I change my mind, 5% of it

http://tampabay.bizjournals.com/tampabay/stories/2010/03/22/story4.html?b=1269230400%5E3052891

Intro:
As many of my fellow classmates know I use the bus system. It was a conscious choice that not many people do. I did it for the environment and my wallet. I remind you of this fact so I can tell you that from my own personal experience I disagree with some of the conclusions that I have learned over this past semester, not just this class. I now go back to the article that I summarize in class a week or so ago and the question that I brought out for the class. That question was “how can you get more people to ride the buses?” As some of you may remember, I stated that it was a trick question because the market was not going to grow any larger, percentage wise. I now have changed my mind, about 5% and not much more. This leads to reason that I picked this article. I will state that reason at the very end. That means that if you don’t read my summary of this article, you’ll at least have to scroll down if you’re curious enough to learn why.

The article summary:
Now that the Stimulus funding has finally been disbursed this article is a list of how public transportation system agencies in the bay area are now spending their stimulus funding. Some agencies are increasing their fleet while others are retooling their fleet. This article states that Kimmins Contracting Corp. won a 4.9 million dollars contract to extend the Tampa’s streetcar system. what I learned in this article is that most of Florida’s major transit agencies belong to the Florida Public Transit Association, a nonprofit consortium. The article protrades this association main function is to buy heavy duty transit buses in bulk in order to get the lowest price possible.

I choice this article for only one reason:
The reason I choice this article is when read on how one of the ways the Recovery Act funding is being used. That is the how to bring the bus schedules to handheld devices. The article doesn’t state how the system is going to be implemented but if it has a real-time GPS, Global Position System, information online fort the riding public this new system would address one of the major reasons people do not use the public bus system, the wait time. Throughout the semester we have all seen the top 10 list of why people do not used the public transit system. The “wait time” is in the top 3 in the list. This new information system that makes available to the public the bus schedule with a GPS it just might increase the ridership market size by . . . 5%.

Tampa mayor: Mass transit 'the big issue of our time'

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/mar/10/tampa-mayor-mass-transit-big-issue-our-time/

TAMPA - Mayor Pam Iorio, in her annual state of the city address today, urged support for a mass transportation system she said will allow Tampa to retain a competitive edge in attracting companies and jobs. Mass transit development is one of the major topics talked about in out community. It has gotten great attention. Most people support mass transit because they are sick of being car dependent. Tampa is highly bases on cars and people do not have the option anymore to travel around in any other modes.

Efficient, economical mass transit "will define how we grow and prosper and bring jobs to this community in the future," she told an overflow crowd of government officials.

Urban planning errors of the 20th century, if repeated, will continue to encourage sprawl and keep people dependent on cars, Iorio said. "I see a lot different view of how we can grow and prosper. We are not defined by our problems; we are defined by how we solve our problems."

Looking down the road

http://northwest2.tbo.com/content/2010/apr/14/nw-looking-down-the-road/

This article is addressing the community efforts to be involved with the light rail that will be built in Tampa. Carollwood and Northdale residents have developed a plan to make Dale Mabry Hwy more pedestrian friendly and more character identified. Their plan includes signage standards and walk ability safety. although the community have been working and meeting on developing such a plan, commissioners are emphasizing that Dale Mabry is not in the primary plan for the light rail. Such a plan for Dale Mabry Highway will serve as a future saved plan for extension and expansion of the light rail that would be built.

It is very important for communities to get involved and have a say in what they want and what they don't want in regards to community improvements and transit development.

American Planning Association - Suncoast Chapter

Last Thursday, I had an opportunity to attend my first APA - Suncoast Chapter meeting downtown. The Chapter meets on the first Thursday of each month and they are looking for participation from USF students interested in getting involved. Specifically, they have several events coming up, including a large conference in September. They will be looking for volunteers to get involved. The conference will be held in Tampa this year.

Additionally, the Chapter head, Laura Everitt would like students interested in getting involved to contact her at leveritt@tindaleoliver.com to get on the weekly email list. Student fees to be a part of the Suncoast Chapter are only $5 annually. I would encourage all of you to get involved, there is definitely a lot to be gained by getting involved.

chris

Public Meeting To Discuss Bruce B. Downs Boulevard Widening

Here's the press release for the public meeting I mentioned last week. It's on Thursday, April 1st at 6:30PM

Public Meeting To Discuss Bruce B. Downs Boulevard Widening

Hillsborough County and the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization will hold a public meeting to provide information and discuss Segment A of the Bruce B. Downs Boulevard widening project from Bearss Avenue to Palm Springs Boulevard in the New Tampa area. The purpose of the meeting is to receive input from citizens as to whether this segment should be reconstructed as a six-lane roadway, per the recently adopted Long Range Transportation Plan, in order to preserve right-of-way for future rapid transit, or as an eight-lane roadway as currently designed. Construction is estimated to start on the designed eight lanes in the summer of 2011 and should be completed by spring of 2014. The projected cost of the project is approximately $55 million. County and MPO staff, local agencies and consultants will be at the meeting to discuss the details of the project and future transit plans and to answer any questions residents may have. Please attend; we welcome your input. Date: Thursday, April 1 Time: 6:30 p.m. Place: Tampa Palms Elementary School , 6100 Tampa Palms Blvd. All meeting facilities are ADA compliant. For additional assistance, or for more information, please call Steve Valdez, Public Works Department at 272-5275 (TTY: 301-7173) or visit the MPO website at: www.hillsboroughmpo.org Para información, llamar al 272-5275.

Hey, I think we're being dissed!!

Check out this NY Times article questioning why the first US high speed rail line is being built to serve the Tampa-Orlando route. Do you think the writer (and many of those who've posted comments) have a point, or do you think this is just typical northeastern "ethnocentrism" with a dose of northeastern scorn for we backward Floridians?
I still can't figure out the hyperlink thing but here's the url, and the article is pasted below: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/us/23train.html?scp=7&sq=Tampa&st=nyt

TAMPA — The drive from Orlando to Tampa takes only 90 minutes or so. Despite the short distance, the Obama administration awarded Florida $1.25 billion in stimulus money to link the cities with a fast train to help kick off its efforts to bring high-speed rail service to the United States.
Chip Litherland for The New York Times



The Florida train would indeed be high speed — as fast as 168 miles per hour. But because the trains would make five stops along the 84-mile route, the new service would shave only about half an hour off the trip.

Time-pressed passengers may also find themselves frustrated at the end of their trip. Neither city is known for great public transportation, so travelers may discover that they have taken a fast train to a slow bus.

Proponents of high-speed rail worry that the new line, which is scheduled to be up and running in 2015, might hurt rather than help their cause, if it comes to be seen as little more than an expensive way to whisk tourists from Orlando International Airport to Walt Disney World, which is slated to get its own stop.

Even Representative John L. Mica, a Republican whose district in northeast Florida stops about 20 miles short of the proposed line, has questioned whether his state was the best choice to receive some of the $8 billion that was set aside in the stimulus act for high-speed rail.

Mr. Mica wondered if the notoriously congested Northeast corridor from Boston to New York to Washington, which was largely shut out of the pool of money, might have been a better choice.

“That would have the most dramatic impact, as far as a positive result for the country,” said Mr. Mica, who added that he was grateful for the investment in his home state.

State officials say they have been planning the route for decades and own most of the right of way needed for the tracks — a big selling point to the Obama administration, which saw it as the fastest and cheapest way to get a line up and running.

And Florida hopes that it would be only the first leg of a high-speed line that would eventually stretch south to Miami, linking several of the state’s tourism and business centers.

But it is unclear where the state will get the money to extend the train line. As it is, officials are uncertain where they would get the rest of the $2.6 billion that they believe is needed to build the Orlando to Tampa route.

Supporters of high-speed rail often argue that it can be a way to lure passengers off airplanes. Orlando and Tampa are so close, however, that no airlines fly between them.

The drive took less than 82 minutes on a couple of recent test runs by a reporter; the train is expected to cover the same ground in 54 to 58 minutes.

Even the Florida project’s planners have acknowledged it would have a limited impact on traffic. An environmental impact statement issued in 2005 estimated that the train would draw 11 percent of the 4.5 million people who drive between Tampa and Orlando each year.

It also said the drivers who opted instead to ride the train “would not be sufficient to significantly improve” traffic flow on Interstate 4.

Tourists who try to use public transportation, rather than renting a car, may find themselves seeing sights they would rather avoid and missing some they would like to see. As the Frommer’s travel guide to Tampa advises, “Like most other Florida destinations, it’s virtually impossible to see Tampa’s major sights and enjoy its best restaurants without a car.”

A couple of tourists from Chilliwack, British Columbia — Allana Strickland and her teenage daughter, Sarah McKenzie — learned this firsthand recently. When they took the public bus from Tampa to the Salvador Dali Museum in nearby St. Petersburg, a major draw in the region, they found themselves on a journey that lasted more than two and half hours to go less than 20 miles.

“It’s not as easy to get around here as it could be, for sure,” Ms. Strickland said.

The Florida route was one of only two true high-speed rail projects — with trains capable of going more than 150 miles per hour, as is common in Europe and China — to win some of the $8 billion in high-speed rail money in the Stimulus Act that was awarded in January. (The Acela trains on the Northeast Corridor are capable of going 150 m.p.h., but average only around half that because they operate on crowded, curvy tracks.)

The other high-speed route is in California, which was awarded $2.25 billion, a small fraction of what it will need to build a rail line for trains that could travel from Los Angeles to San Francisco at speeds of up to 220 m.p.h.

The rest of the stimulus money was divided among 31 states, mostly to speed up existing train service by improving track and signal systems. Supporters see the Florida line as a hedge against future population growth and congestion.

“We believe it’s a mode for the future, and we have to start today,” said Nazih Haddad, the chief operating officer for the Florida Rail Enterprise, a division of the state’s Department of Transportation. He said ridership studies projected that the route would attract enough passengers to cover its operating costs.

But when America 2050, a planning group, ranked potential routes last year in a report called “Where High Speed Rail Works Best,” the Tampa to Orlando route did not even make the cut, because the group found that cities should be at least 100 miles apart to capture riders.

The planned route from Tampa through Orlando to Miami did make the list, though: it was ranked 100th among potential routes in the United States.

If the project is built but is not successful, it could make it harder for other high-speed rail projects to get money in the future. Florida knows about that possibility firsthand: its voters once passed a constitutional amendment requiring the state to build a high-speed rail system, only to repeal it later over cost concerns.

As it stands, the proposed route does not have the easiest connections. It would go to downtown Tampa, but not to Tampa’s airport. It would go to Orlando’s airport, but not to downtown Orlando.

Orlando is planning to build a commuter rail system, but the current plans do not connect it to the proposed high-speed rail line. Tampa is debating a new light rail system, but construction could be years off.

In the short term, experts predict that up to a third of the train’s ridership would be for the 19-mile trip between the Orlando airport and Walt Disney World, which has agreed to donate land for a stop.

A recent visit to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, a retro-futuristic people mover in the Magic Kingdom, shows the enduring pull of car culture in Florida: a sign at the station announces that it is presented by Alamo, the car rental company.

Here's an article about light rail costs and the cost/technical factors that will influence decisions about the route.

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/mar/15/151524/potential-light-rail-routes-tampa-have-challenges/