POLL: Are you in favor of the new Sunrail? (Jacksonville: insurance, school)

[Pete C]

I wonder how many people are going to want to drive when gas goes over $5 a gallon. Then what alternative do you offer? $5 gas plus tolls...sounds great! I sure hope cars like the Volt come down from their initial $40,000 price tag to support your all-car vision of the future, which is what the Volt will debut at. Also, where are we going to build more roads to support all that volume? Turn I-4 into a double-decker highway? That sounds beautiful!

[annerk]

Originally Posted by MiamiRob

roads aren't self supporting either! Please show me where a road or highway pays for itself outside of tolls and even that is questionable.

The difference is that anyone can use the roads. There is no logical way for someone from Davenport to make use of SunRail.

As far as I know LYNX is run by Orange county ( I may be wrong ) but even in Miami its transit agency has bus routes that service the Florida Keys & portions of southern Broward county.

From their web site: LYNX is officially known as the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority, in charge of coordinating public transportation for Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties.

Harry if you want full recovery box fares to cover operating costs from buses and transit you would have to double fares which would severly restrict the amount of people it serves which includes a lot of students & the elderly.

Why should those who never use LYNX--or any mass transit, especially when it's not even available to them--be forced to subsidize it?

[GloryB]

I'm not sure I have a real strong opinion either way, but enjoyed reading all the various posts.

Just a few questions:

If this is really going to save people lots of gas money and time, why aren't the people who are using it....willing to pay for it rather than further burden tax payers?

Will the people who can afford it be willing to give up the flexibility of having their own vehicle on the drive home?

Will a MT system really lure any theme park bound tourists into staying downtown? Most of these rent would rent a car for a multiple of reasons.

And with the heat and rain in Orlando....how would you get from the rail terminal to your place of employment by foot without being a mess?

Would this route possibly allow LYNX to expand their routes elsewhere since downtown people will have another MT source?

[harrycrat]

Originally Posted by Pete C

I wonder how many people are going to want to drive when gas goes over $5 a gallon. Then what alternative do you offer? $5 gas plus tolls...sounds great! I sure hope cars like the Volt come down from their initial $40,000 price tag to support your all-car vision of the future, which is what the Volt will debut at. Also, where are we going to build more roads to support all that volume? Turn I-4 into a double-decker highway? That sounds beautiful!

Yes,double decker now,triple decker in the future...

Our economy is based on the car,at least 10% of the pop ( 25% in Germany ) makes a living,directly or indirectly from that industry...

How many can make a living out of train & bus construction ?

Or of ...bicycles .the darling of greens ?

The all electric car is coming,let's build the roads now...

[DavieJ89]

Originally Posted by annerk

Expanding Lake Xpress within Lake County isn't the solution--it doesn't open mass transit to Lake County residents throughout central Florida like a LYNX expansion would.

Its not a complete solution but a part of one. Lynx expensing into lake county would be a bad idea. They have WAY too much ground to cover within Orange Osceola and Seminole Counties as it is

If Lake Xpress is going to add routes in Clermont and all those other places I mentioned it would be a great idea for Lynx to add more routes that meet up at maybe a transfer center with Lake Xpress buses, maybe near West Colonial Drive and Highway 27 perhaps?

Lake Xpress is already connected to Lynx in the Zellwood area. Connecting Lake Xpress to a Lynx route that runs to Clermont (not that commuter one either) along with connecting it to the Lynx route that ends in 4 corners and creating a bus pass people can use on both systems would be PART of the solution to the transit problem here in Orlando

Other cities run multiple systems, I'll use another example here. In Detroit they have seperate bus sytems, one for the city itself and one for the suburbs. They cover the city without one system being to big or small.

Personally I think Lynx should be confined to Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties while running some connector routes into the Clermont area or extedning the Zellwood route into Mt Dora or Eustis perhaps?

[annerk]

Originally Posted by DavieJ89

Its not a complete solution but a part of one. Lynx expensing into lake county would be a bad idea. They have WAY too much ground to cover within Orange Osceola and Seminole Counties as it is

If Lake Xpress is going to add routes in Clermont and all those other places I mentioned it would be a great idea for Lynx to add more routes that meet up at maybe a transfer center with Lake Xpress buses, maybe near West Colonial Drive and Highway 27 perhaps?

Lake Xpress is already connected to Lynx in the Zellwood area. Connecting Lake Xpress to a Lynx route that runs to Clermont (not that commuter one either) along with connecting it to the Lynx route that ends in 4 corners and creating a bus pass people can use on both systems would be PART of the solution to the transit problem here in Orlando

Other cities run multiple systems, I'll use another example here. In Detroit they have seperate bus sytems, one for the city itself and one for the suburbs. They cover the city without one system being to big or small.

Personally I think Lynx should be confined to Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties while running some connector routes into the Clermont area or extedning the Zellwood route into Mt Dora or Eustis perhaps?

Why not do away with the completely ineffective and inefficient Lake Xpress and bring Lynx into Lake County? Combine them and cut down on redundancy--that is being paid for by tax dollars.

[DavieJ89]

Originally Posted by annerk

Why not do away with the completely ineffective and inefficient Lake Xpress and bring Lynx into Lake County? Combine them and cut down on redundancy--that is being paid for by tax dollars.

Before Lynx can expand anymore, they need to at LEAST DOUBLE their fleet

I know they increased their fleet from 237 to 290 buses and they retired a lot of old buses that had over 1 million miles on them, but they need to focus now on adding more buses, routes, and running their current routes more frequently and running their routes along the busiest roads 24 hours a day

An expansion into Lake County would be a good idea. Perhaps a Clermont transfer center where all those routes meet up and spread out to Lake County

If Lynx did expand into Lake County it probably wouldn't be very much. Lake County probably would rather focus on expanding thier own bus system then bring in a different bus system that belongs to Orange County

I do agree with you on Lake Xpress being ineffective and innefficient. After I looked to see what they have their. Only 4 routes that dont even really run anywhere important? Come on thats not a bus system, thats a joke

[hgebel]

Note that there are self-supporting, and even profitable, transit systems. Fares almost exactly pay the operating costs of the London Underground (even before advertising revenue). The Hong Kong MTR takes in 149% of it's operating expenses in fares and most Japanese systems have farebox recovery ratios of well over 100%; Tokyo Metro takes in 170% of it's operating costs in fares. Most of these system serve high population density areas, but what they ALL have in common is high usage rates. To get those high usage rates you have to cover a wide area and have a schedule that allows the system to be useful to the majority of the population.

-Harry

[harrycrat]

I think many people have seen horrific scenes from the ...profitable Tokyo underground,where ...Gestapo like guards push the people into the wagons...

Sayonara..

Quality,privacy & health concerns are of paramount importance...

[hgebel]

Originally Posted by harrymiafl

I think many people have seen horrific scenes from the ...profitable Tokyo underground,where ...Gestapo like guards push the people into the wagons...

Sayonara..

Quality,privacy & health concerns are of paramount importance...

Gestapo like They aren't beating the people with sticks, they're pushing them into train; I've used that system and it's not horrific unless you have some kind of phobia of crowds or enclosed spaces. That procedure is part of the deal when you use that system. You said there aren't any profitable mass transit system, I pointed out that there were. Even if the way they choose to load their cars was a problem (which it isn't), I notice you just cherry picked one system out of the ones I named.

-Harry