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<br />. A survey of merchants on Oakland Park Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale, <br />Florida. was conducted after closure of several median openings and <br />reconstruction of the raised median (Figure 1). Seventy-percent of the <br />merchants indicated that the median changes had no adverse effect on truck <br />deliveries. and oyer 60% perceived no change in business activity following <br />the project. More than half of the merchants (57%) reported that they <br />favored the median changes. and 80% of those traveling on the corridor <br />favored the project. <br /> <br />Median Retrofit Projects <br />Oakland Park Boulevard <br /> <br /> <br />iii Total <br /> <br />iiil Merchants <br /> <br />o Truckers <br />li!I Customers <br />tEl Through Traffic <br /> <br />Favor <br />Project <br /> <br />Figure 1: Opinion survey following Oakland Park Boulevard <br />median reconstruction. Source: Florida Department of <br />Transportation. District 4. Traffic Operations. <br /> <br />. Another study was conducted in the Orlando metropolitan area of drivers <br />and business owners affected by median changes in 5 corridors.4 The <br />projects resulted in closure of some median openings and redesign of <br />others to directional movements with deceleration lanes. The study <br />involved personal surveys and relied upon attitudes toward the changes. <br />In general. the business community had less favorable attitudes toward <br />the project than the drivers that were surveyed. A sizeable minority of <br />business owners surveyed (about 43%) reported that their volume of <br />business had decreased, while the majority of business owners indicated <br />that the value of their business was unaffected or increased (57%) and <br />that the changes were not inconvenient to delivery trucks. <br /> <br />Conclusions <br /> <br />These results generally indicate that medfan ITojects have little overall adverse <br />impact on business activity. Although some business report increases in sales and <br />some report decreases. the majority of businesses report no change in business <br /> <br />4 Ivey, Harris and Walls, "Districtwide Median Evaluation Technical Memorandum: Corridor Land Use, <br />Development & Driver/Business Survey Analysis," prepared for FDOT District 5, 1995. <br /> <br />Prepared by Kristine M. Williams, AICP, Center for Urban Transportation Research, University of South <br />Florida, Tampa, January 28.2000. <br />