Changes have been made to reduce traffic at South and 5th streets in Neptune Beach. | Photo courtesy of Kathy H.
Published on September 16, 2025 at 11:58 am
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Q: Cars are now blocked on a street in Neptune Beach. A small median and sign have been installed on South Street barring all traffic except “low speed vehicles and bicycles.”
The street, at the intersection of 5th Street, blocks vehicles on one end and allows only golf carts and bicycles to pass, writes Jacksonville Today reader Kathy H.
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“I believe the people who live on that street requested it,” Kathy says.
“I want to know how a public street can be blocked off and if it’s even legal.”
A: The changes on South Street are legal, the city says. They’re called a “half closure,” says Neptune Beach Parks and Sustainability Director Colin Moore.
“Half closures create one-way streets by blocking travel in only one direction for a short section of the roadway,” Moore says in an email. “Half closures do not eliminate a travel lane but are designed to prevent traffic on busier streets from entering a residential street.”
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The small median and sign were installed to “prevent cut-through traffic” that had been using South Street as a shortcut to avoid the traffic light at Florida Boulevard and Florida A1A, Moore writes.
The traffic was creating safety concerns for residents, since South Street was not designed to handle a lot of through traffic.
“The city started with alternative speed reduction methods (speed humps and increased signage) to prevent the roadway from being viewed as a more attractive option than Florida Boulevard,” Moore says. “These measures had minimal impact, and the half closure was the routing restriction most requested by neighborhood residents.”
The changes are what the U.S. Department of Transportation calls traffic calming. It’s a way to increase safety by reducing the speed and number of vehicles in residential and commercial areas.
This is not the first time traffic calming has been used in Neptune Beach or in Northeast Florida.
Neptune Beach has fully landscaped traffic islands on First Street between Seagate Avenue and Hopkins Street, as well as at Orange Street, to prevent cut-through traffic.
Elsewhere, First Street in Jacksonville Beach has a small median and warning signs at 16th Avenue North to cut down on traffic cruising along the road. And St. Augustine has half closures on State Road A1A at Magnolia and Douglas avenues to prevent people from turning onto the side streets.
The city of Jacksonville is considering a $6 million traffic-calming project on Gator Bowl Boulevard at the site of the Four Seasons Hotel and Residences.
