Mass-transit referendum in Hillsborough County (Tampa), Florida

Politics & Elections
1

This is a local vote on a local project, but on a topic of national interest. This November, Hillsborough County voters will – at last, after several thwarted attempts in earlier years to get something like this on the ballot – get a chance to vote on a one-cent local sales tax to fund several transportation-infrastructure projects, including a light rail system. Also road upgrades and improved bus service, but the light rail is the sexiest part, as these things go, and is getting the most attention. Amtrak already stops here, of course. But at present, the only local rail transit in Hillsborough County is the TECO Line Streetcar, which runs from the downtown Convention Center to Ybor City – a nice thing for tourists, but it gets no cars off the road.

This comes not long after the Florida High Speed Rail project was finally (after its own numerous setbacks) approved and funded. The first leg, to open in 2015, will run from Tampa to Orlando – they’re planning a big intermodal station in downtown Tampa. Which makes the idea of local light rail timely.

The main organization in favor of the transit tax is Moving Hillsborough Forward. Impressive short video clip on the welcome page. Map of the proposed light-rail system here.

The main organization against is No Tax for Tracks. The website includes purported debunkings of “Ten Transit Myths.” What I find most telling of the underlying world-view, however, is this blurb from the welcome page:

Ermm . . . guys . . . “suburbia” != “The American Dream.” I can understand practical objections to rail transit, it costs too much, not enough people will ride it, etc., all debatable but all sound arguments. But objection on what appears to be ideological grounds, that I do not understand. Yet there seems to be a lot of opposition on ideological grounds – see Randal O’Toole. Apparently all Libertarians and libertarian-leaning conservatives seem to feel obliged to oppose rail transit and transit-oriented development and New Urbanism in general, as somehow un-American – as if it were all some kind of encroachment on Liberty, or as if by living in your own detached tract house with a back yard you are doing something to preserve America’s Pioneer Spirit. Well, it isn’t and you ain’t. And it’s not as if anyone were talking about bulldozing suburbia anyway. It will still be there after the light rail lines are built, won’t it? But there’s no good reason why we need any more of it than we have now. (Actually, I expect most suburbs will be abandoned in your lifetime – but that will be because the cheap imported petroleum on which they depend will run out, not because of any anti-suburban government policy.)

Anyway: If you were a Hillsborough County voter (bonus points if you are one), would you vote for or against this, and why?

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County government page on the referendum.

The referendum has become an issue in a Republican County Commission primary (the incumbent is for it, the challenger is agin it).

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So, let me get this straight: Good roads lead to thriving, all-American suburban communities, so we should invest in roads… Unless they’re made out of steel instead of asphalt, in which case we should vehemently oppose them.

Rail is just one more way to connect the suburbs with the metropolis, and the only way that I know of that can be independent of fossil fuels. It’ll help the suburbs, not hurt them.

4

What Chronos said.

I would add that cars add inefficiency & use more energy not so much because of the energy of moving the car but because the space required to park it, which could otherwise be green space or commercial space. Rail lines don’t require parking lots larger than the destination at every destination.

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Light rail is the saviour of suburbia, for it makes both detached-housing and commuting more affordable for more people.

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Therein, I suspect, lies the problem. If suburbia becomes more affordable, then undesirable people will be able to move out to the suburbs.

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It’s not just the suburbs. I went to Georgetown University and learned a bit of local history: When the Washington Metro was built, the residents of Georgetown (an upscale historic neighborhood with lots of 19th-Century row houses) opposed and prevented a stop being included anywhere near their neighborhood. (The nearest ones are Dupont Circle and Foggy Bottom-GWU.)

8

Personally, I think it’s going to fail on simple ridership considerations. The number of people who commute between the bay area and Orlando is pretty miniscule.

Now, it’s awesome for me, because I can start drinking at Buccaneer games and the UCF-USF derby, if that ever gets back on the schedule, but I can’t think of many people who’ll be using it on a regular basis.

9

I’m a Hillsborough resident (for anyone looking at a map, I live in Lutz and work in Town ‘n’ Country). I’m currently sitting squarely on the fence – even have one testicle on each side. Tampa’s transportation system, particularly mass transit, is pitiful and needs improvement but I’m unsure if this is the right plan.

The Tampa area needs a long term transportation plan with mass transit. I’m well aware of the benefits to everyone of mass transit even if someone doesn’t use it directly. I haven’t fully thought it out yet to give a real answer to why either way (I will before Nov). But as it stands, this plan seems a little too “If you build it, they will come” for me. I may end up voting for the tax increase anyways just because getting a plan started, whether implemented exactly as is or greatly altered, is better than nothing.

As for the Tampa-Orlando rail project, I fail to see where the ridership is going to come from.

10

There were transit proposals being floated and debated during the time I lived in Seattle. Rush hour traffic was terrible (probably still is). I still remember one town-hall sort of TV debate. They were taking comments from the audience, and one person said that all the various options were being pitched to the voters with the promise that they would unclog the freeways and everyone could drive to their offices in no time.

Which is ridiculous, of course. Somebody has to actually ride the thing. Judge it by how well it serves the people who use it. It should be better to be on the train laughing at the gridlocked cars than the other way around. If the designers and voters start thinking like that, then it might be worth doing.

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I like cities and alternatives to automobile transportation. Unfortunately, many cities have high crime rates. If you look at this website

you will see that Tampa, FL has a crime index of 2. That means that it is safer than 2% of cities.

It is possible to reduce urban crime. Since the 1970s New York has gone from being one of the most frightening cities in the United States to one of the safest big cities. Indeed, it has a crime index of 33. Nevertheless, until cities can find effective means to reduce the crime rate, most Americans will prefer living in suburbs, and they will try to keep urban residents out.

According to FBI, Uniform Crime Reports from 1980 to 2008 the crime rate in the United States declined from 5,950 per 100,000 to 3,6677.

Crime, and particularly urban crime, is not a hopeless problem, but it is a serious problem, and one should consider it when analyzing opposition to efforts to encourage more people to live in cities.

12

The stretch of I-4 between Tampa and Orlando is always pretty busy, I can tell you, at practically all hours of the day. Somebody wants to get from here to there.

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How would you change it?

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BTW, this plan must be viewed in the context of the Tampa Bay Regional Transportation Authority’s long-range plans for the whole eight-county (Citrus, Hernando, Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Polk, Manatee, Sarasota) area. TBARTA’s envisioned Long-Range Regional Network – pdf map here – includes a light-rail network across Hillsborough and Pinellas counties; light rail between Bradenton and Sarasota; and rush-hour commuter rail from Tampa all the way to Brooksville, Lakeland, and Bradenton; as well as express bus service and Bus Rapid Transit routes.

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Yes, but that stretch of I-4 doesn’t just connect Tampa and Orlando; it connects the east coast with the west. A Tampa-Orlando light rail system isn’t going to do much for the people driving to and from Tampa from Jacksonville, Daytona, the Space Coast and so on - or for the people traveling to and from Orlando from Naples, Brooksville, etc.

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That site says Orlando is effectively the most dangerous city in the nation (it got a “1”). I call bullshit.

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Well, Tampa-Orlando is only the first leg. As you’ll see here, the next step is to extend HSR to Miami, possibly by way of the Space Coast, possibly not – two routes are being considered. Once that’s done, I expect there will be pressure to extend it north to Jacksonville, and then west to Tallahassee and Pensacola. Then you have the first legs of an East Coast line and a Coast-to-Coast line in place.

Brooksville will eventually have a rail link to Tampa, connecting it to the HSR. I don’t know if there are any plans for rail access to Naples. At present, no railroad goes there – any more; it has a historic railroad depot.

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Here, BTW, is the U.S. High Speed Rail Association’s vision for a national HSR network.

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There’s a link from that site to a Time magazine article that illustrates my point.

Beneficial though they are, people need to stop focusing on the side effects. Nobody is going to ride a train in order to make their neighbors’ lives better. We’re selfish; we will ride a train if it makes our own lives better. First and foremost, it needs to serve the people who use it. The various boosters and proponents need to get people excited about taking the train, not what will happen when everybody else takes the train. If they lose sight of that, they’ll wind up creating the biggest white elephant in history.

20

I would argue that getting any great number of people excited about taking the train will be the most impossible PR move of the century.

What do people want most in transport? Freedom. And freedom, for almost everyone, equals car. I would think it would take at least a generation without gasoline, or workable alternate fuels, to change thinking on that score.

As for the long-haul routes: no one much likes flying today, but as long as their time is valuable, they’ll have to put up with it and they will. The airline lobbyists take every advantage of that. All the anti-rail people have to mention is time and the debate is already half over.

This is just one of those things that will benefit the nation as a whole much more than it will the great run of individuals, and they’re going to be very easily manipulated to oppose it.