KONDISYON EXISTAN
How Okeechobee Blvd. & SR 7 Operate Today
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) owns and maintains Okeechobee Blvd. and SR 7. The Palm Beach TPA works to plan, prioritize and fund transportation throughout Palm Beach County. This includes addressing the challenges of this corridor and how improvements can shape how people live, work and get around in these communities.
Okeechobee Blvd. and SR 7 are key existing corridors within Palm Beach County but are high-crash areas. High transit and vehicle usage creates congestion and an unsafe transportation system. This corridor is not currently safe for bicyclists and pedestrians, even though there are many individuals who walk and bike this area each day.
The key findings from the existing conditions of this corridor includes identifying more connections between the two transit hubs the corridor connects - the WPB Intermodal Transit Center and the Mall at Wellington Green. Right now, transit service is productive but limited. The road is wide and suburban in context, which offers available space for safe and efficient multimodal solutions.
Roadway Conditions
The study corridor is a major commuting corridor for Palm Beach County. The current Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) ranges between 45,000 – 77,000 vehicles until reaching downtown West Palm Beach where the AADT drops to 22,500 vehicles.
The number of lanes on the study corridor ranges between six to eight travel lanes. There are a total of eight lanes on SR 7 from Forest Hill Blvd. to Belvedere Rd., then transitions to six lanes from Belvedere Rd. to Okeechobee Blvd. and SR 7. Okeechobee Blvd. has a total of eight lanes from SR 7 to S Dixie Hwy, then transitions to six lanes from S Dixie Hwy to Flagler Dr.
Multimodal Conditions
Palm Tran is the public transit service provider for Palm Beach County. Palm Tran runs several bus routes on the study corridor. Route 43 is the primary bus route operating along the study corridor and is the most productive route within Palm Tran’s entire transit network.
Bicycle and pedestrian facilities are not consistent throughout the length of the study corridor. Safe and efficient access to connected bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure is an important part of a community’s multimodal transportation network. Finding ways to safely move people to their destinations is a key focal point for this corridor study.
Land Use Conditions
The study corridor is comprised of a variety of land use patterns that range from dense mixed-use development in downtown West Palm Beach to suburban commercial and residential development west of the Florida Turnpike. Knowing the context of the existing land use along the corridors identifies multimodal transportation needs for the surrounding communities.