Innovation key to getting around downtown WPB
Downtown West Palm Beach is coming into its own. With new office projects attracting commuters and with apartment and condo construction bringing more residents to live downtown, city sidewalks are showing vitality, with more feet on the street and customers populating shops, restaurants and entertainment venues.
But with that upswing comes a requirement we implement more of the innovative mobility options discussed in public forums of years past, to make the bustle not just bearable in 90-degree heat but part of the fun of being downtown.
The good news is that the city has launched small projects that provide alternative ways to get from point to point at minimal cost — bike rentals and an extended network of bike lanes, more attractive, tree-shaded sidewalks, free lifts around downtown and Palm Beach in pollution-free electric vehicles, and yellow-shirted public safety “ambassadors” to keep pedestrian comfort levels high.
The disappointing news is officials’ failure, so far, to think big. No one is pressing for dramatic changes that could really make a difference and be, in and of themselves, an attraction for residents and visitors. One such improvement would be a signature, artistically designed pedestrian bridge or series of bridges, arching over hard-to-cross Okeechobee Boulevard, for example, and linking the convention center and the city’s shopping areas, waterfront and train stations while providing a breezy reprieve from the heat and traffic and affording Intracoastal vistas.
Some contend that people won’t use pedestrian bridges. But if designed right, they would. In fact, they do. In the U.S., Des Moines and Minneapolis are among the cities where pedestrians evade inclement weather — and get in their daily exercise — via scenic bridges that connect office buildings, garages and shops and parks.
An expensive enterprise for West Palm Beach? It would require the desire, consensus and contribution of city and county taxpayers, certainly. But with the city’s growth have come millions of dollars in new property tax revenues every year, some of which should be designated for such projects. At the county level, as the one-penny sales tax expires, officials have talked about converting that revenue into a source for transportation improvements. Federal transportation grants also are available for providing alternatives to vehicular traffic.
None of this discussion should slight the city for the changes it has made to date. West Palm Beach has a pilot program called rideWPB, for example, with electric shuttle company Circuit, that provides a pleasant way for people to get around downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.
The service, which replaces the trolleys that used to circle on fixed routes, offers three kinds of bright blue EVs. An EV van follows a fixed route that stops near the Brightline and TriRail stations and other key locations within downtown (roughly between Tamarind Avenue to the west, Flagler Drive on the eastern waterfront, Banyan Boulevard in the north and Okeechobee to the south).
The city recently added on-demand service, in Teslas and GEM vehicles, to the mix. These can be hailed through an app called Ride Circuit, or flagged down. The on-demand rides range from downtown, the town of Palm Beach, the Historic Northwest, Northwood, Pleasant City, South Dixie Highway to the Jefferson Terminal District.
There always seems to be talk about how to help pedestrians traverse the multi-lane Okeechobee/ Lakeview Avenue gulch, which divides the southern neighborhoods and convention center from downtown. That trek requires waiting for one light to change to reach the median, then waiting for another light to cross Lakeview Avenue to The Square. It’s an unnerving experience for West Palm Beach visitors.
County traffic engineers are working on a plan to change signal timing to accommodate vehicular and pedestrian traffic there. They’re smart people, but good luck with that.
A city official tells us that discussion of a pedestrian bridge — if ever — likely would wait until a second hotel goes up next to the convention center, which would bring even more people struggling to cross. The hotel project itself is one that’s much talked about but always seems years off.
It’s past time for West Palm Beach to wake up and marshal its powers of innovation and imagination to make itself stand out. Leadership is required now to get the public on board, evaluate the challenges, make a plan and get it done.