Anybody keep up on the Transit situation? (Charlotte: rental car, rental)

[Tampa Red]

http://www.transitblueprint.org/project.htm

Apparently it has some momentum, though the funding mechanism didn't work out previously.

If the delay has caused more focused planning, that's a good thing.

I'd hate to see urban sprawl take over.

By the way, if you want to see the living hell of irreversible urban sprawl, come to my town, (it's in the name).

1 1/2 more years of graduate school and I'm out of here for good.

[Bull City Rising]

Basically, over the course of this year, leaders from local governments are working with the TTA to try to figure out a new plan for transit.

The TTA rail got caught in some problems that were bad luck, others bad planning. The bad luck was that the federal govt. changed the rules for cost-effectiveness on transit. Charlotte's proposal for a light-rail line went to the FTA (federal transit agency) just a couple of weeks before the Triangle's and got approved, but the FTA changed the rule between CLT and RDU's applications. If the FTA had changed sooner, neither would have been approved.

On the other hand, part of the issue with cost-effectiveness is that local governments were trying to get all of this done without hardly any local tax impact -- relying on a rental car tax that brought next to nothing, with the rest coming mostly from the feds.

The good news is that TTA has acquired most of the land needed for the rails and stations, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see something come together.

PS -- If you want to find out more on this, UrbanPlanet is a good place to check out for questions about urban growth, planning, density, etc. We skew suburban here sometimes.

[Tampa Red]

Originally Posted by Bull City Rising

Basically, over the course of this year, leaders from local governments are working with the TTA to try to figure out a new plan for transit.

The TTA rail got caught in some problems that were bad luck, others bad planning. The bad luck was that the federal govt. changed the rules for cost-effectiveness on transit. Charlotte's proposal for a light-rail line went to the FTA (federal transit agency) just a couple of weeks before the Triangle's and got approved, but the FTA changed the rule between CLT and RDU's applications. If the FTA had changed sooner, neither would have been approved.

On the other hand, part of the issue with cost-effectiveness is that local governments were trying to get all of this done without hardly any local tax impact -- relying on a rental car tax that brought next to nothing, with the rest coming mostly from the feds.

The good news is that TTA has acquired most of the land needed for the rails and stations, so I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see something come together.

PS -- If you want to find out more on this, UrbanPlanet is a good place to check out for questions about urban growth, planning, density, etc. We skew suburban here sometimes.

I'm pretty aware of the situation that has existed, just wanted to put it out there to make people realize it's not dead.

If anything, it has caused the proponents to come up with a better, more focused plan and that's a good thing.

Political situations change. Expecting a mass transit system to be completely utilized and self-supporting as soon as it's built is ridiculous, but that's the far reaching thinking of some politicians today.

They want commuters to have the freedom to sit in bumper to bumper for 6 hours a day.

Here in Tampa, we have the freedom to sit in traffic jams as far as the eye can see. If we don't like it, I'm sure there are helipads on top of those downtown towers.