped medians. 75% of the existing mature trees were saved and small roadside ponds, bioswale, and rain gardens with Florida-friendly plantings in what is known as Low Impact Development (LID) replaced traditional drain, pipe and large surface retention ponds for all stormwater management – saving 64 acres of woodland and $2.3 million dollars.

Completed in November of 2011, the project won an American Public Works Association award for its “purposive effort of minimal local intrusion to protect the surrounding neighborhood character”.

Subsequent analyses of this road project indicate that traffic, now at nearly 90% of traditional capacity, moves at a lower (and safer) speed than is typical, but because of the roundabouts it moves steadily without the stopping and starting of traffic lights and there have been no serious accidents.  The reduction in road width saved tax payers approximately 16% over that of the 4 lane design and most recent real estate publications indicate an increase in property values in the neighborhoods adjoining the road and its park-like natural landscaping.

After the presentation to the MPO Board, Lee County Commissioner Frank Mann noted the close similarities between the Honore Avenue project and our county’s Ortiz Avenue project. He suggested that this new model could be used on Ortiz rather than the current DOT planned wider road opposed by the Historic Tice Community Planning Panel.

Dr. Margaret Banyan of FGCU, a member of Bike Walk Lee and the Tice Community spoke to the parallel nature of the two projects and her community’s desire for similar consideration in the development of an appropriately “context sensitive” improvement plan for Ortiz Avenue.

Ann Pierce, a BikeWalkLee Steering Committee member spoke of her experience on Honore Blvd., conveying what a pleasure it was to drive even during morning and evening rush hours, citing the “uninterrupted flow of traffic until one approached the traffic light at Fruitville,” an experience echoed by Public Works Director Jim Harriott, who reported that area drivers consistently indicate a preference for driving this roadway over others within the grid system.

BikeWalkLee extends their thanks to the Sarasota team for their time and graciousness in sharing this exciting project – a truly improved, multi-modal, light impact and sustainable roadway.  We also extend and thanks to the MPO team for bringing such an excellent presentation to Lee County.

Division 1 Secretary Billy Hattaway gives extremely encouraging update of latest FDOT actions

·         The selection of the new state level Bike/Pedestrian Coordinator,

·         A focus this fall at community level bike/ped safety plans,

·         A focus on state level complete streets initiative,

·         Implementation of road diets without mandating that the roads be turned over to localities, 

·         Context sensitive policies, particularly for bike/ped. Evaluating each situation’s unique aspects and designing bike facilities to fit,

·         Reevaluating prohibitions on mid-block crosswalks,

·         Encouraging the use of roundabouts at intersections, and

·         Tip cards will be provided to law enforcement personnel to simplify and explain the enforcement of the rules of the road regarding both driver and pedestrian behavior at crosswalks.

Next Peer Exchange September 20th: Broward County

At the Sept. 20th Lee MPO Board meeting, a team from the Broward County MPO will do a presentation about their innovative LRTP, which includes a policy of no more roadway capacity expansion with a shift to transit and bike/ped, and their newly adopted Complete Streets program.

Report by Ann Pierce

Edited by Cindy Banyai

Invite to ITE Jan. 27th Lunch & Road Diets Webinar

Here's an opportunity to learn about road diets.

EVENT: ITE Chapter Meeting / Webinar and Lunch (pizza and soda).
Event Date: Friday, January 27, 2012
Event Time: 11:30 am - 1:00 p.m. EDT (Please plan on arriving a little early at around 11:15 am for a few brief announcements and to get situated.)

WHERE: First Floor Conference Room
Lee County Administration Building
2115 Second Street
Fort Myers, Florida 33901

COST: $5.00 per person to ITE (members and non-members).

RSVP TO: Suresh Karre simply by accepting this appointment request or via e-mail: suresh.karre@dplummer.com.


DESCRIPTION/TOPIC: Road Diets (Webinar)
PRESENTED BY: Peter Lagerwey, Senior Planner, Toole Design Group
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center (PBIC) offered an eight-part Webinar series intended to help communities address pedestrian safety issues through design and engineering solutions. Modeled after the FHWA's/PBIC's in-person training course "Designing for Pedestrian Safety," the Webinars covered topics ranging from sidewalk design to road diets. Today's webinar was offered as Part 7 of that series. It is a recorded webinar.

Some of the learning objectives of webinar include:
- To be able to describe how speed and pedestrian crash risk reduces when the number of lanes are reduced.
- To explain why reducing the number of lanes, reduces risks making it is easier to cross roads.
- To discuss a lot of different ways to get to the decision to do a road diet.
- To demonstrate how reducing the lanes creates free space for higher and better use.

Seventh episode of Moving Beyond the Automobile: Road Diet

In March, we shared with you the first 5 episodes of a series by Streetfilms, called Moving Beyond the Automobile. This month we are sharing the latest three episodes. These topics are very timely for issues facing Lee County, so I hope you'll watch these short videos.


# 7: Road Diet
by Clarence Eckerson, Jr. on April 12, 2011 from the series Moving Beyond the Automobile

What’s a road diet? Quite simply, traffic-calming expert Dan Burden told Streetfilms, “A road diet is anytime you take any lane out of a road.”

The first time people hear about a road diet, their initial reaction likely goes something like this: “How can removing lanes improve my neighborhood and not cause traffic backups?” It seems counter intuitive, but taking away lanes can actually help traffic flow smoother while improving safety for everyone.

Road diets are good for pedestrians: They reduce speeding and make vehicle movements more predictable while shortening crossing distances, usually through curb extensions or center median islands. They’re good for cyclists: Many road diets shift space from car lanes to create bike lanes. They’re good for drivers: Less speeding improves safety for motorists and passengers, and providing left-turn pockets allows through traffic to proceed without shifting lanes or waiting behind turning vehicles.

And here’s something to keep in mind during this era of lean budgets: Road diets are a highly-effective infrastructure improvement that can be implemented quickly and at low cost.