Sunrail 2014 (Miami, Orlando, Archer: to buy, taxes, live)

[firmbizzle]

Originally Posted by cerveza

the thing that messes up sunrail is that it only runs once every 2 hours after 6pm and doesnt run at all on the weekends.

in other words,

imagine living in seminole county and being able to go to the amway center or bars and clubs downtown or the florida mall without having to deal with traffic, parking or crazy high taxi costs. that could have been a reality with sunrail and many people would have used it for that alone

but

the people who run sunrail messed it up.

I'm almost certain that the times will be changed. I can't imagine them not having trains to the Magic games.

[sean1the1]

I know tons of people that cant wait for the train to come. I love going on toll roads there is never any traffic... I guess you get what you pay for.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by sean1the1

I know tons of people that cant wait for the train to come. I love going on toll roads there is never any traffic... I guess you get what you pay for.

Hopefully a lesson being learned here.

[cerveza]

Originally Posted by firmbizzle

I'm almost certain that the times will be changed. I can't imagine them not having trains to the Magic games.

according to this rail service will be once every two hours after 6pm and no weekend service for at least 20 years

[Jonah1979]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

I'm actually quite familiar with rapid transit having lived carless in both Washington DC and Philadelphia for 12 years. My point is that Orlando area residents who have issues with paying $2.00 tolls aren't likely to drive to a SunRail station, then park and board a train to/from work which will cost four times that amount. Furthermore I'm pretty sure the average area resident isn't familiar with the concept and the potential benefits which is going to make it a tough sell overall.

So we should do nothing to address public transit with more and more people moving into the area and roads already crowded? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!

You have to start these rail projects somewhere...with time they grow with more stops and expanded hours. It's time for Orlando as a city to grow up and their residents too!

[DavieJ89]

So you mean to tell me Kyle, that when I4 gets ripped to shreds next year in construction that the commuters from the Seminole Co. suburbs won't ride SunRail in the meantime? Ultimately SunRail would cost less round trip than driving.

1)Youd be driving your car MUCH fewer miles. Less ga wasted
2) You won't be stuck in traffic, less gas wasted

Just the gas savings alone IMO is enough to justify the cost to ride SunRail if you live north of downtown Orlando.

[DavieJ89]

On my side of town is another story. Once youre south of downtown SunRail will run more parallel to Orange Ave than I4. South of Osceola Pkwy, it will run more parallel to OBT aka 17-92

A lot of people on the far south side don't work in downtown Orlando. And IMO sending SunRail any further south than ORMC IMO is hard to sell. I don't have to use I4 to get downtown, I do but there's plenty of alternate routes I can take. John Young, OBT, or Orange Ave which would take me to downtown in 20 minutes.

For somebody like me, or any far south Orlando resident, SunRail is a tough sell. But for those in the northern Orange County and Seminole County suburbs, there is a need and I think those residents will definitely use it

[OrlFlaUsa]

To me it's a problem that they are limiting the service so much right out of the gate. I get it, ease the costs as much as possible at first, etc, etc. However, I think SunRail should show Orlando what its got and run on weekends thus giving more residents a chance to fall for it.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by Jonah1979

So we should do nothing to address public transit with more and more people moving into the area and roads already crowded? Yeah, that makes a lot of sense!

You have to start these rail projects somewhere...with time they grow with more stops and expanded hours. It's time for Orlando as a city to grow up and their residents too!

I'm all for mass transit here and have been through the several previous attempts at funding through an increased sales tax that were voted down by residents time after time the past 10-15 years. The point is that the overall support for transit in terms of ridership does not exist here and is going to be a very hard sell to most. My argument is that this area isn't set up for traditional rail transit, as it doesn't have a dominant downtown area/commercial district like most cities and have always maintained that more flexible options like Bus Rapid Transit-BRT (which offers dedicated, free-flowing bus lanes) would have been a more cost-effective widespread solution versus alleviating traffic only on I-4 which probably won't happen with the logistics involved in getting to the station, travel time, waiting for the train to arrive and travel time from station to work/school site. Orlando does not have the long commute time necessary to offset what will be a similar timed commute (or longer) utilizing transit. Typical transit cities feature hour commutes as a norm with transit taking 30%-50% time chunks out of that. Orlando's 30 minute average isn't dire enough for most to warrant changing commuting habits.

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by DavieJ89

So you mean to tell me Kyle, that when I4 gets ripped to shreds next year in construction that the commuters from the Seminole Co. suburbs won't ride SunRail in the meantime? Ultimately SunRail would cost less round trip than driving.

1)Youd be driving your car MUCH fewer miles. Less ga wasted
2) You won't be stuck in traffic, less gas wasted

Just the gas savings alone IMO is enough to justify the cost to ride SunRail if you live north of downtown Orlando.

I think there will be some, but not in any great numbers. Like in other cities I can see many employers offering flex time (7-3 or 11-7 for example versus 9-5) if the traffic on I-4 becomes a nightmare. I also see alternative routes becoming more attractive such as 17-92, 441 or even 436. Once again I think the process is being oversimplified as someone who utilized transit without a car in Northeast cities for 14 years. One has to get themselves via bus or car most likely to a Sunrail station, preferably several minutes before it arrives so you're not running for it from across the parking lot. Let's say for an average that takes around 20 minutes. After travel time to the station near work (around 20 minutes), you either board a bus/shuttle or walk to work, that's say yet another 20 minutes. A choppy 50 minute-one hour transit commute versus a seamless 30-40 minute drive isn't going to be worth it for most in my opinion. I'd love to see otherwise but know Floridians in general love their solo commutes in cars.