From: Eye On Tampa Bay
34th Street S in St. Petersburg is a State owned road (US 19)
state taxpayers have paid for. St. Petersburg does NOT own that road. Five
new apartment complexes with almost a 1000 new apartment units are about
to open on 34th Street S. Redevelopment is already occurring. Not only is dense
apartment growth and more redevelopment coming to 34th Street S, Road Diets are
on the way too.
PSTA, Forward Pinellas MPO
(Metropolitan Planning Organization) and FDOT (Florida Department of
Transportation) are imposing Road Diets on 34th Street S from 22nd Avenue S to
54th Avenue S. They are removing general vehicle lanes of traffic that over 98%
of us use everyday for bus only lanes when less than 2% use transit. The
corridor where the lanes are being removed have connections to I-275 North and
South at both ends and within the corridor.
Forward Pinellas hosted ONE "Open
House" meeting in April 2019 to inform the public of the "proposed"
lane removals on 34th Street S. I attended that meeting. When citizens started
publicly speaking in front of all the citizens gathered, often with negative
comments about the lane removal, they were shut down by Whit Blanton of Forward
Pinellas. Blanton, visibly irritated that citizens started speaking in front of
each other, shut down all public commenting and told the citizens gathered they
had to go speak with the bureaucrats he had placed at stations in the room.
That meeting was a dog and pony show farce. No other public meeting was ever
held about the lane removals.
A push survey was handed out to the 64 attendees at the April
2019 meeting that, of course, limited how one could answer. 61 people completed
the survey and it is in the written comments where people could actually voice
their opinions. Below are a few of the written comments:
- Do not take a lane of general purpose vehicle
traffic out when traffic is increasing & transit is decreasing, taking
a lane of vehicle traffic out will create congestion.
- Those of us that live in the area do not want
34th St. S to turn into 9th St. N where they took out important car
lanes & it's impossible to get through the lights
- Do not make 99% of people traveling miserable
- Space is ample currently...add trees and don't
waste $ on shrinking the road.
There was not one written comment in the survey that supported
removing vehicle lanes on 34th Street S. for transit. No
wonder PSTA/Forward Pinellas/FDOT never held another public meeting about the
lane removals. Suddenly the Road Diet on 34th Street S is a done deal as
PSTA/Forward Pinellas/FDOT rams it thru as a "repaving" project
scheduled for April 2022.
This corridor is currently considered more suburban today.
However, the lane elimination Road Diet request from Forward
Pinellas MPO reflects the MPO/St. Petersburg want to transition this corridor
to be urban or even an urban center. We seriously doubt the vast majority who
use State owned 34th Street S regularly knew this. While St. Petersburg
keeps pushing dense growth and haven't fixed their sewage and other
infrastructure problems, they will gladly - at your expense - remove State
owned infrastructure - you already paid for.
Forward Pinellas MPO 34th Street S
Road Diet request |
The use of Road
Diets entered into the transportation policies of FDOT in 2014 under the guise
of "Complete Streets". FDOT's Road Diet approval process was called
"Lane Elimination". This process has gotten pushback from citizens,
businesses and even elected officials who oppose it. In 2019 FDOT's "Lane
Elimination" process was presented with massive opposition to Road Diets.
It appears FDOT changed the name of their Road Diet process to "Lane
Repurposing" but it means the same thing - Road Diets.
Ironically, FDOT admitted last year that transit ridership began declining in 2014, the same year FDOT began imposing Road Diets for transit. FDOT now admits there are numerous factors for transit ridership decline, including telecommuting, online commerce, online education, use of online communications (like Zoom), and other innovation and technologies providing alternatives to traditional transit.
FDOT admits what a recent study from our local transit expert Steve Polzin at CUTR concluded - that transit is "unlikely to return to pre-COVID-19 conditions." Transit ridership was dismal in Tampa Bay and Florida before the pandemic so why is FDOT removing vehicle lanes for transit that fewer and fewer people are using?
Road Diets, often not popular with the vast majority who use
vehicles on our roads, get imposed with little transparency and by misleading
the public about these projects. In Forward Pinellas MPO's transportation plan,
the project that imposes Road Diets on 34th Street S is described as an upgrade
to a repaving project to "construct a wide sidewalk on the west side of
the roadway".
 |
|
Forward Pinellas MPO's description of' Road Diet |
According to this report, St. Petersburg rammed the 9th Street N
Road Diet also through a "repaving" project.
PSTA/City of St. Petersburg has started removing vehicle traffic
lanes on 1st Avenue N and S for PSTA's Central Avenue Bus Rapid Transit (BRT)
aka "SunRunner". General vehicle lanes and parking are being removed
for a bus only lane for the BRT. PSTA or St. Petersburg never held one public
hearing about removing transportation infrastructure already paid for. Like
9th Street, most people are only finding out now what PSTA and St. Petersburg
are doing to their roads and parking.
PSTA/FDOT is also removing valuable lanes of traffic on
congested Pasadena Avenue in S Pasadena - right before the Corey Causeway
drawbridge for PSTA's costly BRT. When PSTA proposed the project years ago,
PSTA never meet with S Pasadena or held any public meetings in S Pasadena
for citizens to provide their input and remember Pasadena Avenue is a State
owned road.
In 2019, numerous S Pasadena condo associations and the S
Pasadena city council passed formal Resolutions opposing the transit project
and opposing removing vehicle lanes. When S Pasadena requested a public hearing
be held in S Pasadena to allow their citizens to publicly comment about removing
traffic lanes in their city, PSTA and FDOT refused to do so. Instead on September 11, 2019, the 11th hour in PSTA's
Road Diet approval process, PSTA held a dog and pony show in S Pasadena where
there was overwhelming opposition to the lane removals and PSTA's BRT project.
That meeting was a farce too because by October 4, 2019, the Road Diet was a
done deal.
Pasadena Avenue is also a State owned road (SR693). FDOT knew
the city of S Pasadena and their residents opposed the transit project and Road
Diets. FDOT was handed all the Resolutions passed by the surrounding condo
associations and the S Pasadena city council opposing the lane removals
and PSTA's costly BRT project. FDOT was handed all the written comments
from citizens who overwhelmingly opposed the project. It was all ignored.
The local FDOT District 7 rubber stamps their approval of all
these Road Diets and sends them up to FDOT in Tallahassee. We are told FDOT
Central Office in Tallahassee know about all the opposition to the Road Diets
but they rubber stamped their approval anyway.
Traffic acts like water - it seeps where it can. Road Diets
moves traffic to other neighborhood arterial roads not meant to hold such
capacity making them more dangerous.
As 1000 people a day are moving to Florida with most bringing
their vehicles, why is FDOT allowing the removal of vehicle lanes on State
owned roads? Why are these Road Diets being imposed without any public hearings
for citizens to publicly comment and weigh in on the Road Diets?
PSTA holds public hearings for proposed route cuts, route
changes and fare changes for the less than 2% that use transit. PSTA holds no
public hearings when they propose Road Diets for the 98% using vehicles on our
roads everyday. PSTA has an appeal process regarding Board decisions made after
their public hearing. There is no appeal process to challenge the Road Diets
FDOT is approving. This is wrong, unfair and inequitable.
There is a governance problem in Florida regarding Road Diets that needs to be fixed. If FDOT will not reform their Road Diet approval process, then State legislators and/or the Governor needs to step in to require timely public hearings are held before Road Diets are approved.
Road Diets should not be imposed in Florida without at least one public hearing.
Posted by Sharon Calvert at 10:05 AM
This
post is contributed by EYE ON TAMPA BAY. The views expressed in this post are
the blog publisher's and do not necessarily reflect those of the publisher of
Bay Post Internet.
Cross Posted with permission from: Eye On Tampa Bay
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