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Geography. Environment. Urbanism. And other stuff.
Browsing All Posts filed under »transit«
Al Austin wants to save us from ourselves
Sometimes, if you want something done, you’ve got to imply that you might be willing to spend a boatload of your own personal wealth to make it happen: For months, Tampa developer Al Austin has maintained that chairing the organization that staged the Republican National Convention would be the final major project of his long […]
A tale of two cities
September 7, 2012
Over the past two weeks, Charlotte, NC and Tampa, FL have both hosted major events – the nominating conventions for the Democratic and Republican parties, respectively. The cities have a lot in common. They’re both Sun Belt cities, they both have a spread-out cityscape, they’re both in battleground states. Charlotte’s bigger, but Tampa is part […]
Transit stinks
August 23, 2012
In a city like St. Petersburg, there are actually legitimate reasons not to use transit. The buses don’t go where you need them to. They don’t come frequently enough. The city and county are so decentralized that if you have to go any appreciable distance, you’ll spend half your day on the bus. Some of […]
A million stops? Next time, I’m taking the Express …
August 17, 2012
Whether you like Google or loathe them, you have to admit that they don’t often do things halfway. Google has been steadily adding transit information to the maps they serve since 2005. Recently they’ve hit a landmark of sorts – Google Maps now has schedule information for over one million public transit stops around the […]
Will we see light rail in Pinellas County?
August 14, 2012
Back in 2010, Hillsborough County residents defeated a referendum that would have given the go-ahead to financing and building a light rail system between the city of Tampa and its outlying suburbs. Here on the other side of the bay, we may be gearing up for our own referendum on the subject, with an actual […]
I say “progress,” you say “light rail lite”
August 9, 2012
Across the bay in the fair city of Tampa, the local transit organization has taken a small step toward actually modernizing and improving one of the worst transit systems of any major city in this country. Oh, it’s not HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit)’s fault the system is so awful … or at least, it’s […]
Is freeway demolition the answer to Detroit’s problems?
August 8, 2012
Detroit experienced a huge decline in population between 2000 and 2010, losing something like 20% of its residents and going from a city of nearly a million to a city of 713,000. So why do they need a highway system designed for a much bigger city? Since its population peak in 1950, every single Census […]
Bus stops and the people who use them
June 21, 2012
In a post that touched on two of my favorite subjects – transit and design – Kaid Benfield asked yesterday, what if bus stops were designed as if bus stops really mattered? It’s a good question. There are entire books devoted to railway station design. Countless millions of dollars go into any airport redesign. But […]
Less is more?
May 21, 2012
I have a friend who recently moved to St. Pete’s south side from a more suburban part of the Tampa Bay region. After a coworker of his got a DUI, my friend started seriously considering using transit to get to his favorite watering holes downtown. But after looking into it, he decided it probably wouldn’t […]
Something is missing here
May 4, 2012
As much as I would love to have all the transit perks that bigger, denser cities enjoy, I know it is simply not to be. St. Petersburg doesn’t have the transit budget – or the commitment to transit use – that cities like Portland or San Francisco have. We don’t have real-time displays at bus […]
Your host
October 22, 2012
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