2025 Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan
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Hillsborough County Metropolitan Planning Organization 2025 COMPREHENSIVE PEDESTRIAN PLAN Hillsborough County, Florida Final Report November 1, 2004 HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY | 2025 Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Tampa’s reputation as a dangerous environment for pedestrians is based on cold facts: the county’s pedestrian fatality rate is three times the national average for comparably sized cities. These statistics represent a challenge to Hillsborough County to rectify these problems and create a safer and more balanced transportation system. The Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan is a step toward facing the challenge. This county-wide plan recommends a series of safety and education programs and policies that target people of all ages, analyzes the areas where pedestrians are most likely to walk, and presents a series of priority corridors where pedestrian improvements are most appropriate. As part of the 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan, the Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan is both a practical and a visionary approach to creating a more balanced transportation system for all users. VISION AND OBJECTIVES The ultimate vision of the Hillsborough County Pedestrian Plan is a pedestrian network that complements the larger transportation system and improves safety, accessibility and quality of life for people of all ages and abilities. At the fundamental level, realizing this vision requires a transformation of our notions of the street and the automobile. The dominant paradigm since the mid-twentieth century has focused on the automobile, while considerations for bicycles and pedestrians have been afterthoughts or omitted altogether. In response to this outdated paradigm, this pedestrian plan is guided by an underlying principle that encourages the reorganization of transportation modes with pedestrians at the top and single occupancy vehicles at the bottom. This hierarchical shift in the transportation system, illustrated in the graphic at right, is focused on corridors where pedestrian attractors are concentrated, such as downtown, in suburban shopping districts, and around schools and parks. This vision for Hillsborough County is characterized by a walkable, human-scaled place that encourages interaction at the street level, provides linkages to destinations, and ensures the safety and quality of life of all pedestrians. Walkable streets provide better support for and access to transit and encourage thriving centers of activity. In order to create these places, strategic and financial investments must be committed to the implementation of priority pedestrian corridor improvements, transit enhancements, land use modifications, and safety education and enforcement programs. Hillsborough County has already made significant steps toward creating an effective pedestrian network. Therefore, the objective of this plan is focused on implementation and achieving the desired goals of improving connectivity and consistency of pedestrian facilities. This plan identifies programs and policies that allow pedestrian travel to become a more integrated and effective mode of transportation and are designed to: • Reduce pedestrian crashes throughout the county; • Promote livable roadways; i HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY | 2025 Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan • Link pedestrian improvements with areas targeted for redevelopment or mixed land uses; and • Promote better access to public transportation. The plan focuses on connecting people with employment, schools, parks, shopping, and residences and also seeks to involve the public and solicit their input, and to educate them about the necessity of and the realities that come with implementing this plan. ACCOMPLISHMENTS The Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan builds on the findings and analysis from previous studies and continues progress toward achieving a more balanced multimodal transportation system throughout Hillsborough County with a focus on implementation. The Pedestrian Plan reviews the existing pedestrian network and facilities, identifies and prioritizes pedestrian needs, and develops an action plan while soliciting input from the community through the MPO’s Long Range Transportation Plan update process. The Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan identifies the priority pedestrian corridors and policies to be implemented that improve the safety, accessibility, convenience, and comfort of pedestrians. This Plan resulted in the update of the Goals, Objectives and Policies from the 1998 Pedestrian Needs Assessment. This update reflects an increased emphasis on pedestrian transportation as well as new community concerns and priorities including: • Evaluation measures linked to Objectives, which allow for periodic monitoring of the progress and successes of the pedestrian system; • The direct correlation between obesity and sprawl and role of walking to improve public health and combat the obesity epidemic; • The necessity of residential development in downtown areas, which will provide round-the-clock pedestrian activity and increase the need for more pedestrian improvements; and • The work of the Livable Roadways Committee, which stresses the development and adoption of street design guidelines that promote mobility and encourage a more balanced pedestrian network. A strategic set of Priority Pedestrian Corridors has been selected based on objective criteria such as sidewalk gaps, proximity to schools, parks, and shopping areas, and pedestrian crash locations. Selected corridors are divided into three categories: Priority Corridors with Committed Funding Identified are roadway segments where funding has been committed by various agencies to implement bicycle and pedestrian projects. These corridors were not factored into the cost affordability calculation: • Bayshore Boulevard from Platt Avenue to Gandy Boulevard • 22nd Street from Bearss Avenue to 131st Avenue • Bruce B. Downs Boulevard from Fletcher Avenue to Pasco County (future BRT corridor) • Ashley Drive from I-275 to Tyler Street • Tampa Street from Scott Street to Harrison Street • Gandy Boulevard from the Gandy Bridge to the Crosstown Expressway ii HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY | 2025 Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan PEDESTRIAN PRIORITY CORRIDORS LEGEND Cost-Affordable Priority Corridors are essential projects that are of highest consideration due to high pedestrian demand or future development. Based on projected revenues, all of these corridors will be funded for implementation: • US Highway 301 from MLK Jr. Boulevard to Broadway Avenue • Dale Mabry Highway from Fletcher Avenue to Waters Avenue • Tampa Street and Florida Avenue from Lake Avenue to downtown Tampa • Nebraska Avenue from Lake Avenue to downtown Tampa • Fowler Avenue from Interstate 275 to 56th Street • Dale Mabry Highway from Boy Scout Boulevard/Columbus Drive to Bay to Bay Drive • Brandon Boulevard from Interstate 75 to Valrico Road • Gandy Boulevard from the Crosstown Expressway to Bayshore Boulevard Unfunded Priority Corridors are the remainder of the priority corridors for which no funding is available at this time. It is expected that as funding becomes available, these projects will be implemented. iii HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY | 2025 Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan FUNDING Successful implementation requires funding commitments for pedestrian improvements. There are numerous likely funding sources at the federal, state, and local level for the development and improvement of pedestrian facilities. The Hillsborough County MPO has identified approximately $51.6 million available for pedestrian projects in the 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan. Of this amount, $26 million is reserved for Priority Pedestrian Corridors and $20 million will be used to fill sidewalk gaps through the Urban Services Area. Cost estimates for implementation were based on completion of the sidewalk on both sides of the street and the addition of pedestrian treatments such as crosswalks, appropriately scaled lighting and trees. IMPLEMENTATION The specifics of implementation are outlined in the proposed Action Plan. This includes the recommendation for a Corridor Pedestrian Improvement Program, which incorporates an interactive public involvement process that allows citizens and stakeholders to select corridors for implementation and recommend desired improvements. The Action Plan also recommends policies and benchmarks to monitor progress toward achieving the plan’s goals and objectives over time. In addition, the Action Plan outlines safety and education programs. The most effective approaches are coordinated among local, county and state agencies, colleges and universities, and private organization to provide services, literature, and training. Safety education is an ongoing effort for people of all ages and abilities, therefore there is equal importance in educating children, teenagers, adults, seniors and people with special needs or disabilities. PLAN DEVELOPMENT Renaissance Planning Group, in partnership with URS Corporation, was hired by the Hillsborough County MPO to develop this Comprehensive Pedestrian Plan as an update to the 1998 Pedestrian Needs Assessment and 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan. The MPO’s Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee served as a steering committee for this project while other MPO committees, including the Livable Roadways Committee, were involved in reviewing and commenting on the draft final plan and outreach efforts. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS EXECUTIVE SUMMARY i THE 2025 COMPREHENSIVE PEDESTRIAN PLAN 1 DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS 3 PEDESTRIAN NEEDS ASSESSMENT 4 Areas of Pedestrian