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