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Why do you take a "fact" as a "negative"? You must realize that with the influx of tourists, people moving here, and local tourists the traffic would be a nightmare....nothing surprising about it. Florida has around 20 million people now, so Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jax all are big cities which will have traffic regardless. This is not surprising to me at all. Nor shocking, nor negative. Obviously those who move here will have to drive....those who come here for conferences will drive, and so on....if anyone is shocked by this they must have been sleeping for the last 10 years!
When I was moving out of Florida back in 2001 pumping gas about 50 miles north of the Florida Georgia boarder just off I-75. I counted 10 u-haul's and or moving trucks that went by in that few minutes of pumping gas. I remember the 2000 ballet asked if the state should look into building high speed rail connecting Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. Guess nothing came of that. I voted yes on it by the way. I can't imagine how bad the traffic is there now? Since Florida is passing New York State for 3rd most populated state, I can only imagine it has gotten a lot worse?
High speed rail between major cities will do nothing to help the rush hour congestion, but tearing up the streets will make a giant, permanent construction zone with lane closings everyday. Stand by for decades of traffic disruption before watching other people ride trains between a few lucky/favored suburbs and downtown.
If people actually wanted to use mass transit or carpool, they would. Look at all the idle train tracks, nobody wants to park at some rural train station and catch a train downtown everyday. Why rush into hell?
They would choose to live near public transportation, and this would make public transportation popular enough to become a priority instead of an afterthought.
They would demand commuter lots and organized carpools.
Hot sweaty bus stops are for the peasants, and only little people stand around waiting for trains.
But these things won't work in Tampa: uninterrupted air-conditioned comfort from home garage to work garage, with phone and music and coffee, and a chance to cut someone off and beat him to the next traffic light is the good life here.
When I was moving out of Florida back in 2001 pumping gas about 50 miles north of the Florida Georgia boarder just off I-75. I counted 10 u-haul's and or moving trucks that went by in that few minutes of pumping gas. I remember the 2000 ballet asked if the state should look into building high speed rail connecting Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. Guess nothing came of that. I voted yes on it by the way. I can't imagine how bad the traffic is there now? Since Florida is passing New York State for 3rd most populated state, I can only imagine it has gotten a lot worse?
The reason FL is surpassing NY is because half of it has moved here!!!!! We just got back from VA, and I cannot describe to you in words what kind of traffic we had on 95 on our way back! 99% Of the cars had NY license plates....that's 18 hours worth of NY license plates....not to mention how "break happy" they were! Kept driving 55 in a 75 and so forth....and while I drove in Manhattan and I am aware of the "hazards" in that city, (pedestrians, bikers, taxis making up their own lanes, birds etc), there is no way to be driving with the foot on the break the whole way down to Florida! But they did...clogging the left lane driving 55 on I-95!!!!! (middle of nowhere) Unreal! Took us 18 hours to get back!
FYI nothing will change in Florida because of the too many retirees FROM NY, NJ tired of being taxed to death up there and BLOCKING every good thing from happening here! This is going on in my home town: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/many-c...184511143.html
They make money in NY, (because those same jobs don't pay them enough in FL to make the same kind of money), then they look to spend it on high end $hit down here not taking into consideration their "fellow" not so well to do NY-ers that overly populated this state too, and who are kicked out of the rental market along with locals and the rest of migrants! This is beyond ridiculous!
Retirees and the rich have destroyed any chance for this state to provide self sufficiency for its residents! So many people are on welfare that should NOT be on welfare it's not funny! So many bad areas; so many good areas that turned bad etc! It's a shame! They are the VERY reason we can't have public transit here. Literally. Rush hour wouldn't exist if we had the rail we used to have in Miami! That is the best mode of transportation for Florida, and it is a shame that it is not built yet with so many transplants!
Last time we went to Tyson's Corner in DC the metro there comes out for a while, and it was suspended with crossing enclosed bridges for pedestrians and all I could think was "man if we had in Florida on Dale Mabry so many people would not be driving!" (I'm not even talking about the job creation etc)
Makes sense to me. More people equals more cars and more cars equal more traffic.
Get away from a big city and the amount of traffic diminishes.
Certainly not shocking, negative in some ways, but there is no way around it. Building more roads and highways will not solve the problem. Mass transit will help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PhotoProIP
Why do you take a "fact" as a "negative"? You must realize that with the influx of tourists, people moving here, and local tourists the traffic would be a nightmare....nothing surprising about it. Florida has around 20 million people now, so Tampa, Miami, Orlando, Jax all are big cities which will have traffic regardless. This is not surprising to me at all. Nor shocking, nor negative. Obviously those who move here will have to drive....those who come here for conferences will drive, and so on....if anyone is shocked by this they must have been sleeping for the last 10 years!
I guess there are some areas where mass transit works (NYC, Chicago ?) but it would never fly here in Florida. We love the freedom of driving our own cars and not having to wait for a bus or train to show up when we want to go. When I see people waiting at a bus stop in the rain or on a 98 degree day I feel sorry for them. On the few occasions I had to take a bus somewhere it was not a very pleasant experience.
Nope, you could put in the most elaborate mass transit system in the world and it would not be used by 99% of the people who could use it.
Makes sense to me. More people equals more cars and more cars equal more traffic.
Get away from a big city and the amount of traffic diminishes.
Certainly not shocking, negative in some ways, but there is no way around it. Building more roads and highways will not solve the problem. Mass transit will help.
Yeah! exactly! More roads just means more traffic! In Miami I-95 is to be avoided at all cost! I take back roads when we go home, because it is impossible to be on it, and be stuck on an 8 lane road bumper to bumper! NO THANKS! I want to pass all that with the rail and wave at them! and Hold up a sign that says: "STOP POLLUTING MY PLANET!"
Last time we went to Tyson's Corner in DC the metro there comes out for a while, and it was suspended with crossing enclosed bridges for pedestrians and all I could think was "man if we had in Florida on Dale Mabry so many people would not be driving!" (I'm not even talking about the job creation etc)
Having just spent the last 40 years in Northern Virginia, I can assure you that traffic in the Tyson's Corner boondoggle has never been worse. The reason is construction of yet another above-ground route tacked onto the Metro System (subway).
Also, an underground subway won't be possible here, dig down just a couple of feet and you'll strike water. So it would have to be an entirely above-ground system, and it can't have any cross-streets, so there will have to be occasional overpasses. That means building formidable barriers, walls which cannot be breached, dividing neighborhoods into islands and abolishing traditional shortcuts. There will be traffic jams at every overpass trying to get across the "high-speed" rail line, there will be permanent detours to reach a way across, and if there are too many exits, entrances, and on-ramps, there will be too many traffic jams. If there are too few crossings, exits, etc, each traffic jam will be much, much worse.
Imagine taking the Howard Frankland bridge and moving it onto the top of Dale Mabry, starting at I-275.
Florida already has rail lines, nobody wants to ride trains, and trains are slow because they pass through congested traffic areas. More rail lines would just make this worse.
The people behind this scam have no intention of riding trains themselves, they just want to get rich off our backs and enrich the corrupt politicians with this multi-billion dollar slush fund. There's that job creation scam, on the taxpayers' backs, funding unions who bribe politicians, while traffic gets worse.
Look, there are other countries ten times more congested than Florida and they have 200+miles per hour trains moving people around!!!!
It's not a matter of "can" it is a matter of "will"!
People like you who choose to stand the way of progress are the reason we don't make any progress! & sadly for us the Gov is full of people like you!!!!!
I find it quite embarrassing to see a tiny country like Japan have high speed trains and we are not able to have that because of all the horse & buggy stuck in the 1700's people standing in the way of smart progress!!!
Quote:
Originally Posted by ChuteTheMall
Having just spent the last 40 years in Northern Virginia, I can assure you that traffic in the Tyson's Corner boondoggle has never been worse. The reason is construction of yet another above-ground route tacked onto the Metro System (subway).
Also, an underground subway won't be possible here, dig down just a couple of feet and you'll strike water. So it would have to be an entirely above-ground system, and it can't have any cross-streets, so there will have to be occasional overpasses. That means building formidable barriers, walls which cannot be breached, dividing neighborhoods into islands and abolishing traditional shortcuts. There will be traffic jams at every overpass trying to get across the "high-speed" rail line, there will be permanent detours to reach a way across, and if there are too many exits, entrances, and on-ramps, there will be too many traffic jams. If there are too few crossings, exits, etc, each traffic jam will be much, much worse.
Imagine taking the Howard Frankland bridge and moving it onto the top of Dale Mabry, starting at I-275.
Florida already has rail lines, nobody wants to ride trains, and trains are slow because they pass through congested traffic areas. More rail lines would just make this worse.
The people behind this scam have no intention of riding trains themselves, they just want to get rich off our backs and enrich the corrupt politicians with this multi-billion dollar slush fund. There's that job creation scam, on the taxpayers' backs, funding unions who bribe politicians, while traffic gets worse.
Look, there are other countries ten times more congested than Florida and they have 200+miles per hour trains moving people around!!!!
It's not a matter of "can" it is a matter of "will"!
People like you who choose to stand the way of progress are the reason we don't make any progress! & sadly for us the Gov is full of people like you!!!!!
I find it quite embarrassing to see a tiny country like Japan have high speed trains and we are not able to have that because of all the horse & buggy stuck in the 1700's people standing in the way of smart progress!!!
Sounds like you want Florida to be something different than it is, which would be different than the vast majority of Floridians want it to be. A solution for one place does not mean that solution is proper for every place. Maybe the problem is not the Floridians as you like to claim, but rather you for not realizing what Florida is and why people want to keep it that way.
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Took us 18 hours to get back!
