Local A News Bulletin from Government Briefings

September 23, 2005 Volume 8, Issue 38

In national news..

Parking Lots or Transit?

What is a transit system for? Seems like an easy question: It’s for moving large numbers of people

between fixed points, usually at rush hour. But there’s a deeper reason for transit systems. They’re primary

tools for shaping cities, and until urban leaders understand this, they flail at creating transit systems that

work. Just such a city, flailing at the moment, is Tampa.

Let’s not mince words: Tampa’s existing transit system is mediocre. Except for a small downtown

streetcar system, aimed almost exclusively at tourists (the trolleys don’t start running until 11 AM), Tampa

depends on buses. And the bus system is designed as if to discourage middle-class riders. A group of

Tampa Tribune reporters tried their hands at riding the buses recently, boarding at different locations,

headed downtown. Their report: Without exception, they’d have been better off driving. (Typical finding: A

trip from suburban Brandon to downtown, a 20-mile journey, took nearly two hours by bus. The next day,

the reporter drove the same general route in 45 minutes.) Not surprisingly, many who take the bus in

Tampa have no choice: They don’t own cars.

Some elected officials sense that things could be better — that is, if it tried. Tampa could design a transit

system that office workers would prefer to sitting in mind-numbing traffic. One who senses this is Mayor

Pam Iorio, who also minces no words about the existing system, which she calls “lousy.” Iorio has called

for a detailed plan for improving the transit system, followed by a referendum on funding the plan. Problem

is, the city doesn’t control HARTline, as the bus system is called; Hillsborough County does. And far from

favoring an improved transit service, county commissioners seem determined to handicap the mediocre one

they have. (Two commissioners have suggested allowing some suburbs to opt out of HARTline, allowing

these places to start their own transit systems or do without and pay nothing in support.)

The mistake here is in equating transit and automobile travel. Done right, transit has good effects on cities

in the long run: It creates denser living and working patterns (which lower infrastructure costs), makes land

uses more efficient (you don’t have to provide so many parking spaces) and creates interesting streets and

public spaces (more tourists!). Auto travel has the opposite effects, dispersing homes and offices, raising

infrastructure costs and pockmarking downtowns and shopping districts with parking lots.

One of these outcomes is better than the other. The decision for the Tampa area: which road it prefers.

Excerpt from: governing.com, Otis White’s Urban Notebook, posted September 23, 2005