Tampa Bay density

[sinatras]

Originally Posted by cavsfan137

To me, it's just surprising that they would accept that, honestly.. though I guess any needed infrastructure changes would take quite a bit of time considering the dynamic growth of both metros, plus Texas is one of the later places in the US that will consider living in tighter quarters or alternative transit options to alleviate that... massive lost productivity and enjoyment time, really. I know this is a bit off topic from the thread but especially after my visit there, even if I'm never able to live in a space quite like that, ideally my commute will never be longer than 15 minutes, either, at least. It isn't now, and that's one of the things that is acceptable and redeeming about my current locale.

I love Austin and I would move there in a heartbeat, but only if I never have to drive far.

[dgledwards]

If you lived in Chicago proper traffic won't be as bad to you here in Tampa or the surrounding Bay Area. I moved here from San Francisco and this has been a cake walk. What will get you though are the random people honking there horns at you for no real reason, the sometimes painfully long lights and massive Police presence.

Many of the people on here complaining of traffic are probably not from a big city and don't have a real gauge of bumper to bumper traffic. They also don't want the Tampa Bay area to grow much more.

You'll be fine.

[theurbanfiles]

I'll respond to both of the posts overhead.
1) Yes, there's no question overall that Tampa's roads will be significantly less congested as those of Chicago. With that said, you also must own a car here, whereas in Chicago, it's an option to not have to.

2) As someone who by no means generally holds liberal views, I can say that there is evidenced based good in having higher density communities, if it is done right:
https://www.citylab.com/life/2012/11...o-better/3911/
https://www.theguardian.com/housing-...nsity-building
Having traveled first hand, some of the benefits I see of denser cities include more productivity time, more things to do and a general vibrancy in life, great park networks, more connectivity between the populace, and less sprawl and thus more open space for citizens, and likely also less of an environmental footprint. Of course, that's only if the growth is handled in the right manner, of course.

[Rambo2018]

Sorry if anyone mentioned this I am surprised to see Tampa Bay is 11th most dense metro area in U.S.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/...ed-states.html

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by Rambo2018

Sorry if anyone mentioned this I am surprised to see Tampa Bay is 11th most dense metro area in U.S.

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/...ed-states.html

That is largely due to Pinellas County, which is a peninsula and massively built out. By far the most heavily populated (density wise) area in the state. Still, many areas don't seem to have traffic problems. Even though St. Pete is the largest city in Pinellas, any time I visit, even in season or during festivals, I don't really encounter anything too terrible traffic wise. Tampa, however, is another story. I was born and raised there (live in Sarasota now) my husband works there (downtown) and when I go back I have to practically white knuckle it on the freeways and highways. Traffic is crazy and unbelievable to me, crazy traffic patterns and crazy drivers!!!

[theurbanfiles]

I'm not denying that they may hold those views, or that reflects a socialist mindset. What I am saying though, is that for me at least, I'm willing to on a number of things look beyond who a view is held by, and just think about what would work best? The world would be a much worse place without some degree of collectivism, because humans (homo sapiens) by nature, the determining factor in us becoming the dominant species (and even the dominant human species, a movement we were in many ways an underdog in, mind you) was being able to work together on things, in large groups. There's no perfect answer because perfect collectivism is totalitarian dictatorship, and perfect individualism is unsustainable and eventually leads to anarchy. The answer does lie somewhere in the center. But, the world would be a much, much worse place without cities, that's for sure. And large, heavily planned ones, at that. Imagine what the world would look like today without New York City? London? Constantinople? And I say that as someone who is at least fiscally very right leaning (I generally subscribe to the original "Invisible Hand" principles of Adam Smith. Hong Kong is maybe the most free market place on earth (at least as ranked by the IEF). But, even there it took some degree of collectivism, and willingness to live closely together to make that happen. FWIW, there's also limited evidence to me that high density necessarily leads to a place being more unsafe. I'd feel more safe walking around Manhattan at night than any other American city (at least from Central Park south), and Copenhagen, Hong Kong, Tokyo, etc., all from very different corners of the world, are arguably 3 of the world's 5 safest cities exceeding 1M.

[theurbanfiles]

Originally Posted by gypsychic

That is largely due to Pinellas County, which is a peninsula and massively built out. By far the most heavily populated (density wise) area in the state. Still, many areas don't seem to have traffic problems. Even though St. Pete is the largest city in Pinellas, any time I visit, even in season or during festivals, I don't really encounter anything too terrible traffic wise. Tampa, however, is another story. I was born and raised there (live in Sarasota now) my husband works there (downtown) and when I go back I have to practically white knuckle it on the freeways and highways. Traffic is crazy and unbelievable to me, crazy traffic patterns and crazy drivers!!!

I guess that depends on what you're talking about. Perhaps Pinellas is the most dense county overall (3,542 Sq.Mi., but with that said the populated portion of Dade County is easily way more dense than anywhere in Pinellas or FL (or the SE US for that matter.) Miami's city limits has a population density of 12,604 sq.mi. (comparable to Chicago), in fact it's the 4th most densely populated Urban Area in the US, ahead of New York City in that regard!

As per Tampa, I guess it depends on which area you're talking about as well. Granted, I go up for different things. Mainly when I'm going to Tampa itself, I'm going to one of 5 places (USF Area, Ybor City, Hyde Park, Airport (or area surrounding), and Downtown.). I can say that I never have much trouble getting to any of those (of course, often with airport I'm going early in the morning, Hyde Park for a weekend, the others for some type of sporting event (USF is the one I encounter the most trouble with.) But honestly, coming from Bradenton (as near to 75 as possible : )), I go through a very quiet stretch that is mostly rural land and the not at all developed bur probably soon will be Apollo Beach area, and I've never encountered anything there. Then, I turn up to the Selmon Expressway, and very rarely if ever have I encountered problems there, and that essentially gets me to my destinations. Downtown roads are sparsely very crowded when I am down there by any standard, I can make it from freeway exit to parking garage in <5 minutes almost always without missing a light cycle.

The two times I have REAL trouble driving around in Tampa, honestly are (A): Going from Tampa towards Saint Petersburg or the beach, after about 3 PM on a weekday. I try to avoid doing this, but needless to say that is rough, and it even sometimes manages to be that way at odd times, and (B): Driving around the Brandon/Valrico area!! Honestly, I find things get way more bottlenecked, backed up, missing light cycles, people parked in intersection because they went out and couldn't go all the way, yada yada, in Brandon, which just doesn't have road infrastructure to handle it's population, than Tampa. The only side road I've seen get brutally backed up like that was going through Seminole Heights to have dinner on a Friday at rush hour. Never. Again. Maybe it's just preference, or when were driving, but I really prefer Tampa roads to those in Bradenton/Sarasota overall, simply because there are many more options. 64, 41, 301, Fruitville, UTC, can all be just brutal and agonizing, much more so than roads I've experienced in Tampa overall, but maybe that's just the sample size I've taken. I can somehow see 19 being similarly annoying at rush hour, but thankfully, I'm not really forced to take that way all that often.

[MortonR]

Most of the major arterial roads in the Brandon and Valrico area are rated as “F” roads as far as their ability to handle traffic and the population density.

You can thank the former County Commissioners for their lack of foresight in keeping our impact fees adjusted and failing to control development so that the infrastructure could keep pace with the development.

It’s like when they did the “shuck and jive” with approving the new Walmart on Bloomingdale. They day they opened it Bloomingdale officially became a failed road. The traffic studies were done well in advance and presented to the Commission. They didn’t care.

RM