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Coming up next on "Making Moves",
JTA tells Clay County residents to express yourself-
we'll explain,
nighttime is the right time for the Riverside Trolley,
how a new service there is helping alleviate
a major parking issue,
a downtown landmark gets a makeover,
and see the skyway as you've never
seen it before.
I'm Joyce Morgan Danford, "Making Moves" starts right now.
♪♪
This achievement marks a significant milestone
for the JTA's vision, a partnering to implement
regional transportation solutions that help to enhance
the quality of life in Northeast Florida.
Hello everyone and welcome to another edition of
"Making Moves".
I'm Joyce Morgan Danford.
Officials from JTA, the Florida Department of Transportation,
and Clay County gathered to celebrate the opening
of the Black Creek Park and Ride facility
on County Road two twenty.
Enthusiasm at the special dedication ceremony was high,
despite the less than perfect weather.
FDOT District two Secretary Greg Evans called the new facility
a winning situation for all of the partners.
It's always great to see regional partnering
to prove transportation, infrastructure,
and transportation options.
This facility serves multiple functions,
it is not only a transit connect,
it also provides opportunities for car porting.
In today's world of ever increasing fuel prices,
car porting allows Clay County citizens to pool
their resources to reduce their commute costs.
With the second longest commute in all of Florida,
this means more money for Clay County families
to spend on things they need and enjoy.
This also means fewer vehicles on the highways
during peak rush hours, which relieves congestion.
A win-win-win situation.
FDOT helped fund the project.
The facility will be the hub for both JTA's regional commuter
express route, the X4, and several Clay transit routes.
Earlier that morning, the X4 rolled into the new
Park and Ride facility for the very first time.
Several commuters have already parked their cars
in favor of the new express service.
The X4 makes two early morning trips into Jacksonville
and then two return trips in the afternoon.
So you might be asking, why the big deal about a new parking lot
with a new transit shelter?
Well, as "Making Moves" Eugene Lindsay tells us,
the Black Creek Park and Ride is the start of what both JTA
and Clay officials think will be a regional transportation
and government complex.
That's right, Joyce, several years ago commissioners here
in Clay County purchased this thirty acre parcel of land.
The location was ideal, they thought,
for a commuter rail station.
After all, the JTA had been planting the idea of
commuter rail as far south as Green Cove Springs
and St. Augustine, as far north into Yulee, but then again,
commuter rail stations don't just happen overnight.
So out of this partnership came a stepping stone to
commuter rail, commuter bus service with limited stops
between Clay County and downtown Jacksonville.
It's important because of regional cooperation,
acting as partners.
Over fifty percent of our people commute to Jacksonville to work
and this is another stage, another phase, another level,
that makes it convenient for folks to be able to get to work
and to assist in reducing some of those traffic jams
at five o'clock that we see along the highway.
For JTA, this new Park and Ride facility is about expanding
regionally and working with partners to ensure
better mobility throughout the First Coast.
Their citizens, you know, are having to travel two times
as far to get to their jobs, to get to the doctor,
to get to downtown Jacksonville.
That's a need that has to be met and since we are dedicated to
regional transportation, and Clay County is one of our
partners and we will want to make this happen,
we want to make sure that we meet their needs.
And for people like Mary Marcus, this means a relaxing ride into
the city without the hassles of getting behind the wheel.
Well, seventeen and also Blanding are parking lots
at certain times of the day and it's very, very stressful
and I think that being able to sit down and read a book,
because I lived in New York, I lived in Boston,
I'm very familiar with public transportation,
and to be able to sit and read a book and have
someone else drive, plus wear and tear on my car is safe,
plus when you get the train going, that will be great.
Meanwhile, the hopes of Mary Marcus and others
for commuter rail is still a reality.
The JTA continues to work behind the scenes with
the railroad companies on how to make a rail plan work here
and Clay officials have their own plans for this site too.
Two term Clay County commissioner, Doug Cocky,
says he will like to see the county build an annex building
with, perhaps, a health department or tax office.
So it appears a bus shelter and some parking spaces is just
step one for this facility in one of
the fastest growing areas in North Florida.
In Clay County, Eugene Lindsay, JTA "Making Moves".
The X-Four was not the only new JTA route to debut
in Clay County in January.
The new Oakleaf shuttle is also making a splash with commuters
in the Oakleaf and Argyle area.
Oakleaf launched in early January as the eleventh shuttle
in the JTA fleet.
It serves the Orange Park Mall, Oakleaf Town Center,
and communities adjacent to Argyle Forest Boulevard
and Collins Road, east of Blanding.
Regular fares cost one dollar fifty cents per trip,
route deviations are available on a limited basis
for an additional fifty cents.
When veterans leave the military,
many times they have difficulty assimilating
into civilian life.
Some have suffered catastrophic injuries and need
recurring medical care, while others must find
compatible careers in the civilian world.
Well either way, finding the right transportation
can be a challenge and that's where JTA's new initiative,
Transportal, comes in.
And here to tell us more about Transportal and how it will
specifically help area veterans is JTA's Liz Peak.
Liz is the Transportal project manager, and John Markiewicz,
John is currently on the National Executive Committee
for Disabled American Veterans.
He's also the vice chair of the Duval County coordinating board
for the transportation disadvantaged.
So thank you both for joining us.
This is an exciting venture.
This is absolutely exciting and I know, Liz, you've been working
on it for quite some time, so tell us what it is
and what does Transportal do.
Transportal is a one click website that is going to provide
our area veterans and military families with more information
on how they can get to and from activities
that they need to go to every day.
Every trip may be different, so one size doesn't fit all,
especially when they don't have their own vehicle.
So the Transportal is going to show them all the possible modes
they can take to get to where they need to go.
But is it strictly for vets?
It is not.
It is designed to serve the needs of the veterans,
so the design is for the veterans, but it is a website
that's open to anybody.
Okay, so John, how have area veterans and local veterans
taken part in this and what's the response from them?
Well, we've had a number of meetings where we brought in
veterans and work groups and tried to decide just exactly
what coverage we needed and where we needed to go for the
veterans, where most veterans need to find transportation
to get to, and because of that, we wound up expanding the area
we initially started with to include VA hospitals
and Gainesville, up in Lake City.
We've had a lot of feedback from the veterans.
There are some disappointment that they felt it wasn't quite
what they thought it should be and that was just basically
an education process because they didn't understand
the grant process and the fact that this grant was
specifically for creating this one-click center,
whereas they had, some had the impression that it was
going to be to go out and buy vans and pick up the veterans
and take them where they need to go and we had to
kind of overcome that with a little education and let
folks know that that was beyond the scope of the grant.
But the positive aspects of it have been felt and a lot of
the veterans are responding in a very positive way.
You know, earlier I said that sometimes veterans have
a difficult time assimilating back into civilian life.
How does Transportal help them?
Well, a lot of times they come home and they don't have jobs,
they are looking for jobs, and they don't have any way to get
there, they don't have transportation, they don't have
a lot of money when they first get back, and so finding out
what transportation options out there is a big benefit because
right now, like if you need to go to Gainesville
or to Lake City, all they really know is the DAV
provides vans out of the clinic but those vans are booked full
well in advance and so if somebody needs to get there
and the vans full, how do they get there?
They either find someone to take them or they go themselves and
drive or else they just have to rearrange their appointments.
So what happens with this system, they'll be able to
identify what other means of transportation,
or even just to get to the clinic here in Jacksonville.
Okay, and so Liz, the range of services,
what kinds of services are available?
Well, the traditional transit options will be on the
Transportal, but we'll also have the Disabled Americans Vets
vehicle options, other social service agencies, Amtrak,
Greyhound, MegaBus, as well as the taxis, and other private
and non-profit services that are available
throughout the region.
So John, that makes a big difference.
It does and we also intend, I believe, to incorporate
ride sharing and carpooling into this and so if somebody's
going to go to Gainesville, for example, and they let
the appropriate people know, that will be up on the website
that they are willing to take two or three or one
or however many riders they are willing to take
and that will be yet another option that they
will be able to find on this website that they would have
not otherwise known about.
Okay, and what kind of area are we talking about?
Because when you're talking about going to Lake City,
going to Gainesville, that's, you know, that's a wide area.
It's twelve counties, and like John mentioned earlier,
the original plan was to target the six county area,
the traditional Northeast Florida area,
but when we talked more about this website
and how we wanted to tailor it specifically for veterans,
design it to serve their needs, number one thing
they said is we need to get to the VA hospital.
Right.
So with that, we expanded it to twelve counties.
It does take more work, but not so much more work than it did
to do the initial six counties, so we're really excited.
This is going to be a really good program for our veterans,
for our military families, and for the entire region.
And you guys have worked so *** this and, to me, the,
when it comes to fruition, it's that website that really
makes it work and that's www.transportal.net.
That's going to be the catalyst for everything.
What will they be able to find there?
So they will be, this is going to be like Expedia for ground
transportation, so they'll be able to say, this is where I am,
this is where I want to go, show me all of the options,
and it's going to give them the options as well as how long
that option is going to take and how much that option
is going to cost, so they can make an educated decision
with one click of what mode is going to fit their needs
for that particular trip.
And John, you sounded, you really look excited about this.
It is, it's a very... We've been working on this
for over two years now and the secretary came down
and presented us with the grant out at the Vietnam,
at the Jacksonville Memorial Wall.
We were all very excited about it and of course, you know,
you lose some of that excitement as the time goes on,
and now that we're coming down to where it's
actually happening, it is a very exciting thing for,
especially for our veterans in Jacksonville.
Well thank you both for all of your hard work,
especially you John, and you know, giving the insight
that we need at JTA to really make this happen.
Thank you both so much and continued success.
Thank you.
And up next, the nighttime is the right time
for the Riverside Trolley.
We'll show you how JTA's latest service is getting rave reviews
in one of Jacksonville's hottest neighborhoods.
Think it gets people to get out of their houses
and to get out doing things and I think it just really
encourages people to shop local, eat local, and kind of just
be more of a part of the community.
♪♪
I know they say, you can't go home again.
I just had to come back one last time.
You leave home, you move on, and you do the best you can.
I got lost in this old world and forgot who I am.
Imagine taking a gondola ride through the canals in Venice,
experiencing breath taking magnificence of
the Eiffel tower, or riding a legendary double decker bus
through the streets of London.
For most of us, these are just dreams that will never
come true, but they could.
Think about saving hundreds, even thousands of dollars a year
by doing one simple thing- parking your car
and taking JTA instead.
Save money, ride JTA and make your dreams a reality.
Welcome back to "Making Moves'.
A new pilot program by JTA is getting rave reviews
from locals in Riverside and Avondale.
It's the new nighttime trolley, which is running Friday
and Saturday nights on the first weekend
of every month through June.
The night trolley was the brain child of some young Riverside
residents who were tired of dealing with the burdening
parking issues there, and that's where "Making Moves",
Bill Millness picks up the story.
Trolleys are not new to Riverside but they are new
to the nightlife of Riverside and Avondale.
Despite being one of the most popular and fastest growing
entertainment districts in the city,
Riverside and Avondale still have a local feel.
You won't find a bunch of chain restaurants
in these neighborhoods.
It's nearly all locally owned and operated businesses,
and that's just the way the locals here like it,
and for people like Bonnie Smith, the night trolley
fits into that vibe perfectly.
I think this is a great thing to have in the community
because I think it gets people to get out of their houses
and to get out doing things and I think it just really
encourages people to shop local, eat local,
and kind of just be a more of a part of the community,
which is really great, and I think anything to
encourage that is a good thing, for sure.
Mike Field was one of the people who approached JTA with the idea
of a night trolley service here.
Field says getting people out of their cars helps the parking
problems well known to this area, but he says the trolley
can also help bring people together.
We have some problems around here with parking
and there really is no other way to get around the drive
and so we want to get people out of their cars,
using the trolleys, you know, walking around
and enjoying these local businesses we have.
Trolley rider, Josh Cobb, agrees.
It's fun, good chance to meet new people, it's safe,
you don't have to worry about someone driving home,
so yeah, it's great.
Jacksonville City Councilman, Jim Love, was heavily involved
in getting this pilot program up and running,
and nearly a thousand trips were taken
during the initial weekend of service.
Love showed his support by taking his family for a ride.
We just got back from Lola's Restaurant,
we had a great meal there, and now we're headed to
Bold City Brewery with my family.
While the Riverside-Avondale night trolley is still in its
testing phase, Cameron Perry is already envisioning a time
when it becomes a permanent part of the fabric of these
two historic neighborhoods.
Right now you have to keep reminding people.
Unfortunately, I think just do it, do it, do it, but once it's
like something like, I'm going out, this is obviously what I'm
going to do is hop on the trolley,
think it will be really cool.
In Riverside, Bill Millness, JTA "Making Moves".
Skyway ridership topped one point one million trips
in twenty thirteen.
Now the skyway is about to get an exciting new look,
just in time for the second annual
One Spark festival downtown.
And to tell us more about the big news is Mike Miller.
Mike is the business development manager at JTA.
Welcome back to "Making Moves".
First of all, before we even get to the big news,
we really want to talk about exactly what you do.
Tell us what you're responsible for.
You're responsible for bringing in revenue through.
Basically, yeah, I mean there are, there are really
three forms of revenue that JTA and other transit agencies
can generate.
One is through tax dollars and of course we do get
a good amount, not as much as we used to,
but we do get a good amount of that.
The second is the fares that we get from the ridership,
and then the third is what I call non-traditional
transit related opportunities.
Okay.
And that's the type of thing with advertising on the buses,
advertising on our shelters, sponsorships of different events
and thing of that sort, and I'm responsible for this third leg
of that, of that stool,
for the nontraditional revenue generation.
And when you talk about that, that is absolutely money
JTA would not get unless you were doing that.
Well, unless somebody was doing it, but thank you very much.
Yeah, it, this is above and beyond and we're very happy
about it because it seems to be growing, we've seen great growth
over the last five years in this, and we're expecting even
greater growth in the future, which is good because you never
know what tax revenues are going to do and you don't even know
what fare revenues necessarily are going to do.
We're hoping they are going to grow, but there's not surety to
any of that, so that puts more pressure on trying to generate
other revenues that are not related to taxes or fare box.
Absolutely, a lot of uncertainty, but you know,
one thing that we have seen around town is
the wraps on the buses.
So talk about what could be the future of skyway wraps.
Well, we're very excited about this because we are now showing
the first ever skyway wrap, which is,
as part of our sponsorship of the One Spark program.
This was something that they and I talked about for months,
about wanting to do.
We got different designs, I had to have our installers go out
and actually measure the skyways, to make sure
that we could do this, and everybody came back
with a positive reaction to it.
So, One Spark said we want to be the first,
so that's why we now have this One Spark wrap.
And, you know, One Spark was so exciting.
It's such a creative time in Jacksonville and everyone
really seemed to enjoy it.
So tell us how this wrap for One Spark all came about?
I mean, you guys were talking about it, you looked at it,
everybody says this is a good fit.
Yes, and when we first started our conversations with One Spark
last year, we were premier sponsor and we are again
this coming year.
We're the nova sponsor as it's called, and we put a package
together to equal the amount of in-kind service
that JTA could provide.
We're extending the skyway hours, of course, for One Spark,
as we did last year, we're going to be putting up ads
in different shelters that we have around town to promote it,
and when we found out that One Spark was going to condense
in size, it was still going to be bigger than it was
last year, but they're going to bring it in somewhat into
more of a centralized location, we saw that the skyway was
even going to be more important to the success of One Spark
than it was last year and it was a great success last year.
So with that conversations went about where they came to me
and said, well is there any way we can wrap a skyway car?
But we had never done it before.
We had had people come and approach us before,
but we had never done it.
But this time, through discussions we had had with
Mr. Ford and others, they said we think it's a great idea,
let's go forward.
And you did it.
Okay, so is this a one off for One Spark or will this open
the flood gates for other businesses to take
a more serious look at how to advertise on those trains?
We hope so, but we're going to be very selective
in who we talk to as far as advertising on the skyway.
The skyway is iconic.
I mean, when you think of icons downtown, you think of
the river, of course, you think of the Freedom Fountain,
you think of the Landing, and you think of the skyway,
and because of that and because of it's predominance
in the community, we want to make sure
that we have the right kinds of people that would be
on the skyway, so we're looking at hospitals,
we're looking at banks, we're looking at large corporations,
those Fortune Five Hundreds that have
their headquarters here or a large appearance,
this is the kind of sponsor we would like to see on
the skyway because it is such a unique characteristic.
Well speaking of unique, let's remember that is was 44,000
trips taken during that time.
Yes, which was the second largest that we have ever had
and was only exceeded but what we did in the Superbowl in
2005, so yes, it was extremely popular and because
again, of the geographical changes of One Spark,
I'm anticipating there will be over 45,000 this year.
Well, it sounds good.
Now, let's consider another kind of sponsorship,
since you're thinking out of the box with everything you do,
totally creative, the stadium shuttle.
We've run the stadium shuttle, of course, ever since
the Jaguars came about and in the years that I've been
a part of it in one way or the other, I've often wondered
why we haven't been able to attract companies who want to
be associated with something that's Jaguars without
necessarily having to deal with the Jaguars directly
and nothing against that, but it's quite expensive
to become a sponsor with the Jaguars, as we all know,
and there are companies that would love to but they're
just not at that economic level where they can.
So we look at the stadium shuttle as a way to be connected
with the Jaguars, connected with the community,
connected with the fans, and by the way,
these fans, if you think about them,
are people who don't generally use our service.
These are choice riders, as we like to call them.
So all of that, kind of, exposure, people like that and
to the service, we want to go out and find companies
that are looking towards sponsoring at the skyway,
at the stadium shuttle, rather, letting them own it,
so to speak, for JTA. And we've been doing this
for how many years, Mike? Twenty years?
Yeah, we've been doing it for a long time and, by the way,
speaking of sponsorship and thinking out of the box,
the skyway service that we're providing for the One Spark
program is also on the street right now, as we like to say,
for sponsorship, so there are companies that say hey, gee,
I want to sponsor the skyway during that,
they will be part of all of the promotional effort
that goes on.
Again, a way to be connected to the One Spark program,
to be connected with the development downtown,
the revitalization of downtown, and knowing that they are
helping provide a complimentary service that we are
going to be providing for those five days.
Okay, so your mind is rolling, I can just see it.
I mean, every time you say something you're really rolling,
you're starting to roll.
So what other advertising opportunities do you have
up your sleeve?
We've talked to a couple of people about actually
naming rights for skyway stations, so it then becomes
their skyway station, central station has got
a wonderful location for that, and there are numbers
of corporations, banks, and others that are around
that area and we feel it's a perfect fit for a corporation
to want to name that station theirs, so it would be the,
I don't know what you want to call it,
the Acme Central Station,
for the skyway and, of course, everything that we have
would be named that for Central Station, and we think there is
some very good candidates for that,
particularly on the Southbank, but also on the Northbank,
like Central and Heming.
So basically you're saying there are all kinds of opportunities,
the sky is the limit, creativity is certainly the limit.
Also, I'm always open for new ideas.
If people come to me and say, hey Mike, can we do this?
Sure, let's put everything on the table and take a look at it
and see what we can do.
Okay, thanks so much.
Mike Miller, JTA's Business Development Manager,
and remember that I can't wait to see it.
I mean, we've seen the renderings, but just to see the
skyway wrapped, that's going to be fantastic.
It's going to be exciting.
Thanks again, Mike.
You've probably seen the vintage locomotive that sits outside
the Prime Osborne Convention Center.
Well, it's getting a major makeover.
CSX matched a ten thousand dollar grant from
Trains Magazine to make the needed repairs to
Atlantic Coastline steam locomotive number 1504,
a reality.
A locomotive built back in 1919 was retired in 1952
and was moved to the convention center 34 years later.
Last year, the National Railway Historical Society listed the
locomotive on it's list of most at risk railroad landmarks.
The locomotive was originally donated to the city
in recognition of the new convention center being named
after Prime F. Osborne III, who was CSX's first
chairman of the board.
And that wraps up this edition of "Making Moves".
We're so grateful you took some time to join us.
Remember, if you missed any part of the show or just want to
watch it again, complete episodes of "Making Moves"
are always available online at jtafla.com
and on our YouTube channel, JTA904.
You can also find exclusive, web-only content
on our Facebook page, so be sure to check it out
at facebook.com/jtamakingmoves.
For the entire "Making Moves" team, I'm Joyce Morgan Danford,
we'll see you the next time we're Making Moves.