Managing the Indirect Impacts of Bypasses on Smalland Medium-sized Communities in Florida

摘要

In Florida, consideration of a bypass alternative is increasing in small- and medium-sized communities that contain roadways on Florida’s Strategic Intermodal System (SIS)—roadways critical to the statewide movement of people and goods. These are often the primary roadway into and through smaller communities. Local governments sometimes seek SIS designation to achieve funding for increasing the capacity or improving the function of the major roadway leading to consideration of a bypass. Observed issues with these bypasses include: 1) the SIS designation assigns level of service and design criteria that increase pressure for a bypass alternative; 2) misconceptions abound regarding potential positive and negative impacts of a bypass; 3) inadequate consideration is given to evaluating the potential indirectimpacts of a bypass on land use and related issues (e.g., livability, local mobility); 4) without local roadway network planning in impacted areas, many local trips will likely rely on the new bypass; 5) access management is critical not only for the bypass, but also along major roadways accessing the bypass and their interchanges; 6) the bypassed roadway may be oversized in relation to local mobility needs and could benefit from multimodal enhancements; and 7) proactive attention is needed to address the potential indirect land use and mobility impacts to aid in determining appropriate plans, strategies, and mitigation measures. This paper examines these issues and offers practical enhancements to current policy and practice to assist the Florida Department of Transportation and local governments in achieving a multidimensional approach to bypass planning and impact mitigation.