Hillsborough County 11th Worst For Congestion in the US! (Tampa: spring break, income)

[jambo101]

Traffic congestion? a small price to pay for the beautiful beaches and the wonderful weather and the .... ...Well i'm sure theres other stuff..

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Traffic congestion? a small price to pay for the beautiful beaches and the wonderful weather and the .... ...Well i'm sure theres other stuff..

L.M.A.O.!!!!! That's just too funny right there.

My faves are the re-locators with visions of the beach dancing in their heads. "Hi, we've been thinking about moving to the Tampa Bay area. We love warm weather and taking trips to the beach!". Yeah, pack an overnight bag.

[dothetwist]

We're retired, so no commute. We do fly out of TPA once or twice a month and I'm careful to book mid-day flights or weekend departures since I can get there in exactly 26 minutes from Gulfport.

That said, there is a strong need for a rail system in this area if Tampa Bay metro wants to compete for good, clean, high-paying businesses (regional, state, national HQ's for big name corporations). These companies and their workforce are demanding good transit systems before moving into an area and that's just going to be a bigger issue down the road as this area grows. It won't grow to its full potential without some sort of rapid rail.

Many millennials do not drive and/or prefer mass transit and their employers are factoring that into corporate relocations. The current trend is to move to a downtown core, away from suburban sprawl that requires cars and roads. This is the future and TB needs to wise up fast or find itself out of the competition.

[PhotoProIP]

LOL
I guess those who wrote this article did not include "traffic" in their report!
//www.city-data.com/forum/tampa...sa-retire.html

Then again, retirees make up a lot of that traffic too.

Tampa is indeed in Hillsborough county! What a coincidence!

[PhotoProIP]

Originally Posted by dothetwist

That said, there is a strong need for a rail system in this area if Tampa Bay metro wants to compete for good, clean, high-paying businesses (regional, state, national HQ's for big name corporations). These companies and their workforce are demanding good transit systems before moving into an area and that's just going to be a bigger issue down the road as this area grows. It won't grow to its full potential without some sort of rapid rail.

Many millennials do not drive and/or prefer mass transit and their employers are factoring that into corporate relocations. The current trend is to move to a downtown core, away from suburban sprawl that requires cars and roads. This is the future and TB needs to wise up fast or find itself out of the competition.

Very well said!

[kmarc]

Yes, there is great potential for public transportation in Tampa. And always will be.

[Spring Hillian]

Originally Posted by ApolloBeachRetiree

Compared to Atlanta, Tampa traffic is a breeze. Southshore can be inconvenient at times, but, again, compared to traveling on Dallas/Marietta highway during rush hour, traffic here is not bad at all. Planning for growth is obviously a good thing.

The more people pour into the cities the worse it will be. We cant just keep building more roads and highways. Tampa needs to come up with a workable mass transit system.

First thingn would be "express buses" running on lhighway lanes designated for high occupancy vehicles. Bus stations can be built in various parts of suburbia with parking lots. People would drive to the station, park their cars and board well scheduled buses to bring them to the Tampa terminal. From there trolley service and a revamped HART system can take commuters to various stops on the route. Perhaps keep HART as it exists and create the "Downtown Tampa Commuter System" (DTCS) which would have routes that stay in the downtown area running on a regular schedule. Commuters would buy monthly passes for unlimited travel on the DTCS and of course faresw can be set for casual travelers.

[housingcrashsurvivor]

Looks like the #11 ranking is from

TomTom Traffic Index

...The methodology that is used on this website measures travel times during the whole day and during peak periods and compares these with measured travel times during non-congested periods (Free Flow conditions). The difference is expressed as a total average percentage increase in travel time. We take into account local roads, arterials and highways. All data is based on actual GPS measurements from TomTom's historical traffic database. For some cities we use GPS data from our partners, such as AutoNavi. The sample size for each city is expressed in terms of total vehicle distance driven for the period...

Congestion Level: Increase in overall travel times when compared to a Free Flow situation. For example, a Congestion Level of 12% corresponds to 12% longer travel times compared to a Free Flow situation.

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by housingcrashsurvivor

Looks like the #11 ranking is from

TomTom Traffic Index

...The methodology that is used on this website measures travel times during the whole day and during peak periods and compares these with measured travel times during non-congested periods (Free Flow conditions). The difference is expressed as a total average percentage increase in travel time. We take into account local roads, arterials and highways. All data is based on actual GPS measurements from TomTom's historical traffic database. For some cities we use GPS data from our partners, such as AutoNavi. The sample size for each city is expressed in terms of total vehicle distance driven for the period...

Congestion Level: Increase in overall travel times when compared to a Free Flow situation. For example, a Congestion Level of 12% corresponds to 12% longer travel times compared to a Free Flow situation.

Is this a reliable source, in your opinion?

[kmarc]

Originally Posted by Spring Hillian

The more people pour into the cities the worse it will be. We cant just keep building more roads and highways. Tampa needs to come up with a workable mass transit system.

First thingn would be "express buses" running on lhighway lanes designated for high occupancy vehicles. Bus stations can be built in various parts of suburbia with parking lots. People would drive to the station, park their cars and board well scheduled buses to bring them to the Tampa terminal. From there trolley service and a revamped HART system can take commuters to various stops on the route. Perhaps keep HART as it exists and create the "Downtown Tampa Commuter System" (DTCS) which would have routes that stay in the downtown area running on a regular schedule. Commuters would buy monthly passes for unlimited travel on the DTCS and of course faresw can be set for casual travelers.

Excellent post. They wouldn't let me rep you because of that spread it around thingy.