All Entries in the "Transportation" Category
HART Board Approves Service Changes, Receives Updates on New Starts Project
June 1, 2009 – Tampa, Florida – At Monday’s meeting of the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority’s Board of Directors, the Board voted to approve proposed service changes that will take place in July and November. The Board also received an update on community meetings and status of the planning work on the Hillsborough County New Starts project.
Service Changes Approved
The Board voted to approve changes in HART bus service that will streamline operations over the summer and increase service on one of HART’s busiest routes in the fall. Among the changes is a reorganization of service in the Ruskin and Wimauma areas into HART’s first “flex” route, a reservation-based service that picks up passengers from any location within a given zone and transports them to another point in the same zone. The new SouthShore flex route will be a model for future such service in other parts of the county.
In addition, savings from the elimination of some of HART’s less productive services will allow the agency to increase weekday frequency on Route 6 (56th Street) during peak morning and afternoon service hours from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. Route 6 is HART’s second busiest, with ridership of more than 71,000 in April.
100 Meetings; AA Process Continues
HART reported that in the months of May and June, the agency completed or has planned a total of 100 meetings in the community to educate residents and gain input from them on the New Starts mobility initiative. Meetings include a “listening tour” hosted by the county’s Transportation Task Force, and other meetings and events scheduled with various community organizations around the county.
Plans are also moving forward on the Alternatives Analysis (AA), a study that determines the best way to meet the transit demand in an area, whether through rail, bus, or some other form of transit. The AA is required in seeking federal funding for transit projects. HART reported that it has issued a Request for Proposals for a consultant to perform the AA, and has received several responses. Once a contract is awarded, the firm would complete the work by March for submission to the Federal Transit Authority. If approved, the project would then move to the next step, preliminary engineering.
1st Place Engineering: Best Auto Repair place I’ve found
I really have to hand it to Jeff Lloyd, the owner of 1st Place Engineering (4011 21st Avenue East #111, Tampa FL 33605, 813-333-1100). Part custom fabrication shop, part auto repair facility, this place is great.
When I came to them last week, I had two broken Miatas, not a lot of money and even less hope. One car was fixed up right away so my wife could get back to work. The second one required a whole engine transplant, but was still done in only 4 days.
When other shops quoted me thousands of dollars and several weeks, Jeff worked day and night to get my work done in less time than I could ever have imagined. The car runs great and the repair cost was very reasonable. I can’t thank Jeff enough.
What impresses me most about Jeff is how honest and helpful he is. Mechanics have always been known as shifty and deceptive, but I got none of that from Jeff. From the very beginning, he gave me optimistic expectations and fulfilled them. When a supplier gave him a bad part, he took care of it quickly. His ability to over deliver really was exception.
While auto repair is one facet of his business. Jeff also does a lot of race-specific engineering. He made an all wheel drive Ford Contour. He’s putting a new school Ford 4 cylinder engine in a Triumph convertible. He’s in the process of doing a complete rebuild and upgrade of a Mazda RX-7. I don’t think there’s anything this guy can’t do in terms of custom fabrication.
So, if you have a car in disrepair and need support, I’d highly recommend Jeff’s shop. I’ll be taking all of my cars back there from now on.
Ride HART? Transportation Task Force wants your feedback
HART is joining a “listening tour” hosted by the Hillsborough County Transportation Task Force. Representatives of the Metropolitan Planning Organization, Florida Department of Transportation, and the Tampa Bay Area Regional Transportation Authority will also be on hand to answer your questions.
Stop by one of twelve open house meetings being held in locations across the county throughout the month of June. It’s your chance to see the plans, ask questions and give your input on the future of transportation in Hillsborough County.
Meetings are from 5:30 p.m.-8:30 p.m. in an open house format, with a presentation between 6:30-7:30 p.m.
Thursday, May 28
Webb Middle School, Tampa
Monday, June 1
Jan Platt Regional Library, Tampa
Wednesday, June 3
Ragan Park Community Center, Tampa
Thursday, June 4
Bruton Memorial Library, Plant City
Tuesday, June 9
Cross Creek Library, New Tampa
Wednesday, June 10
Brandon Regional Service Center
Monday, June 15
Carrollwood Cultural Center
Tuesday, June 16
Riverview High School
Thursday, June 18
South County Regional Service Center, Ruskin
Tuesday, June 23
Lutz Community Center
Wednesday, June 24
University Area Community Center, Tampa
Tuesday, June 30
City of Temple Terrace Council Chambers
HART Plans New Airport Transfer Center, Selects Contractor for Streetcar Extension
In March, bus service to Tampa International Airport got faster and more convenient with improved frequencies on Route 30. Now, service is slated to improve even more with an agreement to build a new multi-modal transfer center on airport property approved by the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Board of Directors at today’s regular monthly meeting.
TIA Transfer Center
The multi-agency agreement between HART, the Hillsborough Aviation Authority and Florida Department of Transportation allows construction of a transfer center at TIA that will operate as an intermodal hub in the Westshore area. The facility will connect existing and future transit services, including HART local and limited express routes, cross-bay express service operated by Pinellas Suncoast Transit Authority (PSTA), and future Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) and circulator services. Design would be undertaken this fall, with construction underway next summer. The transfer center would be operational in summer 2011.
Streetcar Extension Contract Awarded, Ridership Strong
HART also took the next step toward bringing the TECO Line Streetcar System to downtown Tampa with the selection of Kimmins Contracting Corp. as the contractor for design-build services for the system’s extension to Whiting Street.
This action builds on the growing success of the streetcar system, which has experienced 17% ridership growth to date in FY 2009, along with a 22% growth in revenue for the month of March 2009. In fact, streetcar system ridership for the week of March 30th was particularly high, with 12,815 rides taken thanks in part to the American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance holding its annual meeting at the Tampa Convention Center last week.
Federal Funding for Projects
The Board approved HART staff’s plans for funding provided to HART under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, including the purchase of new vehicles, accessibility improvements, upgrades to the 21st Avenue operations and maintenance facility, the streetcar extension, fleet overhaul and other improvements. Input at a public hearing held in March was supportive of projects to be funded with the federal stimulus dollars.
HART Mission Statement
Our Team is dedicated to providing excellent customer service while building solutions to support Hillsborough County’s needs…now and into the future.
HART’s web address is now www.goHART.org! Use our trip planning feature powered by Google Transit, order fare cards in the Online Transit Store, and get complete route maps and schedules. Call the HARTinfo Line at (813) 254-4278 to learn more.
Free Electric Cart Rides to Channelside/Ybor
I’ve seen these all over, and I wondered about what they are. This is an awesome idea and I’m going to be using them the next time I go to Ybor so I don’t have to worry about parking costs or potential legal issues from drunk driving.
Story from St. Petersburg Times:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article989786.ece
TAMPA — The little electric cart zips up to the curb of the Channelside entertainment complex.
Three clubgoers run up, and ask the driver: “Can you take us to the Embassy Suites?”
“Next stop, Embassy Suites,” he replies as they climb in.
A breezy few blocks later, the three step out and hand over no fare, just a $5 tip. Downtown boosters say the free rides are a welcome addition, helping turn the neighborhood into a place to live, work and play without needing a car for short trips.
“It improves the experience of downtown,” said Christine Burdick, president of the Tampa Downtown Partnership.
Read the Whole Story from St. Petersburg Times:
http://www.tampabay.com/news/localgovernment/article989786.ece
Red Light Cameras, coming to a Tampa Road Near You
I remember sitting through the meetings in Lakeland when it was decided that Red Light Cameras would be placed at several local intersections. Now, it seems that these cameras will be placed in most every major city in Florida. This was billed as a “safety measure”, meant to ensure that motorists wouldn’t run red lights. There’s a few blatant issues with that theory.
Firstly, if it was truly a safety issue, there would be accompanying signage where the cameras are posted, saying “RED LIGHT CAMERAS IN USE”. People would be extra careful if they knew there were possible consequences. By hiding the cameras in plain view without any signs to compliment them, they are likely to do little to nothing about safety issues.
Secondly, putting Red Light Cameras in busy intersections could actually cause more issues. Cities will often shorten yellow-light times to catch more drivers in the act. There has been instances where 10 second lights get shortened to as few as 3 seconds, causing drivers to lock up their brakes at cruising speeds to avoid the red light and thus causing an accident.
Thirdly, the owner of the vehicle is assessed the fine ($150) regardless of who was driving or what the situation. Driving your pregnant wife to the hospital and had to run a few yellows? Ticket. Have a health emergency? Ticket. Someone steals your car? Ticket. Imagine what a joyride in your vehicle could do to your wallet against the automaton protectors we’ll soon have policing our red lights.
The real issue here is money. Red Light Cameras are big business for cities that implement them. The contractors who install the cameras keep a small fee for running them and the rest goes into the coffers of the city. This is why you’ll see shorter yellow lights. It’s not about safety, it’s about cashflow. You can believe that in a down economy, anything that can be done to improve cash flow at the cost of it’s citizens will be used. This is just one example.
The current bill states that you will not receive points against your drivers license and your insurance premiums will not go up. I’d consider this a “for now” statement. As soon as the city governments and the insurance industry work out some kind of deal, you can be your butt that there will be hiked premiums that you’ll have a hard time fighting.
Question and Answer with Kathy Karalekas of HART
With all the discussion going on with the changes to HART, the rail system and other HART-related issues all over Tampa, I went to the source to ask about the state of mass transit in Tampa. Kathy Karalekas, Public Information Officer for the Hillsborough Area Regional Transit, was kind enough to respond to my queries.
Are there plans for expanded rail here in Tampa? I’ve taken the channelside to ybor rail trolley and it’s great. Was hoping to see more of that in the future.
We’ll be extending the The TECO Line Streetcar System soon (that’s another quirky thing about us – we call the rubber-wheel trolley-buses that circulate around downtown “trolleys,” while the little electric trains on rails are “streetcars” – so there is a difference.).
The current end of the line near the Tampa Convention Center will be extended about 1/3 of a mile to Whiting Street. Not far, but it does get us right to the doorstep of downtown. The extension can eventually get people who live in Channelside and Ybor to work in downtown – although today the service starts too late for that. We’re hoping that extending the line will cause more people to ride, which will allow us to extend the hours as well. Plus, it will be a big help for Gasparilla and other big events downtown, and can take the office workers to lunch in Channelside. There will also be a new station there at the new terminus. We’ve put that project out to bid and should start construction later this year.
As for a commuter rail or light rail system, there may be some light at the end of that tunnel as well. We had a Tampa rail project that was approved for federal funding back in 2002, but our county commission at the time did not support providing the required local funding and it was shelved. That project has been dusted off, and we’re working on getting it back into the New Starts federal funding process. There have been discussions about asking the county commission to place a referendum for local transit funding on the ballot in 2010. That funding could be used for a new rail transit system, as well as beefing up the county bus system, also vital to a healthy rail line (you need buses to get people from the train station to their final destination, especially in a hot and rainy climate like ours!).
Secondly, do your buses and trains take credit or debit cards? I ask as that’s one of the things that keeps me from riding either more often. I hate carrying cash and I know a lot of others feel the same way.
You can’t pay by credit card onboard, but there are several other options for you:
Ticket Vending Machines – the TECO Line Streetcar System has an automated TVM at Dick Greco Plaza, the current end of the line near the Tampa Convention Center. I think there are also TVM’s at Marion Transit Center downtown and at the Netpark Transfer Center near Temple Terrace for bus travel, but I’m not 100% sure about that. They take credit cards, but not debit cards right now.
Staffed Customer Service Centers – If you visit Marion Transit Center at the north end of downtown or HART on Franklin right next to Tampa Police Dept. in the heart of downtown, you can use your credit card to buy fare cards. The University Area Transit Center near USF, HART’s administrative offices on 7th Avenue in Ybor City and our operations and maintenance facility on 21st Avenue off of I-4 and 40th Street also accept credit cards for fare card purchases (those last two are only open during regular M-F business hours).
Online purchases – You can order fare cards online via our secure server at www.goHART.org. Click on the Transit Store link on the bottom bar of the page. You can pay using a credit card and receive your fare cards in the mail. One caveat: the store has been down for a few days while the company that hosts it migrates to a new server. Not sure when it will be back up, but we’re hoping it’s soon!
Lastly, what improvements are planned for HART over the next 3 months? 6 months? year? few years?
The two biggies we have going on right now are the streetcar extension to Whiting and the new Bus Rapid Transit project. BRT is an express bus system with new vehicles and station stops, fewer stops, faster boarding and some other advanced technology to help speed up travel time. The first phase of BRT will be a North-South line starting on Fletcher Avenue, then traveling down Nebraska Avenue to downtown. Construction on that should begin late this year or early next year, with operation expected sometime in 2011. The second phase of BRT service will be an East-West line between HART’s Netpark Transfer Center (at Hillsborough Avenue and 56th Street) and Tampa International Airport. The second line is still in the planning stages and is a few years away.
Here’s a link to the BRT page on our website for some more info: http://www.gohart.org/departments/marketing/brt/brt_main_page.html
We’re also adding frequency to service between the airport and downtown on Route 30, which should be cool. And we’re adding to existing service to make it work better for everyone. Our March 29th service changes include about 900 hours of new service per week.
In addition, you might have seen some news coverage in the last few days that HART is receiving $15 million in federal stimulus funds. Some of that will be used to buy new buses and update some others, and there are also some other projects in the works for that. Here are links to the stories, in the Tribune and on Fox 13:
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/feb/25/na-stimulus-to-benefit-hart/news-metro/
NEW GROUP TO KEEP HART GROWING
Major Projects Committee Holds First Meeting Monday
February 13, 2009 – Tampa, Florida – With the federal economic stimulus package about to become a reality, a new leadership group is set to take a closer look at projects that could help take HART into the future of transit in Tampa Bay.
Getting a Start on the Future
The group, called the Major Projects and Legislative Committee, will provide guidance and input as HART takes on improvements that will change the way public transit moves people in Hillsborough County.
The Major Projects Committee is headed up by HART Vice Chair Alison Hewitt, and will hold its first meeting on Monday, February 16th at 8:30 a.m. at HART’s administrative office building located at 1201 E. 7th Avenue in Ybor City. Other committee members are Tampa City Councilman John Dingfelder, Wallace Bowers, Michael York, Dr. Steven Polzin, and Hillsborough County Commissioners Rose Ferlita, Mark Sharpe and Kevin Beckner.
The committee will discuss projects that may be funded by the federal economic stimulus package, and the status of the Hillsborough County rail system and Bus Rapid Transit project. The information packet for the meeting is available on HART’s website. Click here to download it in PDF format.
Rail Project on Track
HART continues to keep the future of rail transit in Tampa Bay on the right track, with progress on the rail project’s re-entry into the federal New Starts funding process.
A new consulting firm, Gannett Fleming, is onboard to compile information and analysis and develop recommendations on the starter line corridor.
The first meeting of the project’s new Technical Working Group was held on February 6th.
The Project Steering Committee will get together for its third meeting on February 17th.
HART Mission Statement
Our Team is dedicated to providing excellent customer service while building solutions to support Hillsborough County’s needs…now and into the future.
HART’s web address is now www.goHART.org! Use our trip planning feature powered by Google Transit, order fare cards in the Online Transit Store, and get complete route maps and schedules. Call the HARTinfo Line at (813) 254-4278 to learn more.
Media Contacts
Kathy Karalekas
Public Information Officer
Office: (813) 449-4707
Cell: (813) 545-5497
E-mail: karalekask@goHART.org
Ed Crawford
Chief of Government Affairs
Office: (813) 449-4709
Cell: (813) 309-3153
E-mail: crawforde@goHART.org
Sunpass Ridiculousness
I love the idea of the sunpass. I rarely carry cash. I hate dealing with change. Sunpass makes the most sense for me, until it doesn’t work.
I bought a grey-box sunpass when I first moved to Florida. Seemed a good investment. You get cash off your tolls. You don’t have to worry about change. Seems good to me. I proceeded to buy two more sunpass units (the stickers this time, not the grey box) because they were cheap ($5) and were all supposed to work on the same account. This means no matter what car my wife or I drove, all would come from the same account. When we have four cars, that made perfect sense.
I found out quickly that this wasn’t the case.
One Sunpass rep told me when I signed up that all mini-stickers share one account and all grey transponders share another account. This irked me, as it was contradictory to what I was told initially, but I dealt with it. As I said in a previous sunpass post, I’ve had issues with the stickers either not working at all, or working some times. I thought that problem had worked itself out, but it hadn’t.
I just got a letter in the mail saying that the last remaining car with the sunpass sticker in it had caused a violation, I called to pay and found out my license was due to be suspended because of it! What craziness is that?
So, while I had sunpass on the phone paying the $15 in outstanding tolls and closing out my sticker accounts (good riddance!), I asked about buying a new box for my wife’s car. This way, we’ll both have grey boxes, they’ll both beep when the toll is paid and all will be well on Florida’s turnpikes. They then inform me that we CAN NOT share a balance between transponders. This is contradictory to the person I talked to originally. I was bounced through several people before I was finally explained the situation.
Stickers can share the same account.
Boxes must have their own accounts.
All sticker accounts require a minimum $25 to activate PER STICKER, even if they share an account.
All boxes requiare a minimum of $25 to activate PER BOX, and they CAN NOT share accounts.
What does this mean?
Two accounts I have to look after. Two transponders. Two sets of websites I have to constantly check to ensure that everything is paid up. I refuse to do the auto-replenish because of a few incidents I’ve had in the past where I overdrew my checking account by auto-payments I wasn’t expecting.
Apparently, I got off easy by catching this problem early on. According to TBO, others are not so lucky: http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/20/200011/na-a-fine-mess-over-tolls-for-sunpass-users/
Local cops must be bored
I always find parking tickets to be funny, especially when they are so ridiculously outrageous or seemingly without cause. I find them so funny, infact, that I use to park in the most assholish ways just to see if anyone would write me a ticket. Sometime they did, sometime they didn’t. Either way, it was worth the cost of the ticket for the picture and story I received as a result of it.
Take for instance, this specimen I received at 3:52 this morning, parked in my own driveway:
According to this ticket, written at 3:52 in the morning, my car was parked “On the Sidewalk”. How’s that even possible? What cops are cruising around at 4AM looking for cars in driveways to ticket? Who would my car be blocking even if there was someone out there who needed to get around it? In my own driveway, at my home, what damage was being done?
Let’s put it in perspective. I have 2 Mazda Miatas. I have a driveway just long enough for 2 Mazda Miatas. How much could it possibly be hanging over the edge? It’s been parked there for over a month, in that same spot, without a problem. Why is this suddenly an issue? After I mulled over the ticket, I did a quick examination of the supposed cause.
The Miata in question was parked in the driveway, pulled to about where it always was. How much of it was hanging over the sidewalk? 2 inches! There was 2 inches of the bumper hanging over the sidewalk. Anyone walking down the sidewalk wouldn’t even have to make adjustments in their stride. Why ticket me for this? I’m guessing it has something to do with the rise in tickets being issued all over the U.S. to combat falling city budgets.
Whatever the cause, I’m going to pay it. The city obviously needs the money more than I do.