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Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Transportation - Its all about development

From Bill Varian in the Times this morning
Hillsborough County is looking at a new way of ranking its transportation needs. 
County commissioners want to base priorities for road work and transit expansion based on how much the projects contribute to economic development and job creation, rather than what simply fixes the worst clogs.
Need any more proof the the Hillsborough County Commission does not care about improving mobility?  It's all about development. 
Commissioners have been talking for months about ways the county can promote economic development beyond offering financial incentives to businesses that open, relocate or expand here. They formed a task force largely of building industry representatives who recommended creating designated economic development areas where roads, storm drains and other infrastructure are installed to accommodate businesses.
Now they are talking development again. Where was the Economic Development Council?  What have they contributed to the development strategy?  Inquiring minds want to know.  After all, this is all about development, not improving mobility. 

It's really interesting they want to encourage more development, yet there is plenty of available commercial real estate throughout the county.  Perhaps we start leveraging what we have rather than chasing ghosts of transportation oriented development.

2 comments:

  1. The same old LOSERS that brought us the Channelside trolley are now attempting to stack the media with their echo chamber talking points. They claim to listen to citizens, when in fact they merely want to repeat the same old fictions, until the general public repeats it back to them.

    FACT: very, very few businesses use or depend upon mass transit. WE depend on the ROADS to bring us customers, or to get to our customers. We have been forced for many years to pay taxes for a transit system that, year after year, does what ever it takes to feather its own nest, oblivious to the traveling public. Meanwhile, we sit back envious of other communities that embrace the future and prosper.

    In Germany, they have the highest technology roads in the world. They travel at unlimited speeds. People travel to Germany, just for the once in a lifetime experience to drive their roads. Germany lost WWII, yet, they have the freedom to drive modern speeds in the best cars in the world.

    Our Government, staffed with the same people who run the failed transit system, instead brings us red light cameras. These people should be driven from office and forced to work in low wage jobs.

    I reject the counsel of ANY PUBLIC OFFICIAL until those, who orchestrated massive failures like: Malfunction junction 2.0, the closure of Interstate exit ramps, red light cameras, or the Channelside Trolley are brought to justice, and held accountable. We, as a community should shout them down at the top of our community lungs, instead of witnessing them vote themselves another pay raise. They are not transit experts, they are, at best, gate keepers.

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  2. These are great points. We'll be publishing some original ideas on transportation soon, things that will work, improve mobility, at a minimum cost, so stay tuned. But they don't involve big development or politicians taking much action... which will be problem to expect them to do nothing.

    And we would like feedback to make the ideas better.

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