Florida

[cpzilliacus]

I don't get the business model...charge more because too many drivers are already using (and paying) it? Somehow, they want less folks using it? While I get the idea of supply-and-demand, it's based on how dense the traffic is in the four lanes to the right...if it's not moving at all, or you foresee that it's not worth the hassle of taking 30-40 minutes instead of 8-10, what does FDOT want from it?

Use the money to build reversible lanes, if they're so adamant about the pricing model. Of course, that brings about another five years of demolition, construction, constricted traffic flow, and toll revenues...

It's not a "business model" in the sense that they're looking to turn a profit. They're using the tolls to regulate demand on the express lanes so they don't get over capacity. Prices aren't directly set based on traffic in the other four lanes; rather, they're set based on demand for the toll lanes.

Though in some other HOV/Toll lane operations (I-15 (Escondido Freeway) in San Diego County, Calif. in particular), the toll rates in the managed lane are set (at least in part) by traffic volumes in the adjacent "free" lanes.

[clef]

New assembly... oops

[formulanone]

^ That's worse than "Flordia", in my opinion.

So where's that goof...Somewhere along State Road 7? The one way/do not enter signs are throwing me off.

[NE2]

Nice, found it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.117996,-80.330226&spn=0.007851,0.014173&gl=us&t=k&z=17&layer=c&cbll=26.117996,-80.330226&panoid=uappT8KIXi3G440NI9VziA&cbp=12,210.08,,0,3.43

[clef]

Nice, found it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.117996,-80.330226&spn=0.007851,0.014173&gl=us&t=k&z=17&layer=c&cbll=26.117996,-80.330226&panoid=uappT8KIXi3G440NI9VziA&cbp=12,210.08,,0,3.43

Yes, that's the one. There are lots of new assemblies around the 595 project area. New stop sign/right turn ass'y by the six-keys 84 but it's still there.

Nexus 5

[Alex]

Nice, found it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.117996,-80.330226&spn=0.007851,0.014173&gl=us&t=k&z=17&layer=c&cbll=26.117996,-80.330226&panoid=uappT8KIXi3G440NI9VziA&cbp=12,210.08,,0,3.43

Yes, that's the one. There are lots of new assemblies around the 595 project area. New stop sign/right turn ass'y by the six-keys 84 but it's still there.

Nexus 5

Just photographed the six-keys FL 84 shield on Tuesday. The missing arrow at the bottom was amended with a bus stop sign...

[clef]

Nice, found it.
http://maps.google.com/maps?ll=26.117996,-80.330226&spn=0.007851,0.014173&gl=us&t=k&z=17&layer=c&cbll=26.117996,-80.330226&panoid=uappT8KIXi3G440NI9VziA&cbp=12,210.08,,0,3.43

Yes, that's the one. There are lots of new assemblies around the 595 project area. New stop sign/right turn ass'y by the six-keys 84 but it's still there.

Nexus 5

Just photographed the six-keys FL 84 shield on Tuesday. The missing arrow at the bottom was amended with a bus stop sign...

The bus stop sign has been there. There's another one of those old orange BCt signs by the red US-1s recently found

[Brian556]

Found a Blue US 90 alongside a very old CR sign that I haven't seen a pic of:

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.250967,-82.271547&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.251054,-82.271595&panoid=uk26Ney6ubRHCggJOAZdVQ&cbp=12,206.51,,1,0

And another one:
https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.207213,-82.410078&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.207298,-82.410081&panoid=-XUy956M-_XCI5R3KpJrCg&cbp=12,221.62,,1,0

[Alex]

Found a Blue US 90 alongside a very old CR sign that I haven't seen a pic of:

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.250967,-82.271547&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.251054,-82.271595&panoid=uk26Ney6ubRHCggJOAZdVQ&cbp=12,206.51,,1,0

And another one:
https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.207213,-82.410078&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.207298,-82.410081&panoid=-XUy956M-_XCI5R3KpJrCg&cbp=12,221.62,,1,0

January 18, 2010 photos:





Did you find this one too?

[formulanone]

I need another Panhandle trip...Not enough jobs send me there.

[Alex]

I need another Panhandle trip...Not enough jobs send me there.

The best counties in the Panhandle for old signage are Calhoun, Jackson, Holmes, Washington, the Panama City area of Bay, Wakulla, and Franklin. Forget about Escambia and Santa Rosa (save for a shield in each). Walton is mostly odd-ball signage the county came up with. Okaloosa is all modern outside of Laurel Hill and one shield at Shalimar.

[xcellntbuy]

New assembly... oops

LOTS of strange assemblies in the Interstate 595 area with the new HOT lanes being built these days.

By the way, have you seen the HUGE (and I mean HUGE) sign gantries on the Florida's Turnpike for the soon to be finished HOT lanes between Exits 58 (Sunrise Blvd.) and 49 (Hollywood Blvd./Pines Blvd)?  The triangular gantries are twice the height of current and substantial gantries already in existence.

[NE2]

At least westbound, new signs (0:39, 1:06) for I-4 exit 1 omit SR 585. Instead they read:
Cruise Ships
----
22nd St.
21st St.
----
NO TRUCKS

[emory]

I assume they're resigning those exits in preparation to remove FL 585 from the state highway system.

[mefailenglish]

Found a Blue US 90 alongside a very old CR sign that I haven't seen a pic of:

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.250967,-82.271547&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.251054,-82.271595&panoid=uk26Ney6ubRHCggJOAZdVQ&cbp=12,206.51,,1,0

And another one:
https://www.google.com/maps?q=Gainesville,+FL&ll=30.207213,-82.410078&spn=0.000037,0.024912&t=h&hnear=Gainesville,+Alachua+County,+Florida&z=16&layer=c&cbll=30.207298,-82.410081&panoid=-XUy956M-_XCI5R3KpJrCg&cbp=12,221.62,,1,0

The last time I was up that way (about a year ago), I believe I noticed that one, if not both, of those Sanderson blue 90's were gone.  I didn't check on the one near the Olustee Battlefield, however.

[Alex]

I assume they're resigning those exits in preparation to remove FL 585 from the state highway system.

Absolutely. FDOT will repave the alignment of SR 585 one final time and then transfer it over to the city.

[Brian556]

Yellow US 231's in Alford:

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Crestview,+FL&ll=30.693897,-85.390305&spn=0.000005,0.003114&t=h&hnear=Crestview,+Okaloosa+County,+Florida&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.693888,-85.39018&panoid=rMn-NXtfi5Wvo_odDTN7BQ&cbp=12,276.83,,0,0

https://www.google.com/maps?q=Crestview,+FL&ll=30.693945,-85.391037&spn=0.000005,0.003114&t=h&hnear=Crestview,+Okaloosa+County,+Florida&z=19&layer=c&cbll=30.693953,-85.391153&panoid=YXl4eZXj6uCijjA2rA9ytA&cbp=12,276.83,,0,0

[cpzilliacus]

N.Y. Times: Need for Speeders Puts Tiny Florida City on Brink of Erasure

HAMPTON, Fla. – It's easy for motorists driving down busy County Road 301 to miss this speck of a city in rural north-central Florida: Fiddle with the car radio, unwrap a pack of gum, gaze out the window at the sunset and, whoosh, it's gone.

And so it fell to the police to force hurried travelers to stop and savor the 1,260-foot ribbon of roadway belonging to this city. Hidden by trash bins or concealed in a stretch of woods, the officers – a word loosely applied here – pointed their radar devices. Between 2011 and 2012, Hampton's officers issued 12,698 speeding tickets to motorists, many likely caught outside Hampton's strip of county road.

But, as it turns out, surprised motorists are not the only ones getting burned. So many speeding tickets were churned out for so many years and with such brazenness that this city of 477 residents came under scrutiny – and not just for revenue raising with a radar gun. Now, Hampton, an 89-year-old city, is fighting legislative momentum to wipe it off the map, after a state audit last month uncovered reams of financial irregularities, shoddy record-keeping and missing funds.

[DeaconG]

^^^Been following this story since it came out in the Orlando Sentinel a couple of weeks ago.

Now, can we do the same to Lawtey and Waldo?

[formulanone]

County Road 301? Looks like US 301 was given a double-dis!

I was at work in that area two years ago, and the courts had surmised that US 301 did not actually border the limits Hampton, and therefore they had no jurisdiction over it.

There is precedence for this, the State of Florida revoked Boulogne's charter.

[Alex]

County Road 301? Looks like US 301 was given a double-dis!

I was at work in that area two years ago, and the courts had surmised that US 301 did not actually border the limits Hampton, and therefore they had no jurisdiction over it.

There is precedence for this, the State of Florida revoked Boulogne's charter.

I read the long story on CNN about Hampton. Drove there once at the end of 2006 (CR 18 west to CR 221 south).

The ticket money continued rolling in: $616,960 between 2010 and 2012. Hampton's peak year came in 2011, when 9,515 speeding tickets brought in more than $253,000.
That was the year state Rep. Charles Van Zant got his speeding ticket. He says he drove directly to the courthouse in Starke and paid it. And, he insists, he carries no grudge. But later, he observed, "When I got my ticket, you couldn't hardly pass by Hampton without getting a ticket. You can say that's law enforcement, but no. That's banking using the U.S. highway system."
By 2012, Smith was playing hardball. He questioned whether the city had legally annexed the 1,260-foot stretch of U.S. 301; he said nobody could find a document recording the easement. He also believed that Hampton was illegally tracking cars with its radar outside the city limits.
He persuaded a judge to dismiss Hampton's tickets and cut the city's officers off the county radio and national criminal record database. He ordered his deputies not to accept Hampton's prisoners at the county jail.
Responding to the pressure, Hampton took down its speed trap. The ticket money for 2012 dropped more than 40 percent from the previous year.

When I drove through in January, I did not even notice Hampton at all. However reviewing my photos, I see the Hampton city limit sign and that the speed limit dropped from 65 to 55 at the intersection with CR 18. The lone cop I saw along US 301 that day was in Waldo facing southbound traffic.

[NE2]

Probably dropped to 55 there long before Hampton annexed it, due to the traffic light.

[Jim]

From the CNN article:

The American Automobile Association's Auto Club of the South labeled Hampton a "traffic trap" and warned members about the town, along with Lawtey and Waldo, on its maps. The AAA also erected warning billboards along U.S. 301.

We travel the Baldwin-Ocala stretch of US 301 a few times a year, and I've seen those billboards but never knew who posted them.  I vaguely (and naively) thought they might have been posted by the towns themselves because they genuinely wanted traffic through the area to slow to a safe speed.  Clearly not.

Given the amount of enforcement we've seen in all of those little towns, we're very good about slowing to the exact posted speed every time it drops below 65.  In my experience, Lawtey is the worst.  There's been an officer with a speed gun and/or someone pulled over nearly every time I've driven through.

[formulanone]

I had to drive through Waldo every morning (around 7:00-7:30am) for a few weeks, and they had a school zone through their town as well. So the 35 dropped to 15mph, and that several block stretch is where they really set up their enforcement, not at the town fringes. It does have a flashing light and sign warning you of the 15 mph zone, but on a foggy morning, it might be hard to discern. It's hard to miss the warning signs, to be honest. But there were at least two patrol cars stationary, but facing traffic every morning.

Mind you, there weren't any crossing guards, let alone any children, at FL 24/Waldo Road, either. No vehicles seemed to be turning towards the elementary school. So it seemed to be a bit of a sham, although perhaps school hadn't started yet...maybe not enough time for actual school traffic.

When I drove through in January, I did not even notice Hampton at all. However reviewing my photos, I see the Hampton city limit sign and that the speed limit dropped from 65 to 55 at the intersection with CR 18. The lone cop I saw along US 301 that day was in Waldo facing southbound traffic.

And if it were their jurisdiction, I don't have a problem with the slight drop from 65 to 55, since there is an intersection with some traffic (enough for a light? debatable, although US 301 traffic can be thicker during rush hours). After all, it's not like Lawtey, which also doesn't even have much in the way of cross traffic, yet drops down to 35. But not exactly something that needs desperate enforcement.

(It should be noted that Lawtey has a treasure trove of old Keys shields. So if you're paying extra attention, it's worth a stop.)

[NE2]

1967 plans for I-4 (now I-275) in St. Pete:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=HO4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6278%2C4126724
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=He4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1292%2C4336296
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Hu4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6897%2C4635181
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=H-4LAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2621%2C4840370
http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3D9QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=O1cDAAAAIBAJ&pg=7049%2C5027233
This seems to match what was built, except at exit 20. Note the proposed freeway coming out of the wide median at 38th Avenue North and the western continuation of I-375 including south-facing ramps. (1973 map showing where these freeways would have gone)

Description of minor changes, including current exit 20: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=H75aAAAAIBAJ&sjid=UFcDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2778%2C3097236 What's described doesn't quite match the current layout, but is shown on a 1977 plan.

Starting December 7, they had plans for what are now I-175 and I-375, but these seem to match the current design perfectly.

1968 plans for extension to the Skyway, mostly matching how it was built: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VopQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iVwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=4682%2C5254974