Pinellas Light Rail event tonight...have your say (Tampa, Sarasota: apartments, house)

[xbillyx]

Pinellas County residents can give their input about alternative transportation during an "eTownHall" event Monday.
There are three ways for residents to take part.

1. They can go online to submit questions or participate in a survey. This option is available now.

2. They can join the live interactive video event, which begins at 7 p.m., and call in questions.

3. They can watch the event live on Bright House channel 622 starting at 7 p.m. and call in questions.


Pinellas holding alternative transportion event

[ferret111]

I watched it for a little bit. That's a pretty cool thing: the virtual town hall.

[kyle19125]

I missed it but have been reading up on it. I hope the first move is toward BRTs (Bus Rapid Transit) versus Light Rail, as that would take forever to get going. BRTs provide more immediate relief and can target more traffic problem areas than a Light Rail Line(s) and come in at a much lower cost.

Bus rapid transit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[xbillyx]

The Tampa Bay area is seriously suffering from lack of good public transit. Implementing something like DC's Metro system would be wonderful. Imagine being able to travel around Pinellas and Hillsborough counties on a train! I'd love to be able to go between St Pete, Tampa, and the beaches, as well as smaller towns like Dunedin.

[FloridaKash]

If I could ride the bus to work I would. 2 HUGE problems with the bus system in this region.

1. Hillsborough and Pinellas County Bus systems do a poor job integrating with each other. I think we need a regional transportation authority in lieu of by county. See Sound Transit in Puget Sound (Seattle area)

2. HOV lanes are needed. HOV lanes are used for car poolers and buses. Without HOV lanes a bus will always take significantly longer than driving yourself. A bus needs to be as fast or faster on getting people to work, otherwise many people do not see the incentive.

Pinellas does not need light rail and neither does Hillsborough. They need a much better and efficient bus system. I miss the days of getting on the bus (all seats faced forward). I could drop my foot rest, recline and slide my seat into the aisle, putting an additional 3 inches between myself and the person sitting next to me. I could take a nap, work on my laptop, network with other professionals on the bus or listen to music in comfort.

I would get to work in less time than it would take to drive myself, I avoided $25 a day parking and gas each day. In addition, my work subsidized my bus pass resulting in it costing me a measly $30/month to commute to work. We went down to being a one car family saving on car payment, maintenance and gas.

[gypsychic]

I agree about the buses. A while back they were discussing the possibility of "express buses" here in Sarasota, I don't know what the status of that is currently. Also, there has been talk of combining Sarasota-Manatee bus transit, but also not sure where that stands. Bus service here is still much better than Hillsborough/Pinellas I believe.

If we all at least had better/faster buses and routes, that would be a GREAT start to improving our transit system.

[craigm1841]

i would take buses if the bus rider demographic changes. People riding the bus now appear to be (and i know i am going to get beat up by you all for this) overweight, unhappy, and poor. Dont believe me, just look at any bus stop in H or P County.

There is no networking with professionals, just weird smells and a fear of being mugged.

I am all for riding the bus if it were more common amongst middle to upper middle class people in the area. Tampans rely so heavily on their automobiles, that the only people riding the bus are people who cant afford cars. I would take a bus to the beaches, downtown, hyde park. (I already live @ INTL Plaza). Maybe they should market certain lines for specific things... like the entertainment line, that runs from 6 pm till 4 am and hits channelside, INTL Plaza, SoHo... a beach line that stops at a few high density areas in Tampa and st pete, then shuttles people to the gulf, or a "commerce line" that shuttles people from middle/upper middle class areas to downtown and westshore business districts. Then you can have the "miserable excuse for a life" lines (which all the bus lines seem to be now) that shuttle people overweight people without jobs that haven't showered in three days and smell like body odor and a really good cheese from the side of the road to a publix.

[xbillyx]

I agree about HOV lanes; however, I disagree with your statement that light rail is not needed. It most certainly is. It'd be a lot quicker to get to the main business cores and would alleviate concern and stereotypes about taking the bus (as Craig pointed out). I'm sorry but the majority of people who can afford to drive will not opt to take multiple buses to get to work; they will, however, jump on train.

[gypsychic]

Originally Posted by xbillyx

I agree about HOV lanes; however, I disagree with your statement that light rail is not needed. It most certainly is. It'd be a lot quicker to get to the main business cores and would alleviate concern and stereotypes about taking the bus (as Craig pointed out). I'm sorry but the majority of people who can afford to drive will not opt to take multiple buses to get to work; they will, however, jump on train.

That is why the need for express buses. Not saying it wouldn't be great to have light rail, it would; but the way things are going, probably not going to happen for a long, long time (if ever). Wouldn't take a whole lot to get a good bus system going.

To Craig - I agree with you about the Tampa ridership. When I used to own apartments in Tampa, my sister lived in one and had to take the bus everywhere. She had some pretty bad experiences, and she had to carry pepper spray, too. Enuff said.

[Sunny-Days-in-Florida]

Rail would NOT be cost effective in this area at all.

Check out the cost of the rail and the cost to even ride it.

Then if you miss the rail you would be in deep trouble.

There are only a few cities that across America that could even use it with most of them being a total waste of money and not a good idea.

I do not believe this area needs a rail system at this point in time.

Not cost effective for both the city/state and the people.