Boca Raton hears FDOT plan to repurpose U.S. 1 lanes for bike and pedestrian upgrades, debate over protected lanes

Boca Raton City Council members on Sept. 9 received an update from city staff and Florida Department of Transportation designers proposing to repurpose the outside lanes of U.S. 1 between Camino Real and Northeast Meisner to create buffered bike lanes and wider sidewalks, with construction targeted to begin in 2025 and design completion scheduled for December 2025.

The presentation, led by Frank Panayo, described three corridor segments: a southern repurposing segment that would remove outside travel lanes to provide an 11-foot sidewalk and a buffered bike lane, a middle portion with limited right-of-way where the project would narrow lanes to create a 2-foot buffer adjacent to a 5-foot bike lane, and a northern stretch that would be milled and resurfaced to incorporate the wider buffer lane. The plan also includes a proposed protected pedestrian crosswalk at Park Plaza Real and some intersection signal…