Tampa, Fl
Tampa Bay Beat
By: Jim Bleyer
Imagine a Champs Elysees-type corridor with light rail in the center as a
hurricane evacuation route
By
Dr. Jim Davison
Hillsborough
County’s Metropolitan Planning Organization has concocted an impractical
transit scheme that involves tearing down 10 miles of Interstate-275 in favor
of a boulevard concept, a plan ranked last by a survey of Tampa Bay citizens.
The
unfathomable concept attempts to shoehorn a cumbersome light rail system onto
an already congested area of Tampa and replace a roadway that is part of the
U.S. interstate highway system.
The
City of Tampa-centric proposal also defies the MPO’s own pronouncement that
I-275, along with Interstate-4 and Interstate-75, is the most important
transportation infrastructure to be protected from storm vulnerability. It is a
major hurricane evacuation route for Tampa and Pinellas counties.
The
concept envisions a grand corridor, a la the Champs-Elysees, with six to eight
lanes of traffic, a two-way light trail system in the middle, and elaborate
landscaping with sidewalks on the edges.
A
light rail system would not only be useless in a hurricane but an impediment to
evacuation as well.
At
the MPO’s last board meeting it voted unanimously to finance a study of this
grand corridor beginning immediately north of Tampa at the intersection of I-4. The
county MPO asserted the study was requested by the citizens, but it was its own
advisory committee that made the request. Most committee members
oppose any improvement to I-275 and have actively campaigned against any plan
from the Florida Department of Transportation.
The
interstate teardown was included as one of three scenarios in the MPO’s long
range transportation planning. It was chosen last by public
responses and was soundly rejected in a three-county survey and for good
reason.
In
addition to being a vital evacuation route, I-275 is the major
regional economic engine in Tampa Bay. The highway is expected to
carry in excess of 250,000 cars per day in 2045 with more than half the
vehicles entering from the northern most interchange in Hillsborough
County and from Pasco County. Those surveyed in Pasco and Pinellas
ranked the boulevard as very low, as did Hillsborough residents outside of
Tampa.
Despite
this, the county commissioners and Tampa city officials said they did not
believe the scenario ranking numbers. FDOT Secretary David Gwynn has attempted
to explain the difficulties such a plan would entail and its costs, but it fell
on deaf ears. This is an idea strictly engineered by the City of Tampa that
adversely effects the entire region.
Driving
this train are a small group of politicians, some of whom reside in the area
but don’t believe the facts and a small group of citizens living in the area
without any facts. They are attempting to slow or stop the improvements to this
stretch of I-275.
Improvements
to I-275 planned by FDOT will markedly decrease congestion, increase safety,
decrease injuries and fatalities, and increase the area’s economic performance
over the 25-year life of the road. The MPO has already planned a “road to
nowhere” (East-West Road), but is now encouraging a small group of citizens, at
the risk and expense of the entire region, to clamor for an idea that is
foolhardy at best and lethal at worst.
Dr.
Jim Davison is a conservative activist and noted expert on transit and tax
matters.
This post is contributed by Tampa Bay
Beat. The views and opinions expressed in this post are the author's and do not
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