The City Commission held a workshop Monday to talk about upgrades to West University Avenue.
Commissioners voiced goals like making the area more pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly, encouraging higher bus use and strengthening the link between downtown and UF.
Regional Transit System has jumped from about 1 million passengers in 2000 to about 9 million this year, said Commissioner Jack Donovan.
"We want to provide the best transportation we can, meaning clean and reliable," Donovan said, adding that he believes it's possible to restructure University Avenue without affecting traffic.
Other ideas included a Bus Rapid Transit, where the buses would operate like a train system with a prepaid fare, and an electric streetcar system.
Gainesville Mayor Pegeen Hanrahan said the streetcars would run from downtown through the UF campus and Shands at UF, and a BRT system would start at the Gainesville Regional Airport and run through the Oaks Mall, Archer Road and Santa Fe College.
Beyond hearing ideas in an open setting without a vote, the goal of the workshop was to figure out whether the project would qualify for federal funding, Donovan said.
According to the city planning staff, however, the plan would not cost more than $20 million, would not have a regional impact and would not be completed within three years of receiving the grant - all of which are necessary to qualify for stimulus funds.
"The staff was giving us their intuition…their intuition was probably correct that this is not the time to move forward," Donovan said, adding that the improbability of federal funding may mean that the project will not be possible for at least five years.
But Donovan said smaller steps may still be an option. The development of a lane dedicated to public transportation would ignite residential and commercial development downtown and cause developers to feel safer investing in downtown communities.
"When you have increased population downtown, businesses find it a good place to locate," Donovan said. "It really depends on federal funding, but we'll be paying close attention to this in the next few years."
