Survey shows residents favor Tampa-Lakeland rail, bus routes.

By Suzie Schottelkotte, THE LAKELAND LEDGER

Published: Saturday, Nov. 1, 2008

TAMPA | Residents in the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority, which borders Polk County, envision growth with compact developments linked by mass transit, officials learned Friday.

Preliminary plans also foresee a commuter rail system linking Lakeland with the Tampa Bay area, along with express bus service for that route.

During a joint forum by TBARTA and the Tampa Bay Regional Planning Council, transportation and development planners were told that a survey of residents in the authority’s seven-county area revealed an interest in preserving the environment while minimizing a dependency on cars.

Dan Mahurin, chairman of the Tampa Bay Partnership Regional Research & Education Foundation, said mass transit emerged as the primary concern among the 3,500 residents polled in March.

Faced with four growth options, a majority opted for the proposal that clusters housing and creates open space, which clears the way to build mass transit while protecting the environment.

“Mass transportation was their primary concern,” he said.

The seven-county project includes Hillsborough and Polk counties and five coastal counties from Hernando south to Sarasota. The group has sought the public’s opinions for the last year and now is pulling all the information together into a master plan. That plan should be finished in March.

Those polled were presented with four scenarios, including the one with clustered development. Others included one that allowed growth to continue the way it’s currently heading, another that focused on conventional development in areas where jobs are anticipated, and still another scenario that targeted the protection of water and wildlife habitats.

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THURSDAY, 10/2/2008 © Citiwire.net
Lost in the election scramble, bank rescues and heated debate over government bailouts is the simple fact that American needs to rebuild its wealth — we’re busted. The national debt grows to over $9.8 trillion and climbs rapidly while the current $407 billion federal deficit has nowhere to go but up as the federal government grapples with a teetering national economy. The next president will struggle to recapitalize the country while hundreds of billions of dollars go each year just to service our prodigious national debt. For all the belt-tightening talk, eliminating $16.5 billion in annual earmark expenditures would make only a minor dent in the huge federal deficit. So what do we do — when our Treasury registers empty and we confront so many other challenges? In the first presidential debate, both candidates conveniently sidestepped the hard choices they will face. John McCain suggested a possible spending freeze and Barack Obama admitted some of his big ticket plans may need to be shelved for at least a while. At least, Obama made passing reference to rebuilding the country’s increasingly dated and inadequate infrastructure as an important priority. In fact, a retooled national infrastructure will be an essential part of the solution to maintaining our economic clout and future prosperity, while providing the needed stimulus of a near-term jobs engine.
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By Tom Downs

For public transit in America, 2008 has produced a vivid “best” and “worst” of times scenario.

After 50 years of sagging ridership and lost stature, buses and transit trains are back in heavy demand. Nationwide ridership is 4.5 percent higher than 2007, with some cities experiencing growth of 10 to 15 percent.

The top reason’s clear: high gas prices. Highway vehicle miles of travel nationwide have taken a 4.5 percent dip in a year — an unprecedented decline even as our population increases.

But sadly, the nation’s transit operators have little chance to celebrate their systems’ new popularity.

Check Miami-Dade County. The county commissioners are in political agony trying to commit themselves to a 50-cent bus and rail fare increase. If they don’t, the financially strapped transit authority will be forced to fire 700 workers and eliminate 4.1 million miles of annual bus and rail service.

“The cuts would wreak havoc on the quality of service to major job centers, including hospitals, the airport and Seaport,” reports the Miami Herald’s Larry Liebowitz. Heaviest hit would be third-shift blue collar workers, seniors, students and transit-dependent domestics.

The Chicago Transit Authority, hit with surging ridership but short on the rail cars and buses it needs, is in a similar dilemma. Example: it’s removing all the seats from some of its rail cars, just to pack in more passengers.

Parallel stories have emerged nationwide — transit agencies increasing fares, reducing service, in the face of a demand surge that the industry has been waiting for a half century.

Why?

First, transit ridership does not cover the cost of providing the service. Transit provides immense benefits: reduced energy consumption, less crowded highways, mobility for people who can’t or don’t want to drive.

But still, fare box revenues provide only 25 to 50 percent of the cost of providing the service. New ridership does not cover its full cost from fares.

Second, fuel costs hit a bus system particularly hard. Most transit systems are as vulnerable to fuel price swings as the average motorist.

So what are local governments — the first-line funders of transit systems — to do? Their choices are all painful: raise fares, raise taxes, or accept service reductions and fare increases.

Last week, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters asked Congress to come up with an $8 billion infusion for the Highway Trust Fund, the federal account that helps states finance highway and bridge projects. The House has already passed such legislation.  The nation’s governors are lobbying for it.

It’s understandable why the trust fund is short: the high cost of gas encourages people to buy less. Highway miles traveled have dipped 50 million in the last eight months. The federal gas tax level of 18.4 cents that hasn’t changed in 15 years, notwithstanding inflation. Small wonder the funds seem short.

But let’s think twice. Why respond to state highway departments anxious to keep funding roads and bridges, but ignore the compelling immediate needs of the local transit systems and their riders?

There ought to be a presidential request for an emergency appropriation to the transit account of the Federal Highway Trust Fund that would allow every transit system in the country to fund minor overhauls of bus fleets to increase their fleet’s fuel efficiency and reliability.

Sending enough funds to transit systems to repair buses that are damaged or sidelined for overhaul would put more buses on the street to meet the demand that they are now struggling to meet. Most bus manufacturers have a two-year backlog of orders, so new buses are not the answer in the short term.

Besides, better running maintenance would allow some systems to put more of their reserve fleets (which are often 30 or more buses) into regular service and at the same time reduce fuel expenses.

Another step would be the sponsorship of large cooperative fuel purchases, with some corporate or government security, would allow transit systems to act like Southwest Airlines does in hedging its fuel purchases, guaranteeing some cushion against the wild swings we have seen in fuel prices.
 
And the timing may be critical. Transit provides an energy-efficient and affordable option for a lot of Americans right now. If we respond to their need by cutting bus lines, packing transit cars to the gills and ordering steep fare increases, we will risk losing critical public support and ridership at a time when our transit systems have their best opportunity in 60 or more years to position themselves for long-term growth.

And we’ll be forfeiting a major opportunity nationally. In a century of looming deep energy shortages and the immense need to cut back carbon emissions to cope with global warming, our local bus and rail systems are a critical shared resource — not just for riders, but us all.

From Florida Transportation Magazine
August 2008 | Cover Story

A clean and historic break with the past is needed to encourage the future vitality of our country’s transportation network, according to U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary E. Peters, who recently unveiled the Bush Administration’s new plan to refocus, reform and renew the national approach to highway and transit systems in America.

“Without a doubt, our federal approach to transportation is broken. And no amount of tweaking, adjusting or adding new layers on top will make things better,” Peters says. “It is time for a new, a different and a better approach.”

The Secretary says the plan sets a course for reforming the nation’s transportation programs by outlining a renewed federal focus on maintaining and improving the Interstate highway system, instead of diverting funds for wasteful pet projects and for programs clearly not federal priority areas like restoring lighthouses.

Addressing urban congestion and giving greater flexibility to state and local leaders to invest in their most needed transit and highway priorities is another key focus of the reform plan, she added. Local leaders will have greater freedom and significantly more resources to fund new subways, bus routes or highways as they choose, based on the needs of local commuters instead of the dictates of Washington.

“Our plan creates an easier and more sustainable way to pay for and build roads and transit systems,” Peters explains. “It will deliver fewer traffic tie ups, better transit services, a stronger economy, and a cleaner environment. It will make our roads safer and give Americans a new confidence that the money they invest in transportation will actually deliver results.”

As part of the focus on congestion, the plan would create a Metropolitan Innovation Fund that rewards cities willing to combine a mix of effective transit investments, dynamic pricing of highways and new traffic technologies.

The reform plan also calls for greatly reducing more than 102 federal transportation programs which have proliferated over the last two decades replacing them with eight comprehensive, comprehensive, intermodal programs that will help focus instead of dilute investments, and cut the dizzying red-tape forced upon local planners, she said.
Read more

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

By Amanda Ripley
July 3, 2008 Time.com

The world had long assumed that Americans were just unrepentant energy pigs. If gas prices went up, well, we kept our Explorers aimed at the horizon, and little changed. We truthfully didn’t have lots of options. Unlike Europeans, we didn’t have jobs we could bike to or convenient public transit. Gasoline prices never stayed high enough long enough to force those kinds of shifts in how we lived.

Now here we are. Gas prices are near $4 per gal., as no one needs to tell you, and they are likely to stay that way. Most of us still don’t have the alternatives we need to adapt with grace, which means that many will adapt just by suffering. We will run out of gas on I-80, ease our minivans over to the shoulder and tell the kids everything is O.K. We’ll fall behind on Visa bills to pay for gas so we can buy food made ever more expensive by energy costs.

But it’s also true that Americans are finding options where there seemed to be none. They’re ready to change — and waiting for their infrastructure to catch up. They are driving to commuter-rail lines only to find there are no parking spots left. They are running fewer errands and dumping their SUVs. Public-transit use is at a 50-year high. Gas purchases are down 2% to 3%. And all those changes bring secondary, hard-earned benefits.

“You suddenly are reminded how the economy works,” says Eric Roston, author of a new book about energy, The Carbon Age. “Nobody wants high prices for oil. But there’s also no faster mechanism to change behavior.” The suffering will go on. But the story, like any good tragedy, is not without redemption

1. Globalized Jobs Return Home: The world suddenly seems big again.
2. Sprawl Stalls: Across the country, real estate agents are reporting that many home buyers are looking to move closer to cities.
3. Four-Day Workweeks: Companies, colleges and governments are moving to four-day weeks.
4. Less Pollution: As people consume less fuel in America, vehicle emissions should drop.
5. More Frugality: Trucking companies are using software to help identify optimal places for drivers to refuel and the most efficient delivery routes.
6. Fewer Traffic Deaths: Every year, about 40,000 people die in traffic accidents in the U.S.
7. Cheaper Insurance: If you are driving less, you could qualify for lower car-insurance rates.
8. Less Traffic: Travel on all roads dropped 2.1% in the first four months of 2008
9. More Cops on the Beat: Across the country, police bike and foot patrols are up, and cops are being told to cut down on idling their cruisers.
10. Less Obesity: People walk more, bike more and eat out less when gas is pricey. A permanent $1 hike in prices may cut obesity 10%, saving thousands of lives and billions of dollars a year.
Read the full story here