Advertisement

Carlton: Tampa going not just one way, but also up

 
Published Feb. 27, 2016

Back when I was a reporter covering the local courthouse, I found it interesting to look through the excuses people gave to get out of jury duty — both real, and really creative.

Amid tales of tyrannical bosses and dubious illnesses, this one popped up: Ordinary citizens wrote that they were unused to — even fearful of — downtown's one-way streets. Negotiating these alien roads would be a nightmare, some said, a fear that sounded sincere.

Proof came daily from the tall office building where my desk overlooked one of those one-way streets. At least once a day, I heard the screech of skidding tires and angry honking horns, signaling yet another hapless driver who turned unknowingly into oncoming traffic on an unfamiliar one-way street.

But lately, the view from my window has changed.

Downtown Tampa is shifting and morphing and becoming its next and best self — not just with sprawling parks, water views and actual residents walking actual dogs after 5 p.m., but also with the end of some of our antiquated one-way streets.

A little history. Once, all those one-way thoroughfares downtown made perfect sense. They brought in weekday commuters by 9 a.m. and got them out at 5. That was when everyone headed home to neighborhoods elsewhere and downtown sidewalks rolled up for the night. Street life after that was a couple of alley cats, a skulking river rat, maybe a tumbleweed or two.

"The one-way streets were the product of a mind-set in the '40s, '50s and '60s where the goal was to move people out of downtown as fast as you possibly could," says Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn. Florida Avenue, the northbound-only thoroughfare that cuts through the heart of downtown, remains a testament to that philosophy, with little chance for a motorist to stop for any retail option and not so inviting to bike or foot traffic, either.

This "does not encourage good urbanism," the mayor says.

"It cuts down on the street life — just point A to point B," echoes former City Council member Linda Saul-Sena.

And in Tampa today, "It just doesn't make any sense," Buckhorn says.

These days, people live here. People also hang around after 5 p.m. instead of bolting for the 'burbs. People walk, bike, skate, dine and pub crawl. You even see those Jetsonian Segways tooling around, all preferable to sighting a river rat.

So it makes sense to slow things down, to have streets that go both ways, to calm traffic and encourage walking and biking. In recent years, Polk, Twiggs and Madison streets were two-wayed. Now, it's Tyler and Cass streets, with more roads under consideration. Already, it is a downtown re-formed.

There's even hope state officials more concerned about getting cars onto highways might see the light on downtown roads they control. "Traffic is like water," the mayor says philosophically. "It will always find its way."

Keep up with Tampa Bay’s top headlines

Subscribe to our free DayStarter newsletter

We’ll deliver the latest news and information you need to know every morning.

You’re all signed up!

Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started.

Explore all your options

There's more to do. Chunky curbs are going up to protect new bike lanes. Saul-Sena has parking envy for the angled variety she sees more in St. Petersburg, allowing more spaces more sensibly.

With the street outside my office window newly two-wayed, rarely do I hear that telltale screech of tires and blare of horns. When I do, it's usually someone taken surprise by a once one-way road now going both. We may be progressive, but it can still take us a minute.

"I almost made the turn incorrectly the other day," admits Saul-Sena. "And I know it's happening."

Sue Carlton can be reached at carlton@tampabay.com.