Good, Bad and Ugly

First the good:
As I am reviewing the latest and greatest of FLATS long range transportation plan, I am constantly reminded of the great job our consultants have done with the analysis of urban Florence traffic. There is great detail (for a vision document) on how to think of a 'complete street' (Chapter 5, starting on page 5-69 ), financial constraints (we only have so many funds for FLATS, Chapter 10 page 10-6), and the initial approach to improve existing streets (Chapter 5 page 5-41) with medians, curbs and interconnections between businesses over the traditional - widen until you can widen any more! I also wanted to mention the fantastic public work ethic - we had a whole slew of residents and stakeholders whom met at public meetings as well as for advisory committees. Thank you, team!

the bad?
Yes, there is plenty of that in the document as well. Where are our sidewalks? How can we connect our rail trail to other parts of the urban area? When will Hoffmeyer Road be striped for bicycles? Can we get the traffic light timing on Irby Street correct? ...and don't even mention Five (six) Points and the location of the new downtown intermodal facility (one location where cars and bikes can park, buses are routed and trains stop)! There is a lot of work to do, and we are going to have fun doing it!

the Ugly.
Um, yeah - we have the ugly here in Florence. On more than one account by residents in public forums or blogs, the 76 corridor approaching downtown Florence from the airport is ugly. Other uglies also include a list of the worst crash rate intersections (above, from the County Comp Plan)

So, there's your brief rap up of one of the big projects we all have been working on - a good project that's a great direction to clean up the bad and ugly of Florence. Review the implementation plan; it's a quick read and lists what we could be proposing in the near future and many years down the road.