The Hillsborough Board of County Commissioners knows it’s broken—they just don’t seem to have a plan to fix it.
This morning the BOCC voted 6-1 to approve amendments to the county’s $812 million transportation “plan” that Commissioner Pat Kemp, the recently elected representative of the countywide District 6 seat, says is not much of a plan. Kemp was the sole dissenter in the vote.
“What we have here is a project list," she said. "What we need is a plan.”
Kemp, who campaigned on a platform for transportation progress, motioned for the board to come up with a comprehensive plan for multimodal transportation that would include moving forward with the ferry from Apollo Beach to MacDill Air Force Base, ramping up investments to the Tampa Bay Area Regional Chamber of Commerce (TBARTA) van pool, expanding the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (HART) HyperLINK program and allocating funds for HART to “identify how we can start to invest in our traditional bus systems.”
On the whole, the Tampa Bay area is notorious for its striking lack of public transit options like rail, its constant gridlock and a high rate of pedestrian and cyclist strikes. But every attempt to change that—whether the reason is to ease traffic or curb CO2 emissions—becomes a political battle that dies at the dais or at the polls.
The list of projects the commission approved Wednesday came out of the ashes of the latest battle in Hillsborough County in which commissioners in 2016 shot down the Go Hillsborough initiative, a proposed ballot measure that would have slightly raised the sales tax and funded improvements to public transit, pedestrian paths and roads.
Commissioner Les Miller, who recently took on the role of the HART board chairman, agreed that the current funding situation is fubar and the transit system “sucks.”
But have no fear, Miller said; he has a plan. He has been working with HART CEO Katharine Eagan on a proposal that it is still in progress.
“HART has a plan. I’ve seen it,” he said.
Meanwhile, he asked those not privy to that information “stay tuned.”
More than 40 people turned up to voice concerns about what one speaker called “the tragedy of Tampa’s transit system.” The traffic and congestion drawing out drive time in Tampa is only the tip of the iceberg for folks who rely on HART as their primary source of transportation, many of whom have commute times that are five times the length than they would be if they owned a car.
Bus shortages and long wait times extend the commute for transit users without access to a car or with limited mobility. Their daily routines hinge on the whims of the bus schedule and the economic effects can be devastating if a one doesn't show up on time.
Sydney Eastman told the BOCC that when she lost her car in 2012, she had to rely on public transit. She had to go through a costly move so she could be closer to a bus stop.
“My whole life revolved around getting from Point A to Point B,” she said.
Eastman said that roads are a part of the problem, but that widening roads or constructing new ones does little to help the people who can’t access them without a viable mode of transportation. This population includes people who cannot drive and those who cannot afford to own car and pay the high cost of insurance.
Meanwhile, the Tampa Bay area lags far behind other urban areas in terms of mass transit options like rail, which can restrict growth and prosperity. The lack of transit options can be a major turn off for millennials looking to relocate to the area for work.
Two years ago Faithe Estes almost skipped her move to Tampa because of the lack of options for public transit to and from even the most essential stops.
“We cannot even provide our citizens with an effective way to get from the airport to downtown,” she said.
Estes pointed out that the closest thing the area has to a light or commuter rail is the trolley that runs a 2.7 mile line track and functions more as a novelty than a useful means of mobility—a far cry from what’s needed to lessen the nightmare of getting anywhere in Tampa.
Despite the challenges of morning traffic, frustrated citizens navigated their way to the BOCC meeting to voice transportation concerns that fell on deaf ears. What do they want? Options. When do they want it? Now. When will it actually happen? Guess they’ll have to “stay tuned.”
This article appears in Feb 23 – Mar 2, 2017.