Trips to Publix now require extra turns. Pulling into Chevron or Gator Beverage takes longer, or means looping around side streets. And for students who park at Norman Hall’s garage, driving back north after class has become noticeably more complicated.
“It’s not just confusing, it’s inconvenient,” said Francisca Moresco, who lives at the Row on 5th along SW 12th Street. “Everything I normally do involves those streets. Going to Publix, grabbing something at Bagels & Co., even just getting back home, takes longer now.”
“It felt like it happened overnight,” said Colin Berry, who lives at The Row on 3rd along SW 12th Street. “There was no notice, and suddenly everyone was confused.”
Southwest 12th Street and Southwest 10th Street were recently converted into a one-way pair earlier this month as part of a city transportation project aimed at improving safety for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists. The change runs from Southwest 8th Avenue to Northwest 8th Avenue and is intended to reduce conflicts along two heavily traveled corridors near the University of Florida.
But for many of the people who live along the streets, particularly students and nearby business owners, the sudden change has sparked frustration and raised broader questions about how the city communicates major infrastructure projects in student-heavy neighborhoods.
City officials say the perception of an overnight decision masks years of planning, study and public discussion tied to Gainesville’s Vision Zero initiative, which began in 2022.
Years of planning before visible change
Gainesville Public Information Officer Rossana Passaniti said city staff began investigating converting both SW 10th Street and SW 12th Street into one-way roads to address safety concerns and improve mobility for all roadway users.
“It takes time to secure the consultant that’s going to do the study,” Passaniti said. “Then it takes time to do the study. Then that information needs to be presented before the commission. And if the project moves forward, you have outreach meetings with the residents and businesses.”
In this case, the city relied on a traffic study conducted by consulting firm NV5. The study concluded that converting the streets into one-way corridors would reduce conflict points at intersections, make traffic flow more predictable, and allow drivers to focus on a single lane of oncoming traffic rather than two.
The redesign also adds dedicated bicycle lanes and additional on-street parking in parts of the corridor, changes the city says are particularly important in an area with high demand.
Vision Zero and the city’s safety argument
City officials frame the project as part of Gainesville’s broader Vision Zero Action Plan, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by redesigning streets to reduce the severity of crashes.
Between 2018 and 2022, 95 people were killed, and hundreds more were injured in traffic accidents within Gainesville city limits, according to Vision Zero data. The plan emphasizes strategies such as slowing vehicle speeds, narrowing travel lanes, and separating modes of transportation where possible.
SW 10th and SW 12th streets run through an area heavily used by pedestrians, cyclists, scooters, and vehicles, many of them students traveling to and from campus.
“This is about making the street better used by all roadway users,” Passaniti said.
City officials say the one-way design also reduces congestion caused by left-turning vehicles waiting for oncoming traffic, which can create backups and increase the risk of crashes.
“I get Vision Zero,” Berry said. “I just wish someone had told us before it actually happened.”
Notification and who may have missed it
While the city points to years of planning, many residents and business owners say they were never notified.
Students living at apartment complexes along 12th Street, such as UFORA, Sweetwater, and both the Row on 3rd and the Row on 5th, all said they were not aware of the changes.
UFORA and Sweetwater refused to make any statement, and the Row did not respond to a request for comment.
Passaniti said the city conducted multiple rounds of outreach before implementation, including stakeholder meetings, neighborhood workshops, and Vision Zero events. In 2022, the city sent notifications to 142 property owners along the corridors.
Those notices were delivered through a combination of mailed postcards, emails and posted signage, she said.
But the outreach strategy highlights a key challenge in areas dominated by rental housing and student populations.
“There are so many students who live along 10th and 12th,” Passaniti said. “Students graduate, they leave, new students come in, and they may not have been living there when notifications went out.”
That same gap, business owners say, left them without a meaningful opportunity to provide feedback when it mattered.
Ryan Barnett, co-owner of Gator Beverage, said he and his father, Mark Barnett, who have owned the store for 35 years, were not notified ahead of the change.
“It was a proposed idea three or four years ago where it was mentioned that 12th Street and 10th Street could potentially become one-ways,” Barnett said. “And that was the last time we heard about it for years.”
Barnett said he only learned about the conversion after road work had already begun. He said he was unaware of a December 14 City Commission meeting at which the project was approved to move forward and said he would have attended had he known.
“I’m at my store 40 hours a week,” Barnett said. “If anyone had come into my store to notify us, I certainly would have been aware of that.”
Business access and unintended consequences
Barnett said the conversion has made it more difficult for customers to access Gator Beverage, particularly because an entire lane of pass-through traffic was removed.
“Yes, it has made it more difficult,” he said. “We are working with the city to make access to our business easier, but right now it has absolutely impacted how people get here.”
Barnett said he believes the changes have also pushed more traffic onto West University Avenue, increasing congestion there rather than reducing it overall.
“What I’ve observed is traffic has actually gotten worse,” he said. “These one-ways have pushed more traffic onto University, which causes more backups.”
Barnett, who said he bikes to work four days a week, emphasized that he supports street safety improvements and the goals of Vision Zero.
“I am Vision Zero,” he said. “I ride my bike every day. I am very for making it safer for bikes.”
But he added that the current design fails to balance safety with access.
“If you’re going to take away an entire lane of traffic, we don’t need two bike lanes to replace it,” Barnett said. “A better compromise would have been one high-quality bike lane and then using the remaining space for on-street parking.”
Barnett said parking is already scarce in the area and that the lack of added parking on the SW 12th Street side has created problems for students, delivery drivers, and nearby residents.
“I see students getting tickets all the time because there’s nowhere to park,” he said. “That frustration spills over onto everyone.”
He said a design that added parking would have allowed people to park and walk to campus, apartments, restaurants, and sporting events while still improving bike safety.
Early reactions
City officials say they have not seen evidence that the change has created safety issues or hindered emergency response.
“I haven’t heard of any,” Passaniti said when asked whether emergency responders had reported navigation or response time problems.
She emphasized that the design functions as a one-way pair, with SW 10th Street and SW 12th Street running in opposite directions and a surrounding grid that allows drivers to reroute.
“It takes a little getting used to,” she said. “But it’s not that difficult to navigate.”
Can the city change course?
While the city does not plan to immediately revert the streets to two-way traffic, Passaniti said the design is not necessarily entirely permanent if problems persist.
She pointed to past projects where the City Commission modified plans after hearing from residents, including restoring on-street parking in response to neighborhood concerns.
“Rather than throw the baby out with the bath water, modifications can be made,” Passaniti said.
A broader conversation about communication
For students, renters and business owners along SW 10th and SW 12th streets, the controversy has become about more than traffic patterns. It has highlighted a disconnect between how cities traditionally conduct outreach and how transient populations actually receive information.
Many students say they do not attend City Commission meetings or track multi-year transportation studies, even though those processes shape the streets they use every day.
City officials acknowledge that challenge.
“If you haven’t been engaged with the process, all of a sudden it seems like it happened overnight,” Passaniti said.
As Gainesville continues implementing Vision Zero projects, residents and business owners say they hope future changes come with clearer, more direct communication, especially in neighborhoods where most people rent.