In April, the St. Petersburg City Council approved funding for a bike share program in its downtown area. The program will launch in September with the roll out of 30 stations and 300 GPS-enabled smart bikes. Now the City needs to figure out where to locate the stations and they’re looking to the locals for…
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In April, the St. Petersburg City Council approved funding for a bike share program in its downtown area. The program will launch in September with the roll out of 30 stations and 300 GPS-enabled smart bikes. Now the City needs to figure out where to locate the stations and they’re looking to the locals for…
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The role of transportation and land development in Pinellas County took on increased importance with passage of a special act of the Florida Legislature in 2014 unifying a 13-member governing board of local elected officials with responsibility for countywide transportation and land use planning. Pinellas remains Florida’s most densely developed county with nearly one million residents…
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http://forwardpinellas.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/1280px-ciclovc3ada_bogotc3a1_cra_7_con_cl_17.jpg Elected officials and professionals involved in efforts to improve transportation infrastructure in their communities often talk about mobility and safety being the top priorities. These are necessary pursuits. But the core values of building a quality transportation system are about health and equity. These themes are central to the mission of 8 80 Cities,…
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Pick almost any month and you can read about a crash involving a pedestrian and automobile somewhere along Gulf Boulevard in Pinellas County. Often, these crashes include a fatality or serious injury. It’s an unfortunate and unacceptable situation that results from a combination of increased travel demand, conflicts over limited space, unfamiliar tourists, and a busy…
DetailsIn 2012, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) informed the MPO that bids on projects around the state were coming in lower than expected and that FDOT had extra (that’s right-extra!) money for transportation projects. Turns out, they had just about enough to fund improvements to Gandy Boulevard from 4th Street North to 16th Street…
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Access, the means of approaching or entering a place, is an often overlooked indicator of how successfully a community is evolving from nondescript corridor to place. Shifting from an emphasis on driving to an emphasis on walking, bikes and buses, it’s critical how consciously we plan for access. Access is often thought of in the narrowest…
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I set out on a warm and sunny winter day after work, before the next cold front arrives, to meet the dual objectives of exercise and to enjoy social interaction at a local gathering spot in nearby Largo. It’s a 1.3 mile walk from my place in Belleair Bluffs along West Bay Drive to the Barley…
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As I introduced the Pinellas Countywide Bike Share Feasibility item at the mid-point of Wednesday’s Pinellas County MPO meeting, I jokingly told the board we had allotted one-and-a-half hours for this agenda item. That was immediately followed by laughter. One-and-a-half hours later, we had clear and enthusiastic direction from the board to proceed with next…
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Park Boulevard, from Seminole Boulevard to 113th Street, is gaining a lot of attention because a long-planned new city center, taking the place of the former Seminole Mall, is being developed off the northwest part of the roadway segment. The roadway has continued to see high volumes of crashes and traffic congestion, which has a…
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Pinellas County is defined by its geography. Water on three sides, inland lakes and numerous bays, inlets, canals and wetlands make for a compact place to put people, commerce, industry and the transportation networks to serve them. One aspect of that geography, the Gulf of Mexico and its outstanding beaches, has remained a constant over…
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The year 2015 was one of transition for the Pinellas Planning Council and Metropolitan Planning Organization, and for me personally. It began with the newly unified agency in the process of hiring an executive director, and ended with the 2nd of two strategic policy board workshops to set a direction for integrating land use and…
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