Public Transportation in Tampa? (Jacksonville, Miami: how much, neighborhoods, living)

[ferret111]

Post above me

Car

[aninaction]

this is my vote for better public transportation and the taxes to pay for it.

i try to ride my bike and the bus as often as i can, i pray for the day its better and we have a walkable city

[VeradoDan]

Originally Posted by aninaction

this is my vote for better public transportation and the taxes to pay for it.

i try to ride my bike and the bus as often as i can, i pray for the day its better and we have a walkable city

Tamps needs to solve the crime problem first, then the transport problem. Nobody will use a system (even a nice, clean one) if there are homeless people hanging out at the stops/stations and on the trains or buses. It would be a silly thing to spend billions of dollars on a world-class public transport system that no one uses - and I guarantee you no one will use it if safety isn't guaranteed.

For all of Mayor Pam's efforts, her record on crime/homelessness has been abysmal. Remember this one?

Iorio: We're not jailing the homeless for Super Bowl (http://blogs.tampabay.com/superbowl/2009/01/iorio-were-not.html - broken link)

Wait a second, street vagrancy SHOULD be made illegal! Make it illegal, then arrest all of them and put them in shelters. Giuliani did that in NYC and it transformed the city. It's a shame Pam can't get that through her head.

[Kaiminani]

And they say Mussolini made the trains run on time too!

[tampaguy03]

Originally Posted by VeradoDan

Tamps needs to solve the crime problem first, then the transport problem. Nobody will use a system (even a nice, clean one) if there are homeless people hanging out at the stops/stations and on the trains or buses. It would be a silly thing to spend billions of dollars on a world-class public transport system that no one uses - and I guarantee you no one will use it if safety isn't guaranteed.

For all of Mayor Pam's efforts, her record on crime/homelessness has been abysmal. Remember this one?

Iorio: We're not jailing the homeless for Super Bowl (http://blogs.tampabay.com/superbowl/2009/01/iorio-were-not.html - broken link)

Wait a second, street vagrancy SHOULD be made illegal! Make it illegal, then arrest all of them and put them in shelters. Giuliani did that in NYC and it transformed the city. It's a shame Pam can't get that through her head.

First off - Pams(the Mayor) record on crime is NOT abysmal, with a drop of Crime over 43% since 2002, and it continues to drop.

As far as homelessness, every city deals with this, St. Pete is the WORST ive ever seen, you cant get far in downtown St. Pete without being panhandled, etc....I rarley see panhandling in downtown Tampa or Ybor City....although they are there. I remember the whole controversy regarding the homeless, and I was told there there are certain laws in place that deter you from 'removing' homeless people from public property. I also think there is alot more involved in regards to how to deal with the homeless(like the economy, mental disorders, drug abuse, etc..)

[VeradoDan]

Originally Posted by tampaguy03

First off - Pams(the Mayor) record on crime is NOT abysmal, with a drop of Crime over 43% since 2002, and it continues to drop.

As far as homelessness, every city deals with this, St. Pete is the WORST ive ever seen, you cant get far in downtown St. Pete without being panhandled, etc....I rarley see panhandling in downtown Tampa or Ybor City....although they are there. I remember the whole controversy regarding the homeless, and I was told there there are certain laws in place that deter you from 'removing' homeless people from public property. I also think there is alot more involved in regards to how to deal with the homeless(like the economy, mental disorders, drug abuse, etc..)

I agree, and the Tampa area in general is actually a haven where the homeless relocate, believe it or not. I once spoke with a Hillsborough deputy on the topic when we were attending a class together. It's a big problem. I think Pam just needs to take the heat from the various "advocacy" groups out there and really start cracking down. That means removing vagrants from public property, it means putting together a real street crimes unit and hiring more police officers. Now, she MAY be doing some of this, but when I lived in the city a couple years ago, I wasn't seeing a whole lot of progress. I was there in June of this year and it didn't look too much different, but it wasn't an extended stay.

My overall point is that, before the city can be focusing on spending billions of dollars on goodies like snazzy light rails and trollies, it has to get the basic issues solved first. MTV and Disney didn't relocate to Times Square until the hookers were long gone. I remember back in 2003 or 2004, there was a plan proposed to vastly expand the downtown area and create all kinds of new housing developments and retail/nightlife and tear down all of the housing projects and slums between downtown and Ybor. If this hasn't yet been put in place, it should be. I read it in-depth and it was excellently thought out.

Obviously, you're never going to eliminate crime and all forms of vagrancy, but no matter how unavoidable it is in small doses, any violations should be squashed immediately and there should be zero tolerance laws in place. If they could do this in one of the most liberal cities in the nation, Tampa can too!

Can't wait to move back to Tampa soon.

[lyriclocks]

This thread has been most helpful. I just got hired at a Tampa online university and would like to live closer to work than mid of Polk County; alas, I have no auto . . . yet.

Thanks.

[Catherine Duffy]

My sister and I are travelling to Tampa then on to st Petersburg can we get a bus from bus station. any info would be great

[Jimrob1]

Originally Posted by Catherine Duffy

My sister and I are travelling to Tampa then on to st Petersburg can we get a bus from bus station. any info would be great

You can get one from the downtown Tampa Bus station to St Petersburg. I don't know how often they run St Pete has Pinellas Transit and I believe, that is the one you take from Tampa. Transit here is very spotty, always has been. St Pete itself is probably easier, to get around by bus than the Tampa side.

This thread started some years ago, and really not much has changed thru the years . A few more routes, but nothing major. It is amazing with so many people that live here, and the most visited state on earth. Yet transit is very inadequate for such a crowded area. Evidently that is how it's wanted to be. If your spending much time in the area, and plan on travelling around the region. I think a vehicle will most certainly be needed.

Have a nice time in the area.

[PDF]

Originally Posted by Jimrob1

This thread started some years ago, and really not much has changed thru the years . A few more routes, but nothing major. It is amazing with so many people that live here, and the most visited state on earth. Yet transit is very inadequate for such a crowded area. Evidently that is how it's wanted to be. If your spending much time in the area, and plan on travelling around the region. I think a vehicle will most certainly be needed.

It's actually kind of ridiculous how bad transit in Tampa is. It should be a lot better. Other cities in Florida have far superior public transit, even with the same layout that the city of Tampa has.