Commissioner Murman mentioned in this Tampa Tribune Joe Brown column on transportation:
JOE BROWN COLUMNS
Charlotte’s light rail offers lessons
Published: November 19, 2015
We are less than one year away from Election Day. The marathon for the presidency will cull the herd in a few months, but in Hillsborough County, there’s still a question of whether a sales tax referendum for transportation needs will be on the ballot — again.
Earlier this month, a Hillsborough County transportation board voted 8-3 to move forward with a sales tax referendum for local transportation projects. The county commission will take up the issue next month.
Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn supports the initiative and says it’s needed to help the local economy.
“What is normally a straight-A report card, we fail when it comes to transportation,” Buckhorn said. “It is our Achilles’ heel. It is what keeps us from becoming even more competitive than we already are.”
Supporters of another transportation sales tax ballot initiative might want to read a recent article in The Atlantic by Alana Semuels focusing on the growing cities of Nashville and Charlotte. The former is, like Hillsborough, looking for transportation alternatives; the latter invested heavily in a light rail system a few years ago. The conclusion: Residents are accustomed to cars, so support for bus and rail options is limited.
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In Nashville, where congestion costs the average auto commuter 45 hours a year, there’s agreement among just about everyone that the city needs more public transit. Two of my sisters live in the area and I’ve heard similar complaints.
“But, even if the city could find the money for a new light-rail line, would people use it?” asks the article. “Like most Americans outside the biggest cities, people in Nashville are accustomed to using their cars. According to Census data from 2009, fewer than 3 percent of workers in the Nashville metro area used public transit to commute to work, making the city less public-transit-friendly than Houston, Richmond, Memphis, Tampa and Kansas City, to name a few.”
Then there’s Charlotte, which in 1998 passed a half-cent sales tax to fund transit. A light-rail line began running in 2007 and is being expanded. The goal is to establish 25 miles of commuter rail, 19 miles of light rail, 16 miles of streetcar and more bus lines throughout the metro area. It sounds a lot like some of the public transportation fantasies I’ve heard about Hillsborough’s future. But what has it done for commuting?
According to The Atlantic, ridership in the Charlotte area has remained essentially flat, even though downtown has grown about 50 percent in employment. Average daily ridership of CATS, Charlotte Area Transit System, peaked at 95,484 in 2008 but has dropped to around 90,000 ever since.
“The case of Charlotte shows that, even when there is transit available, the vast majority of people won’t leave behind their cars and embrace public transportation,” writes Semuels, quoting a public transportation professor at UNC Charlotte. “In many cities, the average commute time by public transit is about twice what it is when driving your own car. And in many cities, including Charlotte, only about 20 percent of the operating costs of a transit line come from ridership; the rest come from government dollars.”
Hillsborough Commissioner Sandy Murman has proposed that instead of a sales tax, we tap other revenue sources: a 5-cent gas tax, mobility fees on developers, property tax and the BP oil spill settlement, and the county’s reserve funds. Some of her fellow board members don’t think that will be enough to solve local transportation problems.
“This community needs a transportation plan that is transformative and is a game changer,” said Commissioner Ken Hagan.
I agree. A game changer, according to Merriam-Webster, is “a newly introduced element or factor that changes an existing situation or activity in a significant way.”
The only game-changing plan will be one that gets a significant number of commuters out of their cars.
Judging by the experience of other cities, good luck with that. But all options need to be considered.
