38 mile Monorail plan takes one step forward

[thehappysmith]

I get a chuckle out of us complaining about the occasional mistimed traffic light on Tampa or Florida streets downtown. Meanwhile, Mayor Pam thinks the city should deliberately mistime all the lights in downtown in order to make the place more "pedestrian friendly." Ha ha ha!

I don't know about you, but as a downtown pedestrian I just LOVE the idea of walking and riding my bike amongst a bunch of pissed-off drivers because the lights don't let traffic flow rationally. Give me a break.

Nothing is ever so bad in Tampa, even traffic, that our leaders can't come up with a way to make it worse.

[hjack]

I spent my first 19 years in Toronto, my next 13 years in Philadelphia, and the last 6 here in Tampa. Comparitively, the lights in Tampa are LOOOOONG, not short. I even saw a news study s few years ago discussing that. The rationale is that more traffic can get through with longer lights. I also live on Harbour Island and have to go to work in Temple Terrace. The timed lights allowing you out the downtown are a Godsend. The 8 lanes on Fowler allowing you to get from 275 to USF is a Godsend.

A monorail is good in principal, but I'm just not sure that a Monorail in Tampa will be all that useful...yet. For that to be useful, you have to have excellent public transportation bringing you from the monorail to the different non-monorail serverd locations. You can't have the monorail stop at 20 different locations downtown. People will not want to walk 3/4 mile from the monorail stop to their job. You need regular and frequent buses (at least 4 to 5 an hour) along every road downtown. And that's just downtown.

hjack

[Eternalrsx]

My last visit to tampa was riddled with traffic.  as a tourist from tally, i saw the maps and thought it would be easy to get around... but it seems like one or two traffic incidents can ruin everyones afternoon.  The monorail is the modern subway giving instead of nasty tunnels, scenic views to keep commuter morale high.  but would it be able to help tourist looking ot visit the hard Rock, the Zoo, and the horrible drivers: the college students?  And why dont people stop at red lights in tampa?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Rain, which is almost a daily occurance, can ruin a drive. My normal hour drive takes 1 1/2 to 2 hours when it rains.

People don't stop at reds because they're sick of waiting. Sure they should stop but once you've sat through 3 or more light cycles you get sick of it.