Brookings Institution, Opportunity 08
Candidate Issue Index

August 26, 2008, Compiled by Brookings Institution experts, this chart is part of a series of issue indices to be published during the 2008 Presidential election cycle. The policy issues included in this series were chosen by Brookings staff and represent the most critical topics facing America’s next President.

Click here to view the Policy Index for Transportation:
View the Index

 
Opportunity 08, a Brookings project in partnership with ABC News, aims to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation, providing ideas, policy forums, and information on a broad range of domestic and foreign policy questions. Brookings is an independent think tank (501c3) that does not support or oppose any candidate for public office. Voters should learn all they can about the candidates on a range of issues and should not rely on any single source of information before making their decision.

The perfect commute is easy, inexpensive and reliable.

In cities boasting such factors, like Buffalo, N.Y., Salt Lake City and Milwaukee, the trip to work is a breeze. But for commuters in Atlanta, Detroit and Miami, the daily grind is just that, thanks to bad traffic, insufficient infrastructure and drivers who resist carpools and public transportation.

Forbes.com looked at the 75 largest metro areas in the U.S. and evaluated them based on traffic delays, travel times and how efficiently commuters use existing infrastructure, based on data from the Texas Transportation Institute and the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006 American Community Survey. The worst commutes were those that ate up the most hours and were the least reliable. The best commutes were in cities with short, dependable treks to the office, where fellow commuters efficiently use transit options to reduce congestion

Tampa Ranks #6: Tampa commuters are victims of urban sprawl. As late as 2005, 25% of area properties were classified as investment properties; this rate was almost double the national average. What does this have to do with commuting? It’s a good sign that the city is spread out. While Tampa exhibits a very low population density, commuters are stuck in traffic delays 45 hours a year, and 7% take more than an hour to get to work.
Read more

Give rail a jump-start
08/17/08 - St. Petersburg Times

The Tampa Bay region has no greater problem than its congested and outdated transportation system. For two decades, political leaders throughout Tampa Bay have acknowledged that commuter rail must play a role if the growing region is to maintain its quality of life and diversify and grow its economy. Yet all the talk and costly studies have failed to drive a single spike into the ground; even a rudimentary rail system is at least another decade away.

That’s why Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio’s plan to jump-start rail is encouraging. The time has come to give commuters more transit options and for the region to make better use of its land and transportation dollars. But adding rail is an expensive and long-term undertaking. Moving ahead should reflect a larger consensus that the region is ready to address transportation and growth well beyond the lens of parochial politics. Read more

Visions Of Regional Transit Bump Against Local Realities
08/17/08 -The Tampa Tribune

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is taking the lead and pushing hard to give Hillsborough voters a chance, finally, to say yes or no to a rail transit proposal. Not everyone is happy about that. Red flags are up warning she is moving so far ahead of regional plans that the state won’t help pay for the costly project, which means it couldn’t be built. We encourage the mayor to keep pushing and for regional planning efforts to continue. By early next year the regional plans will have caught up, and everyone should be on the same track in time for a 2010 vote.

Iorio and others, including Hillsborough Commissioner Mark Sharpe, are right not to entirely delegate Tampa’s big-city commuting challenges to the whims of a seven-county board. Unlike Iorio, many of the local elected leaders on the board are accountable to small-town constituencies more interested in keeping taxes low than in investing in faster travel. Iorio’s strategy is that some jurisdiction has to go first, and it makes sense to start where the traffic is the worst and the commuters most eager for options. When the first segment is open, neighboring counties can see the benefits and join when they’re ready. Read more

Final design approval keeps commuter rail project alive
By Dan Tracy | Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer

Central Florida’s planned commuter-rail project passed a technical hurdle Monday, freeing up as much as $60 million to spend on land for proposed stations and train cars.

U.S. Rep. John Mica, R- Winter Park, said at a morning press conference at Walt Disney World that the venture was approved for final design by the Federal Transit Administration.

“I’m very pleased we reached this stage in the process,” Mica said.

That designation, while not ensuring that the $1.2 billion train system will be built, keeps the project alive, supporters said.

The plan still needs final approval from the Florida Legislature, which balked earlier this year at providing insurance for some workers associated with the train. Also, some Lakeland officials are against the project because they fear that extra freight trains will be rerouted away from commuter rail tracks and into their Polk County community.

But state Sen. Daniel Webster, R- Winter Garden, promised a deal would be worked out by the Legislature when it meets next year. “Whatever needs to happen is going to happen,” said Webster, who retires because of term limits at the end of this year.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-commuter-rail-081108,0,457662.story

 
TBARTA’s Mission in Flux 
 WUSF 89.7 News, By STEVE NEWBORN

TAMPA (2008-07-25) The Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority hasn’t celebrated it’s first birthday yet, and many questions remain about the board’s mission. Will it oversee the rail projects being outlined by several counties, or is it expected to come up with its own plans for the seven counties?

Tampa Mayor and TBARTA member Pam Iorio says while Hillsborough County has the ability to put a penny sales tax on the ballot to find construction of light rail projects, many other counties don’t. And since Hillsborough already has a plan to construct the first of several planned light rail lines, would that plan fall to HART, the county’s rapid transit service.  Listen here

Column: Slow Down! A Transit Plan May Take Effect
8/5/2008 - Tampa Tribune

Obviously, despite being a lifelong resident of the Tampa Bay area, Mayor Pam Iorio still has no clue how we do things around here. It was a clearly uppity mayor who said the other day that rather than wait for the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority to develop a, well, regional transportation plan, she wanted to move ahead with her own initiative to create a Hillsborough County mass transit system, funded by a sales tax. The nerve of some people! Read more

HART Raises Bus Fares, Backs Property Tax Hike
8/5/2008-Tampa Tribune

Riding a bus is going to get more expensive, and even nonriders might soon pay more to support Hillsborough County’s transit agency. The Hillsborough Area Regional Transit board agreed Monday to raise fares across the board and gave tentative backing to a property tax increase to pay for more buses and a long-range transit study. The tax increase must survive two public hearings and be passed by a super-majority of the board before becoming reality. Citing higher costs for gas and increased ridership, the HART board unanimously agreed to raise bus fares but split 5-4 on increasing the property tax rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of taxable value. The current rate is 45 cents. Under the higher rate, the owner of a home assessed at $150,000 with a $50,000 homestead exemption would pay HART $50 yearly in property taxes, an increase of $5.05. A house assessed at $250,000 with the exemption would pay $100, or $10.10 more than now. Read more

Palmetto to study red-light cameras
8/5/2008 - Bradenton Herald

Red light cameras may be in store for Palmetto if a feasibility study convinces city commissioners it is worth implementing. Palmetto City Commmissioners on Monday asked the police department to conduct a study to show how effective cameras might be for the city. Deputy Chief Mike Mayer said it will take about 30 days to examine traffic reports of intersections before making a recommendation to the commission on whether to install cameras. If city commissioners give the OK, Palmetto would become the third government entity in Manatee County to approve red-light cameras. Read more

Editorial: The interest is there, but mass transit is not
8/3/2008- St. Petersburg Times
There are lots of ideas and lots of desires. There is, however, not a lot of money. TBARTA doesn’t have a permanent funding source. A working mass transit system among the seven counties is two decades away, suggested former state representative and current Hernando Commissioner David Russell, who sits on the TBARTA board. So we wait in traffic. The federal interstate system accounts for 3 percent of total public lane miles in Florida but carries 30 percent of the traffic, according to TBARTA’s Web site. It helps explain why a recent poll found transportation as the No. 1 concern in Pasco. It also helps explain why Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is trying to jump-start a rail system for her city in advance of TBARTA’s finished plan. Read more

Metros Move to Forge Their Own Transit Futures
8/3/2008 -Citiwire
America’s major metro regions may be on the verge of transit independence. They tap federal aid whenever they can. But increasingly they’re being obliged to find money for system expansion right at home. They’re learning to get cities and suburbs on the same page as they prepare for a post-petroleum age. And where they’re not succeeding, anger is mounting. Take the Atlanta region, legendary for its traffic tie-ups. It added 2 million people in 20 years but built little new capacity, and now needs to invest $50 billion in rails and roads. As recently as April, Georgia’s legislature refused to let citizens of the region even vote on a sales tax boost to finance transit lines and roadway expansion. Read more

PSTA sets new ridership record
7/23/2008 -Tampa Bay Business Journal

More people than ever are taking the bus in Pinellas County. The June report from the Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority shows a 12.1 percent in fixed route ridership compared with last year. Nearly 1.1 million people rode the bus, bringing the nine-month year-to-date total to 9.3 million riders, the most in PSTA history. Ridership is up 8.8 percent for the year. Read more